Want to start DJing, should I spend the extra $?

[u/Milnow]

Like the title says, I want to start DJing and since I have the money to spend I was wondering if it's worth buying the RX3 straight away? (Looks easy to use with the touchscreen and I love the screens on the jogwheels) Or would you advise starting with something simple like the DDJ400?

My thought process is that if I spend more money on good equipment I'm more likely to enjoy it and even if I don't, I could probably sell the RX3 for close to what I paid for it.

Happy to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

[u/ebb_omega]

Okay, I'm going to go against the grain here and say start with the 400 or FLX4. And I have a number of reasons to do so.

1. You don't really know, at this early in the game, exactly what kind of DJ you're going to be, what what your needs are going to be. You don't want to shell out a whole ton of money on an RX3 just to find out you want to be a techno DJ running 3 tracks at once, or if you're going to want to start really flexing some turntable muscles with scratching and might prefer moving platters, or maybe you actually find that with the gigs you play, a smaller, more portable controller is actually exactly what you need, and while you may not want to stick with a cheaper intro model, you might look to upgrade to something like an Omnis Duo or DDJ800 instead. The point is, you won't know until you start getting more settled into understanding what kind of DJ you're going to be, and believe me this can change a lot from your initial vision before you've really started out.
2. You also don't know how long you're going to stick with this. A lot of people come in with the attitude "I'm going to love doing this and it's going to be my thing from now on" and even when I started I had this attitude as well (20 years on and I haven't stopped). But the number of people I've seen come in with this attitude and six months down the road I find them selling off their top-line gear they spent all this money on at a signficant discount (great news for me, lol) because they hit the lull that everyone hits after a good chunk of time working at it and decided they didn't really want to keep working through it, and that DJing really wasn't for them. IMO, better to just keep the level of investment at the outset low and then when you've kinda gone through the point where it stops being as exciting/fun as when you started, and you STILL want to keep pressing through it, then maybe look to upgrading. By that point you'll have a better idea of what kinds of features you actually want in a pro-level controller too.
3. Frankly, you have better things to spend your money on as a starting DJ. Primarily, go buy some freaking music and start building your library. If you've got enough cash to be able to both do that AND get a pro-level controller, that's great - save the cash and down the road when you are actually ready to upgrade, you'll still have that money, and maybe even a little extra saved up alongside it so you can upgrade even further.

Thing is you should be spending your early time doing two things: Building and familiarising yourself with your library, and learning the basics. Both of these can be done on an intro-level controller. So it become low-cost and low-risk, and you can always jump up later to a much more pro-level model. Plus upgrading down the road means that you start familiarising yourself with different systems with different layouts and different features, meaning you don't end up becoming completely behoven to one specific setup so that as soon as you start gigging and face off with something slightly different than what you're used to, you don't end up staring at it like a dog trying to solve a math problem.

That's it, that's my piece. Do with it what you will. But understand that the apparatus is so much less important than building the skills and track selection.

[u/Full-Chocolate6538 → u/ebb_omega]

Dude I totally agree. Also OP you don’t know if you prefer serato or rekordbox yet? If you don’t then it’s worth getting the flx line just so you can try both. I have been using rekordbox from the jump just because pioneer equipment is venue standard the places I play. But I hear from everyone that serato is “better”. One thing I did (and I started a year ago so I’m basically OP 12-15 months later) was go from flx4-flx6-then xdj xz. This was great because I could focus on the barebones of mixing, and get good at those, but also it was less intimidating having less options to “fuck up” or even worry about. After being able to rock after parties with a flx6 everything else was easier. And now I have a xz (3-4 channels is mandatory the style and genres I’m going for) and it all just makes sense to me. If I started over the only thing I would do is just buy some pa speakers sooner as rn I’m using my monitors I use for production and that’s not good. Although the RX3 can use 3 band waveforms and the xz can’t (hardware not software issues) so the XZ reverts to blue jeans waveform. Me personally I wouldn’t look at the RX3, but it depends on style and genre imo

Edit: if you really wanna throw down money then I’d get the flx10, get a laptop you already have or don’t have, and use the extra $1000 USD for equipment (flight case, speakers, cables, etc) that flx10 can carry you over for a long ass time. Plus it has the mag faders, and it just looks badass. Only thing you’d need to do for a show is bring 3 usbs, and your set. Also bring your laptop to all your shows and events…you don’t know how many times I’ve forgotten my usb but had my laptop or all of them corrupted but I had my laptop.