DJing- Vinyl Turntable vs MIDI Controller

Vinyl Turntable

Overview

An analogue vinyl setup is very simple. It contains: a mixer, 2 turntables, headphones and 2 active speakers. Analogue vinyl setups use no software, only hardware. This is useful because it means it is not affected by slow/crashing computers and is universal (doesn’t require a specific software that may not be available in a club, for example) which is important for keeping a live DJ performance going.

The first commercial turntable was Technics’ SL-1200, which was released in 1974.

Equipment, Hardware/Software

Vinyl can be used with software, if a DVS (Digital Vinyl System) is used, which uses analogue vinyl turntables as digital ones, which is useful for DJs who started in the analogue era, but didn’t want to buy all new equipment to move into the digital era, discarding all of their old equipment.

An analogue vinyl set-up can have a range of equipment variations. Starting with the turntables, there are belt-driven and direct-driven available. Direct-driven is better for being turned anti-clockwise more easily (as it is a magnet that pulls the record, so nothing is physically attached), whereas pulling belt-driven turntables against the way it is pulling can damage it. However, belt driven turntables get to their full speed more quickly than direct-driven turntables. This can affect starting records so that it is in time with another (where, using digital, one can be started from not playing at all and immediately be at full speed), which is why analogue vinyl DJs play the record and use the slipmat to hold the record in place, so that the direct drive can get to speed, so you can just let go and let the record play at full speed. However, this means one hand is occupied, which can hinder a performance as it means that the hand occupied cannot be used to carry out techniques, for example.

There are also different tone arm heads. 3-part heads contain a cartridge, main body and stylus, whereas a concorde merges all of these parts into one sleek design. Concorde needles tend to make a better sound and are better quality, however they are more delicate and much more expensive.

A conical stylus is typically favoured in vinyl DJing, along with a spherical stylus, as it can be pulled backwards or forwards and spherical doesn’t cut as deep into the record, which causes less damage when scratching, whereas an elliptical needle, typically used by audiophiles, create higher-quality sound but due to their shape (bent one way) are more likely to break when the record is pulled anti-clockwise. This is important for assuring that styli and records will not have to be replaced as frequently, and that the sound quality doesn’t decrease as quickly.

Strengths

An analogue vinyl set-up is very simple. It requires no software so you can just plug equipment in, get your records and start DJing. Analogue DJing is the most appropriate set-up for authentic scratching, and for classic DJ techniques, such as Grand Master Flash’s “Quick Mix Theory” and “Beatmatching”.

Weaknesses

Vinyl set-ups use physical records as the source music. This is incredibly inconvenient as records can take up lots of physical space and can be very heavy (whereas a USB Stick for Digital set-ups take a tiny fraction of this space and weight). They can also get damaged (scratched or snapped/smashed) more easily than other music formats.

There are also more moving parts, which means that something mechanical is more likely to go wrong with an analogue vinyl set-up.

An analogue vinyl setup is more expensive than a MIDI Controller setup and less can be done with an analogue vinyl setup.

Analogue vinyl is also the set-up that is most prone to ‘wow and flutter’ which is a phenomenon where the mechanical drive of the turntable strays away from the speed it is supposed to play the record at, which can affect the BPM of the record and put the beats of both records out of sync.

How to exploit analogue vinyl’s capabilities

If an analogue DJ likes to use scratching a lot and/or are concerned about damaging their records, then a spherical stylus might be best for DJing as it causes the least damage to records, especially when scratching.

Another way to get the best results from an analogue set up is to make use of the tone arm, which can be adjusted to alter how much weight is put on the record by the stylus. This can also reduce damage to the record and make scratching easier. This is important for allowing the records to last as long as possible.

Record choice can also impact the analogue vinyl DJ experience. Records with lots of tempo changes or key changes can often impact the quality of a performance as it makes beatmatching considerably more difficult, especially if the tempo change is gradual.

Suitability of source materials

Records are good for making an authentic DJ sound and the best source material to scratch with. This is important for anybody wanting to follow the original/old style of DJing that Grand Master Flash created. The problem with vinyl is that the collection has to be stored and transported, which can take a lot of space and time. This can require a bigger vehicle to transport record collections in and a bigger space to keep them in when not performing or being transported. Vinyl records can typically be quite expensive, as they require the material to be sourced, the record to be cut, the labels and sleeves to be printed and then to be distributed, which overall makes them relatively expensive. This makes accumulating a record collection very expensive. With records you are also unable to purchase only individual songs, only albums or the selected single from the album, which means that you are paying for songs that you may never play, which makes using records more inefficient, financially.

