My musical arsenal



Picture of my setup
When it comes to buying music gears, you can never buy enough. The industry comes up with faster, more powerful, smaller things so quickly that you can never have the top of the line equipments for more than a year. Although, I do not think you need only the top of the line equipments, I can assure you that buying DJ equipments is going to cost you a lot of money even if you go for a tight budget purchase.

Here are my gears:


Mixers

Rane TTM 56 Rane TTM 56 Performance Mixer
The perfect blend of audio quality and scratch loving with several drops of smooth mixing mojo all over. Unbelievable magnetic fader and external effects unit controlling features complete the picture, really. This is the best mixer I've ever used and possesses the perfect combination of everything I need from a mixer.

Mackie CFX-12 Mackie CFX12 Mixer
This is my production mixer that channels all my instruments to my PC for recording (Actually, my PC is also an instrument and its sound is also being piped to the mixer as well). So far I have only good things to say about the mixer and I'm pretty sure I haven't even yet scratched the surface as far as it features are concnerned. It's great!. :)

click here to talk about mixers


Monitors

Yamaha NS-10M Yamaha NS-10M Monitoring Speakers (1 Pair)
I have to admit that I'm a newbie when it comes to using near-field monitors to judge accurate quality of sound for mixing and mastering. It as more of a industry-standard buzz that had convinced me to find this piece off an e-bay auction. I'm hoping that I'll be able to learn more about mixing and mastering using this as my reference.

click here to talk about monitors


CD Players

Pioneer CDJ-700s Pioneer CDJ700S ( 2 Units )
I don't wanna get into debating the pros and cons of vinyl vs. CD decks. They're just different equipments with different medium. Especially with the recent ravings over the CDJ 1000 and the new DN-S5000 things are becoming even hazier. No matter what you may think, until I get my Final Scratch these decks are essential to me to play my own remixes at gigs. I had a pair of CDJ 500II before these, and I think the compact design of the 700s really works better for me. It's just that with these decks is that you really don't have hands-on control of the mix compared to when mixing on the turntables. I want my final scratch.... *SIGH*

click here to talk about CD players / Digital Turntables


Turntables

Vestax PDX-2000 Vestax PDX-2000 ( 2 Units )
I cannot say enough good things about this pair... I've used 1200s at the radio station whereI worked for a year.. and I liked them. But, these babies... I love them... It's great. I really don't find too much use with the reverse button or the +-50% pitch shift, but the deck overall is very solid. Just feel very good on them. Gotta love the detachable RCA cables... why doens't Technics do this?????? (They do this only on the Mk IV which only sells in Japan) I guess my main gripe is that I miss those red dots on the side... and that it doesn't even come with a dust cover... Oh, and with the correct tracking force, it would take a novice skratch dj 20 shots of Tequilla to make this monster skip...

click here to talk about analogue turntables


Styli and Cartridges

Ortofon Nightclub Ortofon Night Club
I bought this to keep around a good quality needle for ripping from vinyl to my hard drive. Not too sure if it was all that neccessary. ;) Hey, it looks cool... And in most cases, it performs pretty darn well without skipping. But, it's mostly home studio use for me.

Shure M44-7 Shure M44-7
Virtually all jugglers and scratchers I have seen uses a pair of these for their setup. So I think it was mainly a leap of faith on my part. I don't deny that they are extremely skip-resistent, but I wonder what other DJs have to say about using this for their set... Wouldn't it be kind of like the pickup on a guitar? You'd want some humbucker pickups for certain sounds, etc... You wouldn't just use one pickup for all the different types of sounds you want to produce.... dunno... Oh, Just recently got a little case for a pair, too!

click here to talk about turtable cartridges / styli


Keyboard / Synth / MIDI Controller

Yamaha DJX Yamaha DJX
I mainly use this for melody generation and I also use the keyboard part of it for extensive MIDI controlling. The samples and patterns on them aren't bad. The feature sets are pretty good for its price as well. Everytime I stare at the keyboard I regret not listening to mom.... About what you ask? About taking my piano lessons more seriously... I think it's a great piece of synth for its price, and unweighted 61 velocity sensitive keys are good enough for me. It just sucks that it doesn't implement the full MIDI spec...

Edirol PCR-30 Edirol PCR-30
Since DJX doesn't implement the full MIDI spec I needed something that did, and that's where the Edirol PCR-30 comes in. Enough buttons, presets, sliders, knobs to drool over, and I really don't need many keys since I have my DJX. If I'm deep into software mixing sessions, I just move my keyboard and mouse aside and put this baby right in front of me and start automating and what not. It's great!

click here to talk about hardware synthesizers and midi controllers


Effector Unit

Pioneer EFX-500 Pioneer EFX 500
Once I sold my previous main mixer, DJM-600, I was suddenly stripped of all effects, so I did the natural thing and bought an external effects processor for my new setup. I am not that used to this unit just yet, but I have to say that this thing is very easy to use and, in my opinion, much more effective than the on-board effects unit I had on the DJM-600 since I can have two effects applied at once and also I have more control over the duration of the effects being applied.

click here to talk about offboard effector units


Sampler

Yamaha SU-10 Yamaha SU-10
Maybe I'm just not talented enough to lay out rapid samples on my sequencer correctly the first time around, or maybe I lack the patience... whatever the reason may be, I find it hella easier to just put the samles on my lil sampler unit and sprinkle'em on in real time over my track. Makes producing music that much more fun and interactive. :)

clik here to talk about samplers


Headphones

Sony MDRV700-DJ Sony MDR-v700dj
This has become my main headphone simply due to its comfort. The sound quality on it is not as good as my original main heaphone, SE-DJ5000, but this is so much more comfortable and it has me sold on it.

click here to talk about headphones


Drum Machine

Roland DR-660 Roland DR-660
Since I bought this used from a Music student at CMU, Roland has come up with DR-770 which is an improved model with twice as much memory... which reminds me that I would really like to buy the DR-202... I can't say enough how valueable a drum machine could be when you're remixing. This thing is really only limited by your imagination... make it a habit to listen to various types of music and concentrate on their drum line and you will be able to recreate them on this machine... drum machines rock!

click here to talk about drum machines


Guitars

PRS CE bolt-on PRS CE Bolt-On
I swore I'd get a gibson les paul as my very first (well, my own, at least) electric guitar when I got to the states, but I was somehow convinced by the sales guy who played this amazing lick on this axe hooked up to a sweet mesa boogie amp... I still want my gibson les paul, but I have no regrets owning this fine piece of instrument.

Martin DR Martin DR
My first splurge on an acoustic guitar. I've always wanted to have an acoustic guitar that I can quickly pick up to play or use to write music. I had been looking around for some time until I had enough money saved up to actually buy one. When I had enough I knew that this was the one I wanted to get. ;)

click here to talk about guitars


( Last Updated 4/21/2023 11:09:38 AM )