Timecoded Vinyls

Death Jester · **Timecoded Vinyls -** 07-02-2009, 08:10 AM

I had a question to ask to the resident DJs on bboy.org (Even though this really isn't a DJ forum).

I'm about to get my own tables soon (Up till now, I've been mooching off a friend while I learned - but he's moving), and really had some hard decisions to make. I'm a scratch DJ and a mix DJ (Whenever I feel like it) who's been practicing on a pair of Technics 1210s, but my friend had all the vinyls I needed to work with. Now that I want to get my own setup, I'm having a tough time deciding whether I want to use standard vinyls.

The main problem I have is that most of my tracks are digital format, and I don't own any vinyls - not to mention the lack of vinyl shops in my area. I asked around a few of the local DJs in the area who work for clubs, and they told me to get timecoded vinyls and work with a PC/mac program as well, like Virtual DJ, to get something that I can still scratch and mix on, but have access to my songs and other digital features.

What do you guys think? Should I get standard tables, timecoded vinyls, and a DJ program like I'm being recommended? I don't actually know how timecoded vinyls work either, in comparison to normal vinyls.

AlphaTrion · 07-06-2009, 01:21 AM

Whatever software you get will include timecoded vinyl. Serato Scratchlive is pretty muich the standard software used by most DJs and myself.

As for your digital collection, chances are it's not up to par to be used for DJ'ing in public. You need high quality mp3s or lossless .wav or .aiff files. By high quality I mean around 320 kbps. Most songs you download of file share services are 192 or much lower. You'll need to either buy high quality mp3s from sites like turntablelab or beatport, or encode your on music from your analog collection.

You should be buying vinyl no matter what. Some of the best tracks are going to be only on vinyl and will probably never see a digital release.

Death Jester · 07-06-2009, 02:32 AM

Scratchlive? Yeah.. I was trying to decide between that and Traktor Scratch Pro. Both got recommendations from fellows of mine.

Yeah.. I just went through a bunch of my tracks and realized that most ARE 192 or 128. Is the difference really that bad? Like I said before, though. The issue is that where I live is that there is basically nowhere that sells vinyl that I know of. The DJs I see here all use timecode and run their tracks off a laptop.

AFAIK, it IS possible to run one table with timecode and the other with vinyl, right?

(Thanks for being the only reply.

)

Jdeck · 07-08-2009, 10:34 AM

Serato Scratch live is the industry standard nothing else is worth buying.

- Jdeck

DJjdmspec · 04:55 PM

serato scratch live all the way, i got my 1200's and vinyl, but serato is by far the industry standard just as stated above, the precision in timing and cutz with serato are sick, all u need for gigs are your dj turntables mixer serato and laptop ...and a external harddrive for all the songs u'd ever need. so yes timecoded vinyl is just as exact as regular vinyl just as long as your using serato.lol but dont think you still cant stack up on vinyl just because your thinking of going digital..is just nice to have the option to just bring a laptop instead of 1000 records for gigs. good luck

DJjdmspec · 07-21-2009, 04:58 PM

AFAIK, it IS possible to run one table with timecode and the other with vinyl, right?

and yes u can. most def. u can easily run one timecode vinyl other switch off regular vinyls on your other turntable

BADCONCEPT · 11-26-2009, 06:54 PM

Serato is def. industry standard...

...I'm becoming a big fan of Traktor though.

Only thing I'm not too into yet is playing straight out of Ableton. Seems like a bit of a dull experience for a crowd IMO...

AlphaTrion · 12-21-2009, 11:15 PM

Serato and Ableton are collaborating now on the next version of scratchlive. Once that happens, that's pretty much a wrap.

rodwuzhere · 12-27-2009, 03:42 AM

Originally Posted by DJjdmspec

AFAIK, it IS possible to run one table with timecode and the other with vinyl, right?

and yes u can. most def. u can easily run one timecode vinyl other switch off regular vinyls on your other turntable

Yes you can run one table with vinyl and the other with the timecoded vinyl. I do use regular scratch records for scratching. All you do is flip the transform switch to phono and then you can use regular vinyl.

rodwuzhere · 12-27-2009, 03:57 AM

Originally Posted by AlphaTrion

Whatever software you get will include timecoded vinyl. Serato Scratchlive is pretty muich the standard software used by most DJs and myself.

