I agree, a CD recorder is not useful enough to buy it. Unless you're taping radio shows every week there is no need to get it.

pirated version of traktor, a $20 soundcard with multiple outs, and a mixer?

Thanks for all the posts guys. You rock. This is what I think I've arrived at:

Behringing BCD3000 + Traktor (pirated which I already have..er..um just kidding) + new soundcard. That sounds like the cheapest (but not crappiest) way to go.

Plus, going completely digital is just too huge a step for me...I have to be able to actually physically touch nobs/faders/controls/switches...pointing a clicking too much drives me crazy and takes the feel out of it all (for me, at least).

Ableton looks like it's delving too much into music production -- I'm not sure if that's a step I'm ready to take. Plus I dont know crap about music production (I doubt playing the guitar counts).

Get yourself onto Ableton, it's cheaper than any other methods. It's the future, too.

Isn't ableton a complex program for music production? Can it act as a simple little song mixer? I.e. could you use Ableton on a laptop at a club and play song after song beatmatched that is not your own?

Last edited by KERAM on Oct-22-2007 at 18:41

Exactly that, you can produce and play out - that is partly why it's so good.

If you've not tried it I'd definately encourage a try at least

DONT get a BCD, it sucks, I have not seen anything positive.

And i dont think you know what ableton is until you use it but oh well your choice.

If I were you, I'd forget the BCD3000 and get a decent 2-channel mixer hardware mixer instead. You don't need a MIDI controller for traktor if you have an external mixer and set up hotkeys since you'll be doing most your mixing on the hardware mixer...

Myself, I use traktor with a DJM3000 and a USB numeric keypad mounted on the mixer to control pitchbending, cueing, etc etc... You might consider the DJM300, the "little brother" of the DJM500, a solid and affordable 2-channel mixer you can find used for 100-150$.

As far as a soundboard for your PC, you'll need one with two stereo outputs, regardless if you use an external mixer or not.

mixer: 2 stereo channels into the mixer
traktor's software mixer: 1 stereo channel for main out, 1 stereo channel for cue.

Using a hardware mixer you use the mixer's cueing functionality.

I'd recommend the M-Audio Delta 410. Nice simple Envy24-based board with 8 analog outputs (4 stereo channels), 2 analog ins, S/PDIF connectivity... Has a solid ASIO driver and doesn't cost much, can be found used for less than $100.

I've mixed with the DJM3000 before at a club. I actually really liked that mixer. But you must know something (or someone) that I don't, because last I checked those were going for 800 bucks or so. Even used, I'd be surprised if it dropped to 150.

Anyway, that's not the point. It sounds like no matter what, I'm going to need to get a new soundcard. One question, though -- does it matter then what type of mixer I use with Traktor? Or will it sync up with practically any mixer out there? Like my dumpy-old vestax tried & true vestax?

DJM300 and DJM3000 are quite different boxes... DJM300 is a simple 2 channel mixer...

He might also be getting it mixed up with the aforementioned BCD3000.