Hi all,

I started dj'ing about half a year ago and I'm looking to upgrade my setup and either get an effect unit or a mixer with effects + sampler.
Now I was wondering what's the best to get. I already have a decent mixer (reloop RMX-30), so that's a plus for the effect unit, and effect units are in general cheaper then a new mixer. But there has to be something why effect mixers are better then mixer + effect unit combination.

And while you're at it, could you give some advice on what to buy as mixer and what as effect unit? As mixer, I found the synq SMX-2 and the numark 5000fx to have a nice price/quality(feature)-ratio. As effect unit I would have no idea what to get. The korg looks nice, but the sampler can only store samples of 16 beats long, in comparison with 30 seconds on the numark mixer and (almost) unlimited on the synq. But I don't know if that would cause a big problem.

Anyway, I can't really decide. I don't want to spend too much money as it's the money I'll earn with my vacation job, so saving for an ecler or a pioneer isn't an option.

I hope I made myself somewhat clear, and thanks in advance for any advice you can give me

I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish with an effects unit. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that you are.

For starters, if you are going to hook up an effects unit properly, your mixer has to have send/return on it, which rules out most of the mixers you mentioned.

As for the effects unit, I'm not totally sure why you are concerned with the sample storage. Most effects are done in real-time, so it is not necessary to "store" any samples. You might be referring to the length of the effect, which you can usually set anywhere from a 1/32 note to 4 bars or so. If you're intending to do a single effect for much more than that, chances are it will just sound cheesy. (And please avoid the over-used flanger effect.) You don't want to destroy something that the original artist probably did pretty well in the first place.

All-in-all, I recommend you do some more research before you blow some cash on something you don't know too much about. Find someone in your area that owns an EFX-1000 (and hopefully a good mixer to go with it) and has some experience using it. Let him/her show you how it works, what the different effects do, and how to tastefully integrate them into a mix. I think that will give you a better sense of how things come together.

As a final word of advice, IMO you should never have a cheap/crappy mixer with a good effects unit or vice versa. It only takes one bad component in your chain to ruin what the other stuff can do.

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i don't own an effect unit, but my guess would be that you would be much better off with a good mixer with no effect unit, than a crappy mixer with an effect unit.

quote:

Originally posted by JD8180 i don't own an effect unit, but my guess would be that you would be much better off with a good mixer with no effect unit, than a crappy mixer with an effect unit.

what he said, yeah...

I mean
if you were a manufacturer and would want to do a mixer with an onboard effects unit...what would you do? so you stay in reasonable price compared to non-effect mixers?
Put the crappiest effect unit to the mixer and box it all in one nice case...

then...if you are a manufacturer and decide to do a great mixer? what do you do? put all your best shit in it...
same with effect unit...

common sense would tell me, that mixer + dedicated FX unit would be much better...


I might be wrong, though

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You can get the Pioneer EFX500 on AGI Pro for $349 SHIPPED!!!

http://www.agiprodj.com/2005/05/24/efx-500/

quote:

Originally posted by DJChrisB I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish with an effects unit. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that you are. For starters, if you are going to hook up an effects unit properly, your mixer has to have send/return on it, which rules out most of the mixers you mentioned. As for the effects unit, I'm not totally sure why you are concerned with the sample storage. Most effects are done in real-time, so it is not necessary to "store" any samples. You might be referring to the length of the effect, which you can usually set anywhere from a 1/32 note to 4 bars or so. If you're intending to do a single effect for much more than that, chances are it will just sound cheesy. (And please avoid the over-used flanger effect.) You don't want to destroy something that the original artist probably did pretty well in the first place. All-in-all, I recommend you do some more research before you blow some cash on something you don't know too much about. Find someone in your area that owns an EFX-1000 (and hopefully a good mixer to go with it) and has some experience using it. Let him/her show you how it works, what the different effects do, and how to tastefully integrate them into a mix. I think that will give you a better sense of how things come together. As a final word of advice, IMO you should never have a cheap/crappy mixer with a good effects unit or vice versa. It only takes one bad component in your chain to ruin what the other stuff can do.

great post. kudos.

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Thanks for the replies so far.

quote:

As for the effects unit, I'm not totally sure why you are concerned with the sample storage. Most effects are done in real-time, so it is not necessary to "store" any samples. You might be referring to the length of the effect, which you can usually set anywhere from a 1/32 note to 4 bars or so. If you're intending to do a single effect for much more than that, chances are it will just sound cheesy. (And please avoid the over-used flanger effect.) You don't want to destroy something that the original artist probably did pretty well in the first place.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't sampling taking a little piece out of a song, which you can then play over the currently playing track?

quote:

For starters, if you are going to hook up an effects unit properly, your mixer has to have send/return on it, which rules out most of the mixers you mentioned.

I might have a little problem there. I didn't know that was needed, thanks for the info

quote:

Originally posted by Crebilis Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't sampling taking a little piece out of a song, which you can then play over the currently playing track?

I think you're trying to use the word "sampling" and "looping" interchangably.

While I am big fan of looping in mixes, you generally don't use effects units to do so. The reason being that BPM detection in these effect processors are so-so at best. Therefore, you won't be able to hold a loop and beat match it to the track that you are layering it with for too long. (Although Ableton allows you to do this flawlessly and can really allow you to bring your mixes to a new level.)

To accomplish a similar effect, you can mess with the echo effect on the EFX-1000. If you set it to echo 4 bars, for example, and turn the effect/mix knob all the way to effect, your echo essentially becomes a loop. At this point, you can cut of your source track all together and mix a new track into the loop. Also during this time, you can mess around with the effect parameters (make sure to do it with the beat) and create some cool sounds.

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