As for your digital collection, chances are it's not up to par to be used for DJ'ing in public. You need high quality mp3s or lossless .wav or .aiff files. By high quality I mean around 320 kbps. Most songs you download of file share services are 192 or much lower. You'll need to either buy high quality mp3s from sites like turntablelab or beatport, or encode your on music from your analog collection.

You should be buying vinyl no matter what. Some of the best tracks are going to be only on vinyl and will probably never see a digital release.

Have to disagree with you on the 320 kbps. It's huge waste of hard drive space. From 128 kbps to 320 kbps, you dont notice a significant change in sound quality. It all comes down to how you record your music. I've spent the last 2 years recording all my vinyl to MP3s to 128 kbps and it sounds great. However i do miss hearing the crackles on regular vinyl. Comparing from what i have recorded 128 kbps vs. 320 kbps, there is no difference at all. The only real reason you would use 320 kbps is because of bandwith on a radio station. 128 kbps should be your standard in MP3 usage. Plus any song thats 4 minutes should not need to be 12MBs in 320 kbps... Thats my experience with kbps.

AlphaTrion · 12-27-2009, 04:57 PM

If you're listening on an at home system, no you can't tell a difference, but in a club or any setting with high quality gear you most definitely can. There's a huge amount of compression going on between 320 and 128 no matter how you record it. You lose a huge chunk of your highs and lows. On a good system it sounds extremely harsh and it's ver noticeable. Storage is cheap, there's no reason to not have the highest quality available to you. Thr only reason i'm not using lossless aiff is because it lacks the tagging capabilities of mp3s right now.

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Death Jester A BBoy Named Jester. Respect: 2 Posts: 708 Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Singapore	Timecoded Vinyls - 07-02-2009, 08:10 AM I had a question to ask to the resident DJs on bboy.org (Even though this really isn't a DJ forum). I'm about to get my own tables soon (Up till now, I've been mooching off a friend while I learned - but he's moving), and really had some hard decisions to make. I'm a scratch DJ and a mix DJ (Whenever I feel like it) who's been practicing on a pair of Technics 1210s, but my friend had all the vinyls I needed to work with. Now that I want to get my own setup, I'm having a tough time deciding whether I want to use standard vinyls. The main problem I have is that most of my tracks are digital format, and I don't own any vinyls - not to mention the lack of vinyl shops in my area. I asked around a few of the local DJs in the area who work for clubs, and they told me to get timecoded vinyls and work with a PC/mac program as well, like Virtual DJ, to get something that I can still scratch and mix on, but have access to my songs and other digital features. What do you guys think? Should I get standard tables, timecoded vinyls, and a DJ program like I'm being recommended? I don't actually know how timecoded vinyls work either, in comparison to normal vinyls.
	Some people are like slinkies. Utterly useless, but rather entertaining to watch when pushed down a flight of stairs. Bboying seal. (Crickets, bellyspin, bellyslide) Barberek: why do i have to use proper grammar on the internet????? i am familiar wiht the dictionary i used to read it to improve my vocabilary <--- Epic Phail


AlphaTrion Moderator Respect: 11 Posts: 1,487 Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fairburn, GA	07-06-2009, 01:21 AM Whatever software you get will include timecoded vinyl. Serato Scratchlive is pretty muich the standard software used by most DJs and myself. As for your digital collection, chances are it's not up to par to be used for DJ'ing in public. You need high quality mp3s or lossless .wav or .aiff files. By high quality I mean around 320 kbps. Most songs you download of file share services are 192 or much lower. You'll need to either buy high quality mp3s from sites like turntablelab or beatport, or encode your on music from your analog collection. You should be buying vinyl no matter what. Some of the best tracks are going to be only on vinyl and will probably never see a digital release.
	Risen From the Ashes (Atlanta, GA)/Deadly Alliance AlphaTrion's Base My Myspace music page Facebook Twitter


