Anyone else DJ/mix or simply into Vinyl?

[K Simmonds]

Right. Totally non automotive topic, might be pointless, might get a bit of a chat going, who knows? I'll try to refrain from my normal essay length first post.

I have extremely wide taste in music, I'll happily listen to anything good and well produced, be it Clapton, Rush or the Eagles but then again I might decide to stick an early Metallica album on, all depends on my mood. Favourite bands are Maiden until Seventh Son, pretty much all Sabbath, Ozzy before Sharon tried to turn him into a cash cow. Though Ride the Lightening could actually be my favourite album, kind of a tie with Piece of Mind, totally different styles I know, though they would both most certainly be classed as heavy metal.

When it comes to that noisy dance music, again I'll happily listen to/mix anything good. However when it comes to buying records to play out I'm into a niche genre of a niche genre, so pretty dam obscure. Dutch/Scottish Hardcore produced between 1992 and 1996 is my thing, though most of my tracks are from 93/4&5. I got my first of many set of 1210's/1200's in 1995 from Richer sounds and have since lost count how many sets I've sold only to buy another pair, my current mint 1200's have been with me since 2011 and I got them from the original owner. I like my mixers simple (not into effects, flashy lights and all that nonsense) so I have a Technics SH-EX1200 scratch mixer, suits my highly aggressive and precise mixing style...

Speakers are currently 4 X Yamaha HS5's, negating the need for an amp, connected with balanced XLR's these things are awesome, best speaker I've used hands down, sure there's more expensive audiophile options available but for rock/metal/hardcore I don't see as there's anything to gain by spending more. I've never owned a CD player (though I'm currently eying up late 1980's technics models) and I have a Technics RS-AZ6 for Cassettes (remember those).

I have to say I've become a proper vinyl nerd, got my Spin Clean and drying rack, I always replace the inner sleeve after cleaning a record and use high quality 450g outer covers to project the sleeve. I have a carbon fibre brush for day to day cleaning, an 8" boat level on hand and my decks are both adjusted to perfection. Oh Yeah forgot to mention I currently use Ortophon Black's, a good compromise between a mixing stylus and one purely for play back.

Discog's has become my main shopping site, my user name on there is kitsimmonds if anybody's interested in checking out my collection, though I have about 70 records yet to add.

[Rikki Kitto]

Very wide tastes bud love a bit of Sabbath me self War Pigs being one of my favourite tracks in any genre by any artist

[John.]

Yes, have a lot of vinyl ..........from AC/DC to (cough) Kenny Rogers. I don't mix them though !

[K Simmonds]

Yeah, can't go wrong with War Pig's absolutely classic Sabbath!

And John, I'm pretty versatile when it come to mixing but I think AC/DC and Kenny Rodgers would be impossible on vinyl, perhaps on MP3 on one of those machines kids use these days which effectively beat match for you but that's not mixing, that's standing there pretending to able to mix. Nothing wrong with a bit of Kenny though.

[Tractor Dave]

I still have quite a collection but haven't played anything for years. Mainly Floyd, 10cc, Santana and other rock. Also like Sabboth. I think I have heaven and hell in the collection?
My mate is the guitarist in Sendelica. Space rock style. He makes more money selling limited edition vinyl records than anything else. Some of his early stuff is now quite rare, collectable and expensive. Check out space hopper blues Kit. I think you will like

[K Simmonds]

Unless you really have to never sell your collection Dave, I flogged over half my first lot that I purchased in Holland to fund my S2, which I know was a good buy, but I should have saved up and got a better one as prices went down for two or three years after got my 3B. Many of the records I sold for a tenner are now worth over £100 in mint condition, some considerably more, some £50 for a crappy copy. I recently paid 120 Euro's for a track I walked into Midtown records in Amsterdam and paid the equivalent of about £6.50 in Guilders in 1996, still the copy I sold was about worn out and this one is NOS which makes me feel somewhat better about it.

I have vaguely heard of Sendelica, cool name I'll have to look them up, I like Hawkwind so I'll probably enjoy his stuff. As with most collectables rarity and condition are everything, I've actually been considering starting to sell on Discogs myself, it's something of a faff to get set up, though once done it's way better than eBay. The trick is buying job lot's from eBay or wherever really, skimming the stuff you want for yourself off the top then flogging the rest, I picked up 50 ex juke box 45's the other day for £15 delivered, non of it is really my thing though there's a couple of decent Gary Moore tracks I'll probably end up keeping, however I've only given them a quick look over and found at least £100 worth and if two weren't slightly damaged (though they are playable) we'd talking more like £500.

