I've been deejaying a long time, I learnt on cassette decks and turntables.. those were the days DJ's carried a pen in their pocket so we could cue the cassette's at high speed (fast back then) I've used domestic cd walkmans for gigs, hifi turntables, playstation one's to play cd's and so on.. eventually I graduated to pro cd players, my first was the Numark cdn 18 that lasted me 5 years before I sold it, in that time I bought a Numark cdn 88 and a Numark cdn 25 (both of which still work perfectly) infact I used the cdn 88 on friday night to play some function specific cd's.. My first mixer was a 2 channel dj citronic mixer that I bought from my teacher and it has lasted 8 years with me and he used it for 5 years before I bought it, it still works although the faders are quite stiff but they work fine, I have a russian mixer that's name I can't pronounce and it's well over 20 years old, giant PA club install type and even though I haven't touched it in 5 years it still works stiff faders and all, I have a 19inch Monacor mixer that I bought used in 2005 and its well over 15 years old and I still use it at gigs and it works fine (I replaced the line faders) my original turntables, one Hitachi and one Soundlab both still work fine and I bought them used in 2004, Lord knows how old they are, they did active duty at a club for better than 10 years before I bought them. I went digital, bought a hercules dj console rmx (supposedly cheap quality) in 200, still works perfectly despite being my primary tool for about 2 years, I'm not even talking about sound equipment here because it would be too much, I used the hercules on friday night too, my behringer mixer also bought used in 2009 has worked for atleast 5 years no drama at all, also used on friday night, I bought my NS6 end of Aug 2011 and I love it, use it at my weekend residency and it hasn't broken yet even though the platter on the right deck has already gotten wobbly (from practicing tears I guess) but you know what's broken at least a dozen times? The damn software! it is so frustrating for me to have to constantly worry about sound dropouts every time I play, I have dealt with hundreds of different situations as a mobile dj but this is on a whole new psychological trauma level! it's like losing a slap bet, you never know when you'll get hit! I hate that! I have followed computer optimization to the letter, I calibrate my platters everytime I start up, my library is clean of corrupt files.. everything cook and curry, but it still happens! I downloaded the latest ITCH 2.1 and guess what? I have been forced to use beat grids, I hate beat grids, I'm not going to waste what little time I have gridding my music, I play a whole diverse variety of music, it's all I can do just to make sure I have the music that everyone wants to hear without worrying about the damned beat grids! I posted to ask if there's a way to disable them and there's been no response.. My style revolves around auto loops and these beat grids issue is driving me nuts, so I'm back to ITCH 2.0 oh well that's not even the worst, want to know the kicker?
I saved up like mad and bought a used pair of Numark TT1650 turntables, I got ripped off but meh, there are no turntables in the shops here so you get what you can, and saved some more and on 29 Dec 2011 I achieved my dream and bought the Rane TTM57SL new from the official dealer here in Kenya. I only use it in my room to practice with the turntables, never taken it for a gig ever. And on Thur night I go and switch on and nothing.. no reaction nothing! 12 days and a 1450 dollar machine just dies! Without ever being used for a professional gig even once! I have to make it clear that the Rane/Serato support is fantastic and they have been nothing but helpful always. But that still doesn't take away from the fact that a machine that is considered the pinnacle of performance in it's class just dies in 12 days! It still has that new smell dammit! Ok I have sent it to Nairobi to the dealer for repair and I'm waiting for word from them on what the issue is and so on, what irks me is that I will pay for the shipping back and forth, I don't have my mixer (that I paid a premium for) to practice on for God knows how long and it's messed up my daily schedule, I keep wondering now if it will break all the time now after I get it back, my confidence in high end Serato products is just shattered.
Funnily enough I bought a Vestax Typhoon to use with DJ INTRO about 2 months back and it has never let me down yet, not once, no dropouts, I run it off an older laptop with a first gen dual core processor and it kicks ass every time, it has been more reliable than ITCH and SCRATCHLIVE for me, amazingly, all the cheap and used products that I have bought have never let me down even once over the years but the high end premium products have let me down consistently over a very short period of time.
It's so disappointing for me especially since I've always held Rane/Serato in such high regard and sacrificed so much so that I could own their products and it's like a kick in the nuts when they keep failing me.
I'm not a superstar DJ, I'm just trying to better my situation through music and it really kills me that these products that are tools to help me change my life for the better are actually making it worse.
Sad.