Total cost of a top-quality, industry standard setup

An industry-standard mixer, such as the Pioneer DJM-V10 can cost roughly £2899, with turntables, such as the Pioneer PLX-1000 costing £649 each, headphones, such as the HDJ-X10, at £299 and speakers, such as the mackie Thump 15A system for £769, costing a total of roughly £5,265 for an industry-standard vinyl setup.

MIDI Controller

Overview

A MIDI set-up typically consists of a MIDI controller (which is usually a mixer and 2 decks in one unit, sometimes with samplers and extra channels for external decks), a computer with appropriate software, headphones and an active speaker system.

The MIDI Controller is based on DJ Pierre’s P2J Box, which was designed in 1992 to DJ with audio files instead of CDs and vinyl records. This then developed to the MIDI controllers known today, with Pioneer being the popular, industry-standard manufacturer and their DDJ-1000 model being the industry-standard MIDI Controller, which was released in January 2018.

Equipment, Hardware/Software

MIDI Controllers are a single-unit controller, which restricts you to the features of the whole unit, instead of being able to mix decks and mixers, which can impact your performance if you have other preferences. If you buy a controller with 4 channels and 2 decks, however, then you can add your own decks, such as CDJ decks with HiD mode if you want to control the software, or without HiD if you want to play a CD or USB, or an analogue vinyl deck.

Laptops are widely available, however they are expensive. Laptops are better than desktop/tower computers as they are more portable and more compact. This is important for DJs that travel with their own equipment.

MIDI DJ set-ups consist of both software and hardware units. The MIDI Controller is the hardware unit, however it is digital with less moving parts than an analogue turntable system, which means there is less risk of a mechanical fault. However, software means that there is a risk of a computer crashing.

Strengths

Software allows sound files to be played digitally, with negligible ‘wow and flutter’. This is important for a better quality performance as the audio files will not stray away from each other (in terms of timing) as easily as analogue DJ decks.

Music is stored on a USB Stick, which reduces the weight and size of a record collection down to something that can be attached to your keys. This is important for making transportation easier and keeping source materials safer from damage.

Even the most basic MIDI Controllers have more advanced technique controls than an analogue vinyl setup, such as looping, hot cues, samples, and more.

Weaknesses

With MIDI DJing you are at the mercy of a computer. If the computer crashes then the performance cannot continue. This is important as it means that a setup with a computer can be unreliable and could ruin a performance.

MIDI Controllers cannot perform authentic scratching and other traditional, classic DJ techniques the same way that analogue vinyl can.

How to exploit MIDI’s capabilities

MIDI DJ Controllers have an endless variety of features that allow you to perform to a high standard, with seemingly minimal effort.

One of the most useful features is ‘beat sync’ which will adjust the tempo of the selected deck to match the other. This is important for keeping 2 tracks to the same tempo with minimal effort.

Touch pads are a useful feature of MIDI controllers. These can be used for multiple purposes including playing samples, such as air horns, sine waves, sirens, or any audio file! This can be useful for adding these short sounds to music to make them more exciting and lively. Touch pads can also be used for hot cues, which allows you to jump back to a certain point in the audio file. This is important for allowing a DJ to start a song from more desirable parts, such as a breakdown, chorus or drop. This saves the DJ from having to scroll through the song to find the desired point which forces them to potentially miss the opportunity to perform techniques while the song is playing.

Suitability of source materials

Music can be sourced on many sites, either through streaming or digital download. Digital download sites such as Beatport, Juno Download or iTunes are typically better for a DJ who is going to play one playlist, as you can pay once for your music, so if your playlist doesn’t change, then you won’t have to pay for anymore music. Digital download is the option closest to buying vinyl, as you pay once and have a copy of the song. Streaming is a recurring cost which, if you are going to use the same music, is unnecessary. Streaming also relies on wi-fi, which is unstable and can ruin a performance. Streaming platforms, such as Spotify, Tidal and Beatport Link are better for DJs who are constantly changing their playlist. This is because streaming platforms allow you to have access to a bank of, usually, millions of songs, so you are never restricted. Digital download could be more costly if you were constantly downloading new music, and it also restricts you to the songs that you already have, whereas streaming allows you to add a new song in the moment. This is an important feature of streaming for DJs who take requests, as it will probably mean you have a requested song, which is not necessarily the case if a DJ downloads music.