Death Jester A BBoy Named Jester. Respect: 2 Posts: 708 Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Singapore	07-06-2009, 02:32 AM Scratchlive? Yeah.. I was trying to decide between that and Traktor Scratch Pro. Both got recommendations from fellows of mine. Yeah.. I just went through a bunch of my tracks and realized that most ARE 192 or 128. Is the difference really that bad? Like I said before, though. The issue is that where I live is that there is basically nowhere that sells vinyl that I know of. The DJs I see here all use timecode and run their tracks off a laptop. AFAIK, it IS possible to run one table with timecode and the other with vinyl, right? (Thanks for being the only reply. )
	Some people are like slinkies. Utterly useless, but rather entertaining to watch when pushed down a flight of stairs. Bboying seal. (Crickets, bellyspin, bellyslide) Barberek: why do i have to use proper grammar on the internet????? i am familiar wiht the dictionary i used to read it to improve my vocabilary <--- Epic Phail


Jdeck Member Respect: 1 Posts: 9 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Boston	07-08-2009, 10:34 AM Serato Scratch live is the industry standard nothing else is worth buying. - Jdeck


DJjdmspec Member Respect: 1.5 Posts: 70 Join Date: May 2009 Location: kissimmee	07-21-2009, 04:43 PM serato scratch live all the way, i got my 1200's and vinyl, but serato is by far the industry standard just as stated above, the precision in timing and cutz with serato are sick, all u need for gigs are your dj turntables mixer serato and laptop ...and a external harddrive for all the songs u'd ever need. so yes timecoded vinyl is just as exact as regular vinyl just as long as your using serato.lol but dont think you still cant stack up on vinyl just because your thinking of going digital..is just nice to have the option to just bring a laptop instead of 1000 records for gigs. good luck Last edited by DJjdmspec : 07-21-2009 at 04:55 PM.


DJjdmspec Member Respect: 1.5 Posts: 70 Join Date: May 2009 Location: kissimmee	07-21-2009, 04:58 PM AFAIK, it IS possible to run one table with timecode and the other with vinyl, right? and yes u can. most def. u can easily run one timecode vinyl other switch off regular vinyls on your other turntable


BADCONCEPT Member Respect: 1 Posts: 7 Join Date: Jun 2008	11-26-2009, 06:54 PM Serato is def. industry standard... ...I'm becoming a big fan of Traktor though. Only thing I'm not too into yet is playing straight out of Ableton. Seems like a bit of a dull experience for a crowd IMO...
	bad concept


AlphaTrion Moderator Respect: 11 Posts: 1,487 Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fairburn, GA	12-21-2009, 11:15 PM Serato and Ableton are collaborating now on the next version of scratchlive. Once that happens, that's pretty much a wrap.
	Risen From the Ashes (Atlanta, GA)/Deadly Alliance AlphaTrion's Base My Myspace music page Facebook Twitter


AlphaTrion Moderator Respect: 11 Posts: 1,487 Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fairburn, GA	12-27-2009, 04:57 PM If you're listening on an at home system, no you can't tell a difference, but in a club or any setting with high quality gear you most definitely can. There's a huge amount of compression going on between 320 and 128 no matter how you record it. You lose a huge chunk of your highs and lows. On a good system it sounds extremely harsh and it's ver noticeable. Storage is cheap, there's no reason to not have the highest quality available to you. Thr only reason i'm not using lossless aiff is because it lacks the tagging capabilities of mp3s right now.
	Risen From the Ashes (Atlanta, GA)/Deadly Alliance AlphaTrion's Base My Myspace music page Facebook Twitter