Hello. I just bought my new setup (twin CDJ-400's, DJM-400, Numark PHX headphones, Odyssey Flight Case, DJS, Toshiba Satellite Notebook). I LOVE it - Pioneer has done a GREAT job with these products. I have been raging on them hardcore for about a week now and I even logged about 20 hours in that last 3 days alone. My fiance is cool about it, but I should sleep sometime lol.

Anyway, that brings me to the reason for this post. I was completely new to DJing when I bought my gear, but I have been a professional musician for a long time. I want to share a couple tips here for other newbs like me. I am not trying to act like a know-it-all. Instead I thouht that others who were out there and new to DJing might benefit from some of the things I have learned. I did a lot of reading before I bought my gear. Ultimately it was my research and trial and error - not the people at the store that helped me put together a good setup. I know I could have used some of this info when I first went out to get everything. It would have saved me a few trips to the store at least. Hopefully my limited experience as a newb will help some others out there who are new and learning just like me.

Like I said, I am new to DJing but I have played the sax since 3rd grade. I played professionally but I had become bored with the instrument and I felt like I had mastered it and I wanted a new challenge. I also wanted something that would allow me more variety in what I played so that is why I bought my gear. I am not trying to brag when I just talked about my history as a sax player. The reason I mentioned it is because the sax is a delicate instrument (just like electronics) so I learned a lot about how to care for it properly. With my sax it was important to keep it clean oiled etc.

I have brought those principals over to my dj eqipment and I am a freak about keeping it spic and span. Along those lines, I would advise everyone out there to buy a Swiffer Duster. LOL I know it sounds funny, but it works great for keeping the dust off the faceplates, you won't scratch anything or damage the knobs or switches. Also the Swiffer Dusters are thin enough to fit in the small spaces BETWEEN the knobs etc. where dust is likely to collect. They are cheap too.

While I am talking about dust, it is a good idea to buy a microfiber or lint free blanket to drape over your gear when you are not using it. It will keep the dust from settling on it and it is a lot easier than putting the top of the case on and off all the time. I also found really cheap optical quality microfiber clothes. They only cost about $2 and these are great along with a little isopropyl alcohol (no more than a 70% solution) to clean cds. It is important that you buy "optical quality" because they will not scratch cd's. Clean your cd's them every time too - there is nothing worse than putting a dirty or dusty cd in your player.

I am seriously loving the USB capability of my CDJ-400's too. On the topic of USB - I have found some great flash drives. They are made by Sandisk and they are the Cruzer model. They come in 1G, 2G (the ones I bought) and up. The cool thing about them is that they have retractable USB plugs so you dont have to worry about losing the caps all the time. When I bought them I was a little concerned about the slide out plugs not standing up over time. But, I checked them out after I opened them up and the locking mechanism seems sturdy. I guess I wil have to see how well they last. I also like all my gear to match and I know that are others out there like me - these memory sticks are good there too. They are black so they match the faceplates and they have these neat pulsating red light bars that blink when the drive is working. The red color matches the light beam on the platters and it looks tight!

Lastly, I have noticed that my feet get really sore after standing for a long time. No doubt some of this is because I am standing around at my house not wearing proper shoes etc., but concrete floors at clubs aren't any more forgiving. I fixed my sore feet and knees buy buying a gym style pad to stand on. You can find them lots of places and they are cheap too. The pads are made from a ruberized foam and they are about an inch thick. They really help cusion your feet when you stand for long periods of time. Plus they are portable so you can take them with you if you have a gig somewhere.

I hope that helps. Have fun mixing!

A couple things I didn't mention in my last post:

1. The USB flash drives I bought are called SanDisk Cruzer Micros (I left out the "Micro" part in my last post).

2. When buying a microfiber blanket make sure you get one the is lint free. I saw one for around $30 but when I picked it up it left lint all over my pants. The good lint free microfiber blankets are around $100 and up. If you see one for less than that it is probably not lint free.

Have fun mixing!

I'll add a couple of comments to your addendum...

1) Don't buy the cheap flash drives, get GOOD ones which are rated for higher transfer speeds. You'll thank yourself later, trust me. The Patriot XT series are great and not too expensive!

2) Whatever you use for a blanket, make sure it doesn't create mass amounts of static. Static is the enemy of electronics.

Hi, ive found your post very useful and Im looking to be the cdj 200s or maybe the 400s. Im having difficulty understanding how I could use my laptop. Can a programme such as virtual dj be linked to the cdjs, so that u can play mp3s off the computer on the cdjs without the cdjs having a cd in them? plese could you explain this as i have been stuck for a week now! thanks!

