Hey all,

I'm planning on purchasing my first equipment ever. Technics 1200, a mixer(I don't have a definite choice for one yet, any suggestions are welcome ), and Serato Scratch live to mix mp3s while keeping the feel of vinyl underneath my fingers.

Now I know Serato costs a lot (around $500) but I'm willing to spend that much, unless there is a cheaper alternative that will get the job done.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

There's Torq and Final Scratch out there too.

Torq is a newcomer to the scene and has only been out a couple of months, but from the reviews given by people on here it seems a very good way to go about mixing MP3s. It's got a lot more features than Serato, including Ableton integration. At pretty much half the price of Serato it seems like a very good investment. If you do a quick search you'll find a monster thread about Torq on here where quite a few people gave some in-depth reviews.

Final Scratch has been out quite a while, and has mixed reviews. Like Torq, Final Scratch has a lot more bells and whistles than Serato, including effects and the ability to record your sets without the need of another recording program. A lot of people have said that it can be quite unstable though, and often leads to it crashing mid set. The fact that Stanton closed their Final Scratch forums due to the amount of people complaining about it tells you just how good their customer service is.

The horror stories about FS was one of the main reasons I chose Serato over it (Torq wasn't out when I bought Serato) but if I had the choice now, I'd probably go with Torq, purely for the Ableton integration. At least with Serato I know that I've got a rock solid platform that has never crashed on me, but I'm starting to feel like I need to add that something extra to my sets. But if you're purely after an MP3 mixing solution that does exactly what is says on the tin, and you know you can rely on, Serato is the way forward.

You really should do a search, every n00b question has already been answered a thousand times on this forum, but since I'm drunk and feeling helpful, I will give some advice.

Serato is not your only option, there are two other main players in this market, Final Scratch 2 (same price as SSL), which if it works is a good program (but has had alot of problems) and M-Audio Torq (half the price of SSL), which is a new animal to the scene, but seems to be pretty damn good, especially for the price, but since it is fairly new, it has had afew problems with certain setups, and it has a high spec for system requirements.

As for Serato, I own it and use it alot, its not as feature packed as Torq, but it does its job at emulating vinyl, and it does it without any glitches (if you are REALLY unlucky then you might have problems), but I have not once had a problem with it and run it on a low spec system, to me, a program that is reliable is more important than another app with a shitload of bells and whistles but keeps having problems.

As for the rest of your setup, Technics decks are great, you really would have no problems with them, but other good options seem to be the Numark TT500 and TTX, as well as the Stanton SR150 and some of the higher end Vestax decks.

As for mixer, theres LOADS of choices now, it comes down to personal preference and money, so I can't really get into that area with you without spending the next half hour typing, which I would rather spend drinking with a buddy, but hope I cleared the air with the whole SSL thing

^^^ I completely agree with this TWAT!!! So gonna go drink with him some more...