Total cost of a top-quality, industry standard setup

For an industry-standard MIDI DJ setup, you can expect to pay roughly £2399 for an appropriate laptop, such as the Macbook Pro 2021, £1199 for a DDJ-1000 MIDI Console, £769 for an industry-standard active PA system, such as the Mackie Thump 15A pair and £299 for a good pair of DJ-appropriate headphones, such as the HDJ-X10s. This would, in total, cost roughly £4666.

Comparison

Overview

MIDI is typically considered easier to use and has a wider variety of features to make a more exciting performance. MIDI Controller DJing is typically better for modern forms of electronic music, such as dubstep, EDM and house. Analogue vinyl DJing is typically better for mixing funk, soul and jazz music, as this is where its origins lie. This is important because it can influence what kind of music a DJ might want to mix, or vice versa.

Equipment, Hardware/Software

MIDI has software and hardware. Software runs its own risks of failure, however the hardware runs a much smaller risk of failure than the hardware used for analogue vinyl setups, which can go wrong in more ways (the stylus can break, the record can get damaged, the drive mechanism can break). As long as temperatures remain appropriate, power supply is not interrupted and laptops remain on charge, then a majority of the time a MIDI Controller DJ setup with downloaded music will not cause any problems, whereas vinyl records jumping is much more common. This is important because a performance of any kind should flow and not be interrupted by technical problems.

How beatmatch on each

Beatmatching is a technique where you take 2 songs with different BPMs and adjust the speed that the song plays at until the tempo matches and the songs play at the same BPM. This allows the songs to fit better and mix better, which is important for pleasing an audience as songs that don’t match in tempo sound out-of-sync and unprofessional.

On analogue vinyl, you beatmatch by playing 2 records while lightly ‘shaving’ your finger against 1 as the other plays, while simultaneously adjusting the pitch/tempo adjust fader. This relies entirely on a DJ’s ability to hear the 2 tracks and tell when they are in time with each other, which requires a much more skilled ear.

Beatmatching on a MIDI controller is much simpler than on analogue vinyl, as the software displays the BPM of the song which can be adjusted on a tempo fader, or even by clicking the ‘beat sync’ button, which will automatically match the tempos of the 2 songs.

How to perform the quick mix theory

The Quick Mix Theory is the idea that you can repeat 4 bars of a song over and over, to keep a part that you enjoy playing longer. This is done by putting the same song on each deck, having a cue point at the very first beat of the section, letting one play for 4 bars and then reversing it 6 times (using the cue point to measure) while the other deck plays 4 bars of the song. This allows those 4 bars to be repeated over and over. This technique was very useful for early DJs to loop bars that they wanted to repeat, however this is an incredibly physically and mentally demanding technique that requires incredible focus and multitasking skills.

On analogue vinyl, you do this by playing the deck with the song that isn’t playing out of the main PA, with the crossfader switched to the side already playing the song, and hold the other record, letting the slipmat move under it to allow the turntable to get to full speed. When the first, playing record plays its full 4 bars, the crossfader is switched to the song that is held still which is then left to play from the cue point as the first record is reversed by the 6 counter-turns to the cuepoint, and then held until the second record has finished its 4 bars, and then the process is repeated over and over.

On a MIDI Controller, this is usually done with the simple-to-use looping features, however this technique could be carried out in a similar way to the analogue vinyl by using the digital decks to play the songs which are loaded into each deck on the software. The advantage to this is you would not have to hold the other deck, as digital decks do not need to get up to speed, the deck is just used to control a song being played on a computer.

Source Materials

Analogue vinyl DJing requires much more storage and moving, as the setup includes more hardware (2 big, heavy decks and a separate mixer and the record collection), whereas MIDI DJing simply required the 1 compact, relatively light controller as well as a USB stick and a laptop (on top of the equipment that each setup has in common, such as speakers, furniture and headphones). This is important for making transportation more easy. Analogue vinyl DJing requires more space and a much larger vehicle, such as a van, whereas MIDI DJ setups could potentially be transported in a car. The source materials for MIDI DJing is better because transportation is a huge part of DJing as a lot of DJs use their own equipment and perform in different venues, and is made easier if source materials are more compact.

Costs

An industry-standard analogue vinyl setup costs around £5200, whereas an industry-standard MIDI setup costs roughly £4600, meaning the vinyl is more expensive by about £800. This is a lot of money, and the MIDI setup offers so many more features and makes DJing more professional with less effort, making MIDI Controller setups even more worth it. The cost of music is also less/the same for MIDI DJing, as downloaded music can typically cost £1 per song, whereas vinyl (although it can vary wildly), typically costs £10-£20+ per album (which is usually about 10 songs) meaning it is at least as expensive.