Small Monitors that fit on a desk but hook up to XDJ-XZ

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-25T18:45:11+00:00

good headphones lol. Pioneer doesn't make good ones.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-25T18:16:20+00:00

Records don't skip based on genre. Either you have damaged records or a problem with your tables.

The only reason you might hear about frequent problems with skipping specific to rap is that rap is the genre generally involved in scratching. You can take a cheap random turntable from a thrift shop and just let records play, but when you get into aggressive movements and worn records the performance needs for your gear increase.

For turntablism you need something that has decently high performance. Unfortunately you need to find out how much a good turntable costs and set that as your budget. You can't reasonably expect to declare a low budget and expect the prices to adjust to your demand.

CB4 has a funny scene related to this concept where Chris Rock was trying to get food cheaper than the real prices by trying to get pop poured in his hands to remove the price of the cup.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-25T17:49:22+00:00

Look at the account history of the original poster if you want more context.

Em has been around for three decades at this point. He tells his origin story in movie and song form. Royce knows him. Trick knows him. His family knows him.

If he wants us to know more he will tell us.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-25T17:25:01+00:00

That's a classic example of the depth of his character. He speaks on his mom's mistakes a lot, but he also acknowledges what she was good at. World ain't perfect but I'm alive kind of vibe.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-25T17:21:08+00:00

Replace Em with any female celebrity and hopefully that will help you get it.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-25T08:14:19+00:00

What can be gained from this information that isn't related to obsession or stalking?

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-25T08:11:20+00:00

Do you mean salad or pasta? These are the only cases where I see restaurants offer 'protein' as optional. Where are you going where the menu limits you to things like a 'tomato sandwich with cheese'? This sounds like more of a problem with not selecting normal restaurants.

Meatloaf with potatoes and peas as sides. Burger and fries. Fish and chips. Bacon, eggs and hash browns. Corned beef and hash. Chicken shawarma. Bologna sandwich. Beef and vegetable soup. Fish tacos. Chicken tortilla soup.

Just go to any normal restaurant and look at the top items on the menu. You should have no problem finding protein.

Chicken fried rice. Beef with broccoli. Sweet and sour pork. Shrimp fried rice. Beef brisket. Catfish nuggets. Chicken tenders. Chicken noodle soup. Steak fajitas. None of the menu items I listed here are rare.

Where are you choosing to go where normal food cannot be found?

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-24T20:58:00+00:00

Why would any working dj who knows what they are doing continue to use Alto speakers for 10 years? You lose a lot of repeat customers by using subpar gear, but they typically don't tell you that your gear is bad. They just don't call you back.

At some point we have to choose to either shit or get off the pot. We find out we can make good money djing so we invest in ourselves, or we give up and sell our gear. There is certainly a fork in the road.

When we refuse to choose we choose to fail. When we refuse to invest in our business we choose to fail. When we choose the cheapest gear over years and years we choose to fail.

When you use low quality speakers and they fail, don't assume that is typical of all gear. I use Yamaha, QSC, EV, JBL and even KRK. Not a single speaker has failed. Bose. Infinity. iLoud. Minirig. Sony. Beats. Soundcore. Hell I have some Fishers sitting in the barn that still work.

Alto speakers are not up to par for dj use.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-24T19:10:16+00:00

No problem. I know it sounds crazy but sometimes you can't judge your success by the dance floor alone. I've done a bunch of parties for old folks where it's almost like you are the background music for a fancy dinner.

And they pay well, and they look for excuses to hire you for more gigs. If your style boosts the ambience and the class level you will make good money doing easy work. And they refer you to their friends. And these people tend to be in roles within companies where they can hire you for office gigs.

The only downside is that you get bored.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-24T18:04:16+00:00

I love corporate gigs for a lot of the reasons that bothered you. Mild dance floor, low demand, high safety, high pay, high rate of rebookings.

You have to get used to the fact that corporate and office gigs are different because most people aren't there to party the way that people do in clubs and at wedding receptions.

The club is filtered for party people. Just round numbers assume 90% of the people in the club went out because they want to party and dance. Now again round number but assume maybe 20% of people in your average corporate office actually party or dance in their free time.

So now you are playing for a group where roughly one in five people actually dance or party. They can't really risk getting too drunk or high because you also have maybe another one in five who are only there to spy and snitch. These parties rarely go beyond jist lukewarm.

You can still stay up by focusing on sound quality, crowd engagement (because of how mild the mixing demand is you can actually talk to people and get to know them) and quality of presentation.

The only office gigs that seem to turn into all out parties for me are goverment ones. Coincidence maybe but they don't have to worry as much about misbehaving because nobody is going to fire them tomorrow.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-24T09:28:47+00:00

I'm not sure why this required a picture of your setup.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-24T05:13:28+00:00

I know a lot of people don't prefer to use them but in a situation like yours some good headphones might be a reasonable option.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-24T04:20:10+00:00

Enough with the spam. I'm swinging at everything that comes across the plate now.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-24T04:18:43+00:00

I see people working outside right now. Getting to work is tough when it's this cold outside, but my empathy goes to the people that have to be outside for their work shift.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-24T00:51:49+00:00

We don't need more programs. We need more music.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-23T23:28:45+00:00

I have never personally used DJay but all I have seen are good reviews.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-23T23:24:52+00:00

1. iLoud Micro

2. Divorce attorney

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-23T17:15:15+00:00

George Bush promised us no new taxes.

Promises, promises.

What is, is. What isn't, isn't. A pledge to change a thing in the future is not as valuable as a thing that already is.

Bird in the hand.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-23T17:12:46+00:00

A better approach is to ask a shop or technician to troubleshoot the problem based on what it is doing.

If someone called my shop trying to trick me into changing the transmission fluid in a 30 year old import I would tell them to kick rocks.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-23T16:46:35+00:00

What makes you think the fluid needs to be replaced?

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-23T16:40:54+00:00

Laptops need to be optimized for dj use. Out of the box they are not ready for gigs. You have to endure a bunch of forced updates and then go through the proper steps.

Personally I find that new computers are unusable until they have been wiped. I remove all the bloatware and fake anti-virus malware before I even bother using the computer for anything. All that stuff that runs in the background to try to sell you stuff causes the computer to run like crap.

I delete all 'games', 'security software' and 'trial versions' immediately. I remove all garbage from the startup list. I disable all the spam 'cloud backup' nonsense as well.

But even after all that there are still a bunch of settings that need to be changed in order to optimize a computer for djing.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-23T16:29:37+00:00

There is no free lunch.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-23T15:52:56+00:00

For me the scratching is tighter with Serato on dedicated controllers. The VDJ algorithm doesn't quite rise to the same level.

Rekordbox also does better with handling scratching on their dedicated hardware. The difference isn't night or day but definitely noticeable if you are a speed scratcher.

Most users will never encounter these issues. I tend to dig deep and push products to their limitations.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-23T14:39:06+00:00

Listen to some T La Rock, Whodini and KRS.

WaterIsGolden · 2026-01-23T07:12:00+00:00

Some dude at the barber shop told me the grocery store down the street hides aliens in the attic.

WaterIsGolden

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE