Bit of beginners help please.

[Joshoshanna]

I have just bought a couple of cdj100's and an access 2 mixer with no real intentions of taking it beyond the bedroom. I enjoy my music and am enjoying having a play around on them. Just a couple of things I would like to know before i waste money and time;

What is the most common/best way to label cd's, so far iv just burnt around 10 tracks per cd from my itunes and printed off name and artist, cd's are categorised as artist or genre and iv got the date on them... Should I add anything else or is there a better way to go about it?

I have got 'traktor dj studio 3' on my laptop, is there a way to connect it to the mixer? Should i bother, or wait until I learn on cd's...

Where do you guys get your songs? I love anything, from minimal to funk to fidget.

At the moment I just have the mixer plugged into an ipod dock, should I buy an amp and speakers or a stereo or a ........ Note: I'm studying and poor.

I am also keen to try out vinyl, could i just plug the turntable into my current mixer after removing one of the cdj's?

If anyone could answer any of these questions it would be awesome.
thanks

[talio93]

1) You can label your CD's any way you want. Personally, I have one track per CD. With the Track Name, Artist, and key of track (which you might wanna add, if you wanted to harmonically mix your music) I know that lots of people use have the same method as you, so its really your choice!
2) Not sure about "Traktor DJ Studio 3"... but chances are someone else will deff know.
3) You can buy tracks from websites like beatport and the like. I use beatport because it's easy to browse and it has an amazing selection.
4) It's up to you whether you wanna buy speakers. If you think you'll be going around and doing parties you could get some powered speakers. Or if you just wanna stay you could get studio monitors.
5) Yes, if you get turntables then you can plug them into your mixer the same way you do the CDJ's..



EDIT: look around this forum..has much more in depth answers than what i gave you!

[Matty_neal]

Label cd's the way you want. I burn a few songs per cd (usually fill it) and write the songs / key on the front. A lot of the time I"ll just label it as "progressive low key" and I remember the tracks that way.

Research traktor online first.

Beatport.com for music.

For your setup, invest in some logitech computer speakers. You can get a pair of Z-4's for around $99 and they pump for the price. They'll do the job but if you want something serious, look at some studio monitors. There's a thread on this somewhere here.

Yes you can, vinyl is an expensive hobby tho...

[Bracko]

I have just bought a couple of cdj100's and an access 2 mixer with no real intentions of taking it beyond the bedroom. I enjoy my music and am enjoying having a play around on them. Just a couple of things I would like to know before i waste money and time;

What is the most common/best way to label cd's, so far iv just burnt around 10 tracks per cd from my itunes and printed off name and artist, cd's are categorised as artist or genre and iv got the date on them... Should I add anything else or is there a better way to go about it?

I have got 'traktor dj studio 3' on my laptop, is there a way to connect it to the mixer? Should i bother, or wait until I learn on cd's...

Where do you guys get your songs? I love anything, from minimal to funk to fidget.

At the moment I just have the mixer plugged into an ipod dock, should I buy an amp and speakers or a stereo or a ........ Note: I'm studying and poor.

I am also keen to try out vinyl, could i just plug the turntable into my current mixer after removing one of the cdj's?

If anyone could answer any of these questions it would be awesome.
thanks

www.beatport.com
www.djdownload.com

are two great places for music.

traktor 3... you really should buy your software, if you did, then you'll have a manual...

speakers... you can buy small media speakers from companies like M-Audio or samson who make great speakers... these will be small, but have a decent crisp sound.

vinyl, yes you can just buy a turntable and you don't even need to unplug the CD player. most if not all mixers have "phono" inputs and "line in" inputs... the former is for turntables, the latter is for CD players and outputs from sound cards/other equipment.

hope this helps, there are a lot of questions there though

p.s. you also should search this forum, there's a fair bit of info already here.

[Joshoshanna]

Thanks for the help, yeah i have been having a look around. I might look into traktor when i've got my head around cds. I just became a beatport member so will have a look around there aswell. I think I will buy a shitty turntable and a couple of records and see how I go, although I'm sure thats been said before. :)

[johnjay]

^ hey dont buy a shitty turntable

buy the best

it will more then likely be cheaper second hand then the shitty one u will get but you will be able to sell it for more then what you buy it for if you get it at a good price and decide you dont want it anymore

You can get one for $400 second hand, thats the street price


technics 1200 mk11

hope that helps

[Spicy]

yeah don't buy a shitty turntable. you can get away with shit CDJs but turntables are a different story.

