Turntable buying advice.

[archdukezeb]

So yeah I'm thinking of getting a turntable to try learning some djing/turntabilism stuff and I know the basic advice, (direct drive of coures, technics are everyone's favorite brand) but my question is this how much of a difference is their between technics models. Like I know the favorite model is the 1200 mkIIs but what about the other models like sl 1700s for example.

Also I really don't care that much about pitch shifting or tempo adjustement.

[Downstroke]

The 1200's have been the industry standard for the last damn near 30 years for good reason. Although there are other good decks on the market, none hold their value like technics or will last you as long. I've had mine since 89 and never had any bother with them, they're built like tanks! The 1700 were the forerunners to the 1200's and a lot of the original turntablists used them (Flash, Theodore), but as soon as the 1200's were about, that was it!

As far as pitch shift goes, you say you're not bothered, but if you want to get into any form of turntablism, you definitely need it! you cant beat mix without it, and if you want it for sampling, you'll be able to preview what you're about to sample in time with the beat you're making, plus if you want to add cuts, you need to sync your tempos otherwise it will sound wack!

[semantik]

Downstroke covered it all perfectly. You definitely need pitch adjustment and you can't go wrong with the 1200's. I've had mine since '96 without major problems. I've had to replace the rca cable on one of them, but that was due to my own constant moving. They're virtually indestructible and beautiful to boot!

Some other options you might consider are the Stantons and the Vestax. Vestax has always made turntables specifically with the turntablist in mind and Stanton has greatly improved their models in recent years. Best advice would be to spend some time with the Technics 1200's to get a baseline feel for what a turnbtable should be like, then compare the quality of others and you be the judge.

Pitch adjustment also comes in hand for beat juggling and can help a lot.

[Rafferty]

this is timely... Imma get some turntables real soon too. I'm so excited, man....

Anyone have an oninion about Numarx? I've heard they're nice... but you know what, I'm not realy feeling these plasticky bubbley turntables. They look stupid. They look like iMacs or something. Shit is wack, gimme a black Technics anyday.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna stick with the good old Technics. But what about a mixer? Umm, in fact I think I'll start another thread about mixers right now.

[mrfloyd]

Originally Posted by Rafferty

this is timely... Imma get some turntables real soon too. I'm so excited, man....

Anyone have an oninion about Numarx? I've heard they're nice... but you know what, I'm not realy feeling these plasticky bubbley turntables. They look stupid. They look like iMacs or something. Shit is wack, gimme a black Technics anyday.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna stick with the good old Technics. But what about a mixer? Umm, in fact I think I'll start another thread about mixers right now.

I got numarks TT500s. Fuckers are tanks and I love them.

[archdukezeb]

Originally Posted by semantik

Downstroke covered it all perfectly. You definitely need pitch adjustment and you can't go wrong with the 1200's. I've had mine since '96 without major problems. I've had to replace the rca cable on one of them, but that was due to my own constant moving. They're virtually indestructible and beautiful to boot!

Some other options you might consider are the Stantons and the Vestax. Vestax has always made turntables specifically with the turntablist in mind and Stanton has greatly improved their models in recent years. Best advice would be to spend some time with the Technics 1200's to get a baseline feel for what a turnbtable should be like, then compare the quality of others and you be the judge.

Pitch adjustment also comes in hand for beat juggling and can help a lot.

Hmm. I said I didn't need pitch adjustment because I'm not one those hardcore oldschool turntabilist types I'm already used to pitch adjusting my stuff in ableton so doing it on a turntable would be a step down for me and the main reason I want to get a turntable is to learn some scratch techniques. If it comes to beat matching or anything like that I can do that on the computer much easier and my philosophy is if you can get the same results the easy way... fuck it do it the easy way.

When I have extra dough I'm considering buying something like serato or traktor scratch.

[Rafferty]

You might find that adjusting pitch on your turntable is the easy way...

[archdukezeb]

Originally Posted by Rafferty

You might find that adjusting pitch on your turntable is the easy way...

Doesn't that adjust the speed too? In ableton I just set up the warp markers write so it knows what bpm the original is then I just set the global bpm at whatever speed I want my beat and then I just turn the transpose knob a few semitones to where I want it and presto!

Easy as can be.

[mrfloyd]

Get the friggin' pitch control.

you'll need it, want it, wanna be exposed to it at....at some point.

it adjusts the pitch, the # of rpms of the record.

scratching with a high pitched sound (with pitch control) could be pitched to match the beat your scratching/cutting to.

[archdukezeb]

Originally Posted by mrfloyd

Get the friggin' pitch control.

you'll need it, want it, wanna be exposed to it at....at some point.

it adjusts the pitch, the # of rpms of the record.

scratching with a high pitched sound (with pitch control) could be pitched to match the beat your scratching/cutting to.

Haha ok, ok. I wasn't vehemently against it I just was saying it wasn't on my top list of features I figured I needed but I guess I was wrong. I was planning on getting MkIIs or another quality turntable anyways so I was probably gonna end up having pitch control one way or another.