Plus records are easy to pack and send, take up very little space compared to large bit's of car, don't cut you and take rolls of bubble wrap and miles of packing tape. Got to get more confident at grading, I tend to grade on the conservative side which keeps customers happy but with some limited edition 12" singles in particular one grade difference could be a grand.

I love working on car's and would probably do so from a wheel chair if I had to, but as one gets older and more injured finding easier ways of making money becomes all the more appealing.

Oh yeah it's Between Heaven & Hell which a best a best of album so loads of good tracks but also a huge production run, hang onto it and enjoy it.

[Tractor Dave]

There is a Hawkwind connection with Sendelica. Nick Turner taught their Sax player. As you may know, Nick lives down this end of Wales. There is also a Sabboth link locally. They recorded some of their work at a local studio in Hebron.

[martinjs]

I have a fair bit of vinyl, bought my 1210’s new in 98’ then a third one not long after, purely dance music, mainly techno, bit of acid, hard house etc, 3 deck mixing is a bit of a mission.
Tried cdj’s but didn’t enjoy it so they got sold.
Always stuck with analogue mixers, no magic sync button, did have a pioneer 600 then switched to a xone-92

[K Simmonds]

I knew there must be another DJ on here!

I dare say we even may share the odd tune as I have a few acid techno tracks (German and UK) and well as some straight techno, though on the harder side, along with some hard trance classics on Bonzai etc. I also tried the three deck thing and could pull it off in my bedroom, but as we both know there's huge difference between practicing at home and playing on a live rig. How Carl Cox managed some of his live mixing baffles me to this day, especially when he played all styles from house/techno to proto Gabber and everything in between. Pity he stopped and went with house as that only really left Easygroove as the guy you never quite knew what style he was going to play next. Seen Dennis live a few times, one of my absolute favourited DJ's he'd turn to a D&B night and play mostly Gabber, like wise I've seen him play mostly jungle in the Gabber room at the Dielectric club in Leicester. Most my tune's are too short (3min when pitched up even slightly) for three deck mixing so I soon abandoned that idea, wish I'd kept the deck though given what their worth now.

Also tried CDJ's, hated them.

Far to much cheating goes on these days for my liking, BPM counters and auto sync have taken all the skill out of mixing IMO, people just want to stand there and (try) to look cool twiddling a few buttons and still sound rubbish. Proper mixing requires having two separate metronome's in ones head, the ability to correct instantly when a tune does something funny like loose 1/4 of a beat at he start of break etc etc etc.

The Xone-92 is a great mixer so is the pioneer 600 for that matter, I went with the technics as I love the high and low trims and it suits my slice and dice style, though I enjoy prolonged beat matching as well, depends on what style of tunes I'm playing.

[K Simmonds]

More crap photography, doing these as a test more than anything, trying to suss out my phones camera.

The bones of my set up and yesterday's best purchases. Both the 12" singles totally rock, the sound engineer on Mr Crowley deserves a medal, one of the best, if not the best live Ozzy record in existence. Cost me less than tenner and it's like new, great version of Shot in The Dark to boot.

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[John.]

[K Simmonds]

Cheers John.

Some more photography practice.

Records from freecycle in the process of being sorted, it amazing what people give away.

And the best value studio monitors one can buy, it's possible to get a tidy pair for less than £200 second hand. Will never go back to using a separate amplifier again, one pair is destined for my conservatory/gym as my front room is tiny and these are very powerful for their size!

The stand argument is very temporary, been experimenting with location before I buy the steel to fabricate something more permanent.

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[newsh]

I gave a lot of my vinyl away, couldn’t part with this though, still have decks, now you’ve got me looking for my copy of Machine Head!

[newsh]

Cheers John.

Some more photography practice.

Records from freecycle in the process of being sorted, it amazing what people give away.

And the best value studio monitors one can buy, it's possible to get a tidy pair for less than £200 second hand. Will never go back to using a separate amplifier again, one pair is destined for my conservatory/gym as my front room is tiny and these are very powerful for their size!

The stand argument is very temporary, been experimenting with location before I buy the steel to fabricate something more permanent.

Sent from my SM-A115F using Tapatalk

HS7s or 8s?

[newsh]

Got a few bits of audio gear knocking about