regarding traktor DJ 3 -- it can be definitely hooked up to an external mixer. you might have to fiddle around a bit, depending on how many stereo outputs your sound card might have. (if it has at least 2 you're sweet). just set up Deck A to output 1 on your soundcard, Deck B to output 2. now plug output 1 to channel 1 on your mixer, and output 2 to channel 2. done :) the outputs will be labelled differently depending what soundcard you have so just check em out. i can't remember exactly how that's done in the preferences because that software is now like 6 or 7 years old haha. maybe look for something called output routing or some crap like that.

your soundcard probably has more than 2 outputs even if it's one of those 'faux surround sound' types.

hope this can start you off :thumb:

[TwoThirdsMajority]

I have just bought a couple of cdj100's and an access 2 mixer with no real intentions of taking it beyond the bedroom. I enjoy my music and am enjoying having a play around on them. Just a couple of things I would like to know before i waste money and time;

What is the most common/best way to label cd's, so far iv just burnt around 10 tracks per cd from my itunes and printed off name and artist, cd's are categorised as artist or genre and iv got the date on them... Should I add anything else or is there a better way to go about it?

I have got 'traktor dj studio 3' on my laptop, is there a way to connect it to the mixer? Should i bother, or wait until I learn on cd's...

Where do you guys get your songs? I love anything, from minimal to funk to fidget.

At the moment I just have the mixer plugged into an ipod dock, should I buy an amp and speakers or a stereo or a ........ Note: I'm studying and poor.

I am also keen to try out vinyl, could i just plug the turntable into my current mixer after removing one of the cdj's?

If anyone could answer any of these questions it would be awesome.
thanks

1.Label them based on the name of the artist, title of the song, BPM and maybe in keys.

2.Sorry, not much of a Traktor user. However, research the Traktor forums for more info

3.Beatport, DJDownloads, The Pirate Bay, Coda.fm. The latter two might get you into trouble though.

4.You can use a normal PC speaker! Try and find this RCA adapter:
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c263/wh3ng/CC399FM_LR.jpg
And you're ready to go!

[bulldozer]

1.Label them based on the name of the artist, title of the song, BPM and maybe in keys.

2.Sorry, not much of a Traktor user. However, research the Traktor forums for more info

3.Beatport, DJDownloads, The Pirate Bay, Coda.fm. The latter two might get you into trouble though.

4.You can use a normal PC speaker! Try and find this RCA adapter:
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c263/wh3ng/CC399FM_LR.jpg
And you're ready to go!

don't recommend these you fuckwit! :slap:

[slackas]

The Pirate Bay, Coda.fm.

don't recommend these you fuckwit! :slap:

[Teknikall]

Beatport, DJDownloads, The Pirate Bay, Coda.fm.

Don't reccomend these you fuckwit.

[RohanP]

hang on.. did i just experience deja vu?

[Spicy]

The Pirate Bay, Coda.fm.poor form dude.

[TwoThirdsMajority]

Don't reccomend these you fuckwit.

NO! I will not bow to The Man!

[Teknikall]

NO! I will not bow to The Man!
Bow down to The Man you fuckwit

[Spicy]

do you like ripping people/artists off? reminds me of nick fisher.

[slackas]

now, u will bow over for the man....


the time will come motherf*cker....

[TwoThirdsMajority]

do you like ripping people/artists off? reminds me of nick fisher.

Maybe i do like rip people/artists off. But to me, it depends on the genre or person.

TO be honest, sites like The Pirate Bay are excellent at finding rare/unknown tracks for burning to CD. If i were to find an original '12 Extended version of an Oldskool Rave Track which is only available on vinyl, i'd go to TPB to find an mp3 version of it. It's that simple.

If i were to pay the producer/artist, i'd do the following:

1.Buy his/her vinyls on Discogs

and/or

2.Pay to see his/her gigs.

It's simple.

Why should i pay the artist only 9cents for a song if i could pay him/her 50$ buying a ticket for his/her gig?

More bands, artists and DJs should rely more on gigs and PR rather than album sales. With the rise of the Internet and the popularity of free-based music thanks to Girl Talk, Radiohead and NIN, people should stop sitting his ass off and just go to concerts, raves or gigs to repay the bands/artists/ DJs

[trouble hifire]

^^ so what your saying is your happy to make money off other peoples talent without paying any respect to them at all?

i hope someone stabs you in the face for being a cheap c*nt and not paying the dollarsomething for a song.

its pieces of shit like you that are killing the ability for new producers to get signed.

[TwoThirdsMajority]

^^ so what your saying is your happy to make money off other peoples talent without paying any respect to them at all?

i hope someone stabs you in the face for being a cheap **** and not paying the dollarsomething for a song.

its pieces of shit like you that are killing the ability for new producers to get signed.

