For Decks, I HIGHLY recommend second hand Techs, you can sometimes get them at such a good price that you could use them for a year then sell them for abit more.

CDJ, I wouldn't go lower than the CDJ-100s, but if I could would go for the 800s.

Mixer, upto you, VMX300 would be good to start out with, until you got the money for a DJM or A&H or the like.

As for learning, the best thing is to look up similar threads on hear, plus watch some club videos of DJs, and even the turntablism vids, but if you want to learn it, then you will, I didn't have anyone teach me, never saw how it worked, and never read about anything, but I figured it out myself and am glad I learnt it the way I did.

i would buy 2 used 1200s. but thats me. i suggest you think about it for a while. ask your self if its worth what your going to spend. read alot, try pc dj programs, watch other djs play, and if you think you really want to spin, then go get your gear. i suggest 2 1200s and a vestax 275 mixer. but by then im pretty sure you have learnt alot and have an idea of what you want to get. maybe you would prefer something else. but most probably youll be getting techs and a nice mixer(djm 500/600? or maybe an a&h? rane empath?vestax 275?)if your serious about it.

btw, i started with cdj100s, and i think theyr good to learn on. but i moved to tts because cdjs become boring to play with after a while. so thats also something to think about. hth!

My advice to you is don't jump of the bridge before you do any research on it. Meaning that there is alot of things you need to consider when getting into this. First off is the money factor. Djing is a really expensive hobby to get into. I see that you look like you're going for the bargain basement approach as far as euquipment goes, well, you get what you pay for. I'm not going to discourage you from going that route b/c I was the exact same way ($500 budget) when I started looking for equipment. Then I read alot of stuff on here and finally convinced myself that if I was going to do this thing I wasn't going to do it totally half-assed. So I spent money and got some TTX-1's, Shure White Lable carts, DXM-06 mixer (not fancy but gets it done), Stanton DJPRO-2000s phones (my precious!!!) and a coffin for a total of $1200 (all new). Yes, $1200 is alot of money compared to the $500 I originally wanted to spend, but I'm extremely happy with my set-up and am relatively certain most of the components will last for quite a while.

Then we come to the infamous subject (if you get TTs) of records. If you go the vinyl route I would say, as has been said before, that it's worse than a heroin addiction. Since April I've amassed a 52 record collection costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $500-$600 and this was conservative record buying. If I would have bought everything I wanted it would have been well over the grand mark probably to $2000 by now. It's extremely addictive and gets extremely expensive. I mean shit, I just got 20 new records yesterday and already have another order of around 20 lined up for when I get more cash.

This is just a word of warning though. You can go the bargain basement route but the cheaper the component the more apt it is to fail on you and then you buy 2 mixers for almost the same price as if you would have bought a good mixer in the first place. Then factor the cost of vinyl into the equation and unless you have an unlimited amount of money you're going to have to sacrifice some stuff. Maybe not top of the line components so you can buy extra vinyl, or maybe top of the line components but not soo much vinyl. It's a balancing act and you need to plan out where and on what you want your money to go to.

As far as learning, you can do the instructional video thing, but I've done most of my learning off of listening to live sets and watching good DJs work (live and on video).

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Originally posted by mungoy i would buy 2 used 1200s. but thats me. i suggest you think about it for a while. ask your self if its worth what your going to spend. read alot, try pc dj programs, watch other djs play, and if you think you really want to spin, then go get your gear. i suggest 2 1200s and a vestax 275 mixer. but by then im pretty sure you have learnt alot and have an idea of what you want to get. maybe you would prefer something else. but most probably youll be getting techs and a nice mixer(djm 500/600? or maybe an a&h? rane empath?vestax 275?)if your serious about it. btw, i started with cdj100s, and i think theyr good to learn on. but i moved to tts because cdjs become boring to play with after a while. so thats also something to think about. hth!

thats weird i did the same as you... are we twins?? cause we're both flip and you did the same as i did heh

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Originally posted by cryo thats weird i did the same as you... are we twins?? cause we're both flip and you did the same as i did heh

cool! hehe

yayo, if you save $50 for 12 months, combine that with the gift certificates and grovel and beg to your parents for a bit more money...you should hopefully have over $1000 (ideally $1200) to get 2 used techs, a decent mixer (used vestax pcv-275), 2 good carts (ortofon nightclubs come to mind) and a decent pair of headphones.

I know 12 months seems like a long time to wait, but do NOT skimp out on gear as everyone before has said. I was in your position before when I couldn't justify spending a lot of money on something I wasn't sure I was going to like, but trust me...you will like it even less when you are trying to learn on not-so-good equipment.

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