Az - I'm glad this post could be helpful to you. If you are tossed up between the CDJ-200 and the CDJ-400 I would recommend the 400's. They are definitely worth the extra money (and it is not really that much more) because with the 400's you get upgraded electronics, added features and effects over the 200's and the 400's run on upgraded firmware that has less bugs and reads BPM and such better than the 200's. Lastly the CDJ-400s have scratch/vinyl capability. It is a great feature and it id pretty accurate to scratch with. The 400's are good enough to do basic to medium skill level scratching and the scratch effect is a lot of fun to play with. It also gives you a lot of posibilities effect wise since you can use the scratch funtion along with the different CDJ and mixer effects to create cool new sounds.

As far as using your CDJ's with your computer I would not recommend using Virtual DJ with the 400's. There is really nothing wrong with VDJ, but Pioneer offers its own DJS (DJ Software). This software is programmed to work seamlessly with the Pioneer CDJ products. The DJS will work better than VDJ with your gear and it offers more functionality and is set up almost exactly like your CDJs and your mixer would be so it is very user friendly. As well as recording the DJS also gives you some added effects, more hot cue options and some fun mixing/fading tools. Read my other post titled "Some helpful info for anyone who is buying their first CDJ setup". In that post I talk about pairing your gear so that everything will work and perform well together. I also talk about a couple other things you might want to consider when buying your gear. One tip here is that if you are ready to buy now you should buy asap. I say that because I just bought my CDJ-400s about 2 weeks ago. When I opened the CDJ boxes I was pleased to find that they contained the registration codes to get a totally free full download version of the Pioneer DJS software. This was a great surprise since I had wanted to get the software in the future anyway. Now I got it for free and it saved me about $200! So, if you are ready buy now because I think the promotion (at least with the dealer I bought from) goes for another month or so but I am not sure.

I can't say here in the forum but if you want the name of the dealer I bought from I can give it to you. Email me at million_35@hotmail.com and I will send you their info. I paid about $2000 for a setup that included 2 CDJ-400s, a DJM-400 mixer, an Odyssey flight case and a pair of Numark PHX headphones. So, I got a good deal and when you count the free DJS software I don't think you will find a better price on new gear anywhere else. Let me know if you want the info.

The only other thing I can say about buying the CDJ-400's over the CDJ-200's is that, in addition to acting as their own external soundcards, the 400's also act as MIDI controllers. MIDI functionality may e improtant to you depending on how you are planning to use your PC/CDJ setup.

I hope this helps more and let me know if you want any more info. Have fun mixing!

Pulse, Thanks for the added info. I didn't even think about the static part but now that you have mentioned it I realize that it is VERY important to consider. I checked my blanket and it is antistatic as well and that is probably why it cost $150 lol.

As far as the USB drives go, I will definitely check out the Partiot XT's - thanks for the info. I will also have to check my usb drives to make sure they are rated for high xfer speeds. Can you reply to this and tell me what xfer speed I should look for when I buy USB drives. I want to be able to use my USB drives in the future when I DJ at clubs? Let me know and thanks again.

Pulse, Ok I checked the back of my USB drives (since I don't have the original packaging). They are listed as U3 Smart. Does that mean they are rated for high Xfer speeds?

U3 means they're designed to operate as a virtual-CD drive, allowing direct access for programs on some machines. I never buy U3 drives, you just pay more for a feature you're not going to use when the USB drive is used for multimedia storage / playback.

As for the transfer speeds, if a manufacturer claims "high speed", it doesn't mean squat. Look for a speed indicator (like "133x" or "150x"). They may also measure it in MB/s but the higher you can go (within reason for the price you're paying - weigh out bang-for-buck), the better. This isn't a big deal for playback as your MP3s only need to stream at a tiny data rate of 40kb/s (for a 320kbit MP3), but for loading up that flash drive, you want speed.

OK one more add on to my original post. To anyone who read about the USB drives I got. DONT buy them lol. After reading Pulses comments I checked them out and they are not high speed drives. I have seen this in the performance too since it takes 5 or 6 minutes for them to load when you transfer MP3s. Also like Pulse said they are U3Smart so you end up spending more money on them without getting the high speed. Lastly, I have found that the retractable plugs are not that great. They are wiggly and it is hard to know if they are plugged in the whole way. Sometimes they also will collapse when being plugged in if you toush them the wrong way.

So, live and learn for me lol. I will use mine until I buy some new ones - plus the red lights are cool lol. They work fine for now (for my home needs) but I would not recommend them to anyone else. I guess this is what being a newb is all about lol. Have fun mixing everyone!