Listen to what Trent Reznor has to say:

http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?30,767183,767183#msg-767183

Infact, i'm a producer too. But you know what? I give my tracks and remixes free just for the sake of it. Infact, like i said:

I PAY PRODUCERS/MUSICIANS BY GOING TO THEIR GIGS!

And i respect producers for their ability to make good music, but did i study the contemporary music business module and the fact that as a producer, 20% of your royalty goes to the RIAA/ARIA. Imagine getting 99 cents for a track on iTunes, but when you took away 20% of that and give it to the RIAA/ARIA, you'll get like what, 40 cents?

It's also a reason why i'm a supporter of the FAC: www.featuredartistscoalition.com

To me, in this climate, live music is much more profitable these days than recorded music. Simple as really.

[slackas]

FUCK TRENT REZNOR, he didnt get rich because of cheap fucks like you...

[trouble hifire]

^^ good call slackas.

to me that sounds like a bullshit excuse for being a cheap cu*t and downloading tracks intead of putting in the hard work and finding them.

if you want some old hardcore track that is only on vinyl then buy the record for fucks sake. i own a bunch of old hardcore records that you could never find on MP3 (unless they were pirated verions) but i have enough respect for the artist to pay for the record.

it also looks a little redundant being a member of FAC, they are all about protecting the artist by giving them more control over the profits of their music when you are happy to rip them off.

you say you give away tracks for free because people would pay more to come and see you? sounds to me like no one wants to come and see you by your post history and they definately wouldn't pay money for the show considering you are always complaining about people giving you shit.

oh and one last point, it seems you are far more motivated by money then you are by music, imo you are in this for the wrong reasons.

[TwoThirdsMajority]

^^ good call slackas.

to me that sounds like a bullshit excuse for being a cheap cu*t and downloading tracks intead of putting in the hard work and finding them.

if you want some old hardcore track that is only on vinyl then buy the record for fucks sake. i own a bunch of old hardcore records that you could never find on MP3 (unless they were pirated verions) but i have enough respect for the artist to pay for the record.

it also looks a little redundant being a member of FAC, they are all about protecting the artist by giving them more control over the profits of their music when you are happy to rip them off.

you say you give away tracks for free because people would pay more to come and see you? sounds to me like no one wants to come and see you by your post history and they definately wouldn't pay money for the show considering you are always complaining about people giving you shit.

oh and one last point, it seems you are far more motivated by money then you are by music, imo you are in this for the wrong reasons.

Okay, you win. Whatever.

And yes, maybe it has to do with money. But in the end of the day, you do have to pay bills and clean the swimming pool.

An guess what?

I do buy Vinyl.

LOTS

AND

LOTS

OF VINYL.

There. Happy?

[slackas]

why not just buy less music, taking more effort to choose decent tracks...

rather than pirating music and buying the tracks u cant find on torrent sites...

[pomrocks]

no, fuck off

[Pro Tool]

So you're a music pirate who's justified it by convinving yourself that you're doing the composer a favour by not buying their music because the 'system' is unfair? Because some already famous and loaded non-dance music guy made an argument that supports his situation? So you even know what RIAA/ARIA pays for? Do you know what APRA is? Are you retarded?

You're a pirate. Nyer. I don't doubt that you're a 'producer' but I'm guessing a fairly unspectacular one to be so gung-ho about being a pirate. No doubt you give your stuff away - would anyone buy it? Getting people to pay for music is harder than burning a CD and giving it to a few mates.

[macc4]

Okay, you win. Whatever.

And yes, maybe it has to do with money. But in the end of the day, you do have to pay bills and clean the swimming pool.

An guess what?

I do buy Vinyl.

LOTS

AND

LOTS

OF VINYL.

There. Happy?

no, all the promo shots on your myspace show cdj200's or 100's

No vinyl dj in their right mind would be caught in such a photo

There is no mention of vinyl

[slackas]

pics of stfu

[TwoThirdsMajority]

why not just buy less music, taking more effort to choose tracks...

rather than pirating music and buying the tracks u cant find on torrent sites...

I'm a bit of a music aficionado. I love listening to almost anything that could expand my tastes.

When my late uncle died in 1999, i inherited his vinyl collection. Listening to all of them, it changed how i view music and i decided to buy alot of tracks on CD and Vinyl and Download from Napster.

Ever since 2007, i only do two things: download and vinyl.

Yesterday, i bought an LP of David Guetta's When Love Takes Over and Carole King's Going for Myself.

[TwoThirdsMajority]

no, all the promo shots on your myspace show cdj200's or 100's

No vinyl dj in their right mind would be caught in such a photo

There is no mention of vinyl

At home.

[slackas]

p.s. just so you know, trent reznor doesnt condone piracy...

[macc4]

mentioning napster after defending your piracy issues was bad taste

[Spicy]

:lol: TTM, i don't know if you're trying to mock me here, or just joking/fakeposting, but it's obvious you don't have a clue about any of the shit you just vomited.

If i were to pay the producer/artist, i'd do the following:

1.Buy his/her vinyls on DiscogsFYI the discogs marketplace is for SECOND HAND VINYL which means the artist doesn't get a single cent. but on their behalf i would still like to thank you for enjoying their records! the thought counts too.Why should i pay the artist only 9cents for a song if i could pay him/her 50$ buying a ticket for his/her gig?because what happens if you don't go and see his/her gig? and it's not actually 9 cents per song unless they are getting ripped off. usually it's quite a bit more than that depending on the agreement. and the more people buy their tracks, the more the artists will be happy to write them, because he/she could have just bought a new piece of gear, THANKS TO YOU! (well not you directly TTM because you're a loser music pirate who doesn't want to help)

i wholeheartedly agree with all of Pro Tool's sentiments.

don't be a fool! buy your tunes, and help the guys you love make the music you love .. THE POWER IS YOURS!

[WADZA]

I'm a bit of a music aficionado.

Yesterday, i bought an LP of David Guetta's

huh?

[talio93]

NO! I will not bow to The Man!

sounds like you have a bad case of "stickittodaman...iosis" ahhhh school of rock :P

i buy all my EDM.. but if i ever needed to download some lady gaga or britney for a gig..i would have no hesitation in not buying it... purely because i have no respect for them and i think they're music is shite.

ps. lol at wadza :lol:

[pomrocks]

huh?

well played :lol:

[Pro Tool]

I saw David Guetta on Miss Universe. He's awesome. I'd deffo pirate his shit for sure. The way he waved his arms in the air, pretended to twiddle the knobs on the mixer and I bet he copped a feel of Ms Venezuela out the back.

And i respect producers for their ability to make good music, but did i study the contemporary music business module and the fact that as a producer, 20% of your royalty goes to the RIAA/ARIA. Imagine getting 99 cents for a track on iTunes, but when you took away 20% of that and give it to the RIAA/ARIA, you'll get like what, 40 cents?


And that's just so unfair. So I'm not going to give you anything.

Zeppelin say

http://personal1.iddeo.es/aol000zb/zep/img/bio/swansong_2_big.jpg

[JRSM]

I am so surprised at the general level of shock.
I mean, he is from Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia.
Not exactly famous for strictly upholding Copyright.

[Joshoshanna]

Thanks for the help, excuse my ignorance but could someone tell me what a 'key' is, in regards to putting it on my cd covers. Also how can i find out the bpm of songs.? i tried through itunes and it worked for about 1% of songs and i would question the accuracy, not that i am in any position to do so. I might save the turntable for a wealthier day, I am saving for overseas.

I am having a fair bit of difficulty beat matching songs without the beats per minute, is it something that i should keep practicing and it will come? Struggling to figure out which song is going too fast and which is going too slow.

Thanks again for the help

[macc4]

Disregard any advice you have been given so far, and learn to beat match.
It might take a month, it might take 3 years.

Correct labeling of cd's is of no use or benefit to developing these skills and your time is better spent learning these basic skills.

[JRSM]

yep. practice. it'll come quicker than you may think.

i dont know much about mixing in key, but it is to do what key the track is written in. so, if you have any musical knowledge (something i lack), some examples being A minor, G Major, F sharp Minor - the list goes on. basically you dont want to mix two tracks that are written in very different keys, because it will probably sound like shit. if you are just starting, forget about keys for now. learn to beat mach and experiment with different tracks.

if i want to get a rough approximation of the BPM of a track i just use:

http://www.all8.com/tools/bpm.htm

and tap to the beat.

[Joshoshanna]

Ok sweet will stick at it, i've only had them working since sunday. i suppose in this regard the 100's will stop me from taking the shortcuts i would take with better decks. Gotto be a bit frustrating when people just press sync on a computer though?? A friend who organises a monthly night said I can have a play at their next one though i don't think i will be comfortable by then, particularly after seeing the level of analysis some people can give. I am lending the gear to a friend for her party on saturday so might have a go there though.
cheers guys:)

[talio93]

^ yeahh might wanna hold up on that... it's better to be confident with your ability.

you might wanna cover up the BPM counters on your CDJ's. This will really let your ears get more accustomed to matching beats.

and last but certainly not least. Practice Practice Practice!

i've only been DJing for about a year. And i can still say i have A LOT of things that i can improve on.
you can always get better!

EDIT: the monthly night thing.. not the friends party. It's great if you have a mix at her party, good experience to get in front of people!

[GrEnNo]

Yesterday, i bought an LP of David Guetta's When Love Takes Over.

get out..........GTFO......NOW!!!!!

[Bracko]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

cheese track is cheese.




if i liked that music I'd steal it too...

[DJ-Transonic]

if i ever needed to download some lady gaga or britney for a gig..i would have no hesitation in not buying it... purely because i have no respect for them and i think they're music is shite.
+1

[Rogan Josh]

Maybe i do like rip people/artists off. But to me, it depends on the genre or person.

The thing is that many pirated / blogged mp3s have pretty fucked up levels.
& by that I mean 320 bitrate ones.
Drag a few into your DAW of choice & you'll see.

So the likes of Beatport & Juno are the way to go.

Oh & btw, placing Obama's inauguration speech over Passion by Gat Decor doesn't mean you're a 'producer', it means you dl'ed a cracked copy of Acid Pro.

[Rogan Josh]

Thanks for the help, excuse my ignorance but could someone tell me what a 'key' is, in regards to putting it on my cd covers. Also how can i find out the bpm of songs.? i tried through itunes and it worked for about 1% of songs and i would question the accuracy, not that i am in any position to do so. I might save the turntable for a wealthier day, I am saving for overseas.

I am having a fair bit of difficulty beat matching songs without the beats per minute, is it something that i should keep practicing and it will come? Struggling to figure out which song is going too fast and which is going too slow.

Thanks again for the help

If you're still keen there's a program called Mixed in Key that generates a track's key & bpm, about 95% accurately. & the earlier versions are free to download. Just ignore the Pete Tong endorsements, it's actually pretty good :thumb:

[DJ-Transonic]

If you're still keen there's a program called Mixed in Key that generates a track's key & bpm, about 95% accurately. & the earlier versions are free to download. Just ignore the Pete Tong endorsements, it's actually pretty good :thumb:

Where can I get these free earlier versions that you speak of?

[Rogan Josh]

Hmm I could of sworn the stripped-down earlier versions were freebs as they're trying to flog version 4 now, which I have.
Maybe I'm thinking of something else.

It's $50 US if you think that's a wise buy. & it's pretty handy, you can get it to scan your entire music collection & rename the tracks with bpms / keys.

Otherwise this is free & uses the same algorithms, although apparently looks like a camel's ass. http://www.mixshare.com/wiki/doku.php?id=rapid_evolution

[DJ-Transonic]

^^

Does it do the same job tho?

[Rogan Josh]

So these guys say.

http://www.beatmixed.com/2006/05/14/mixed-in-key/

[b0rna]

Personally, I have one track per CD.
Just wondering, is there a specific reason why you do this? You would have to burn a lot more CDs :?

[slackas]

Just wondering, is there a specific reason why you do this? You would have to burn a lot more CDs :?

so hard to burn a CD...

Much easier to search when they are burned one track per cd in order of Label then BPM... Or if your a house dj, Key then BPM :D

ask yourself a question, which gig will a play at will require more than 320 tracks?? (standard large CD wallet)

[bulldozer]

Imagine getting 99 cents for a track on iTunes, but when you took away 20% of that and give it to the RIAA/ARIA, you'll get like what, 40 cents?

mathsfail

[talio93]

Just wondering, is there a specific reason why you do this? You would have to burn a lot more CDs :?

find it MUCH easier than having 10 tracks on one CD. Then having to flip through them on my CDJ's. I find the song i want i know it's the only song on that CD, which makes things a whole lot easier for me.

Plus i have a pretty small collection of tunes seeing as a only started out less than a year ago. But i'm probably gonna buy Torq before the end of the year. Which will pretty much mean my CD burning days are over!

[Spicy]

Which will pretty much mean my CD burning days are over!sir, that is a Godsend if there ever was one!

AWAY WITH CD'S!

[RobCinch]

Thanks for the help, excuse my ignorance but could someone tell me what a 'key' is, in regards to putting it on my cd covers. Also how can i find out the bpm of songs.? i tried through itunes and it worked for about 1% of songs and i would question the accuracy, not that i am in any position to do so. I might save the turntable for a wealthier day, I am saving for overseas.

I am having a fair bit of difficulty beat matching songs without the beats per minute, is it something that i should keep practicing and it will come? Struggling to figure out which song is going too fast and which is going too slow.

Thanks again for the help

Keep practicing and do not rely on BPM counters, what happens when you use a deck without them or your playing something obscure that doesn't register?


so hard to burn a CD...

Much