quoted 4 lines The dedicated mixer you can
> The dedicated mixer you can
> get with these has all sorts of other nifty stuff, BPM counter on each
> source, Phaser/flanger and other effects on pot wheels. Loadsa stuff, it
> basically beat matches 4 you.
That's bullshit. It doesn't beatmatch for you. It can display the BPM
in two channels simultaneously, you still control the dials, there's
plenty of human interaction involved. I am thoroughly sick of people
telling me "oh that sounds very good and everything's perfectly
beatmatched, but you're not a real DJ because your CD players are beat
matching for you!"
There's more to beatmatching than making sure that both channels are at
the same BPM. For one, 124.5 BPM is different from 124 BPM and you can
only see fractional BPM's on the "second" beat counter. For two, a BPM
counter is pretty stupid and can get fooled by different kinds of
music. A 160BPM jungle track will occasionally show up as 80BPM and
sometimes at 120BPM. You still need to use your ears. The beat counter
is a nice feature, and it can let you do a mix of two unfamiliar tracks
a bit more quickly than you could without it, but that's it.
For simple and standard music sources (don't expect it to be useful for
beatmatching music in 6/8 for example), the BPM counter will let you
take two trax at different BPM's and get them in "the same range" but
you've gotta do the final beatmatching, and you've gotta make sure that
the phases are correct; even if the sources indicate the same BPM on
the beatcounter, and you've got the phase aligned, it doesn't mean the
tracks will actually segue seamlessly. It's the rhythm, stupid.
You statement about "beatmatching for you" is kinda like telling
someone with antilock brakes (ABS) on their car that "it does the
driving for you".... It's just a tool you can use to avoid getting into
a (train)wreck. You still have to know how to drive.
quoted 2 lines However not only is the pioneer system
> However not only is the pioneer system
> hideously expensive, the sound quality is truly dire.
I disagree. The sound quality on mine is quite good. Better sounding
than my supposedly good-sounding Sony "ES" series CD player. I've found
the denons to sound pretty awful myself, but then again, perhaps it
wasn't driving a good amp or decent speakers.
quoted 3 lines When you do time
> When you do time
> stretch, the whole audio signal drops noticeably. So you end up using your
> spare hand to bring that channels level up as you slow the track down.
I haven't noticed this on mine.
Of course, if you're time streching a track at -10%, it is going to
sound a little weird. If you knew anything about how simple the DSP
algorithms are that do this kind of time-stretching are, you'd
understand that it's impossible to do extreme time stretching well.
I've never heard a time stretching algorithm that doesn't sound weird
"at the limits". However, it doesn't sound as noticably warped when you
put it to +10%, and it's pretty reasonable within +/- 5% ranges. And of
course, the time stretching isn't REQUIRED. You can turn it off very
easily, and make the vocals sound like chipmunks if that's your thing.
I personally am very satisfied with my Pioneer CDJ500mkII and the
matching M500 mixer. I paid $2000.00 for the whole system, which isn't
that far out of line with the Denons and an equivalent high-end mixer.
The worst thing about the Denons, IMHO, is that they have a error-prone
and braindamaged user-interface. I find them absolytely god-awful to
use. But that's just my opinion. I bought the Pioneers CDJ500mkII's
because they were the first CD mixer decks I used that actually felt
comfortable to mix with.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
== Niels Mayer --
http://www.eit.com/~mayer -- mayer@netcom.com ==
== When yer swimming in a creek and an eel bites yer cheek, that's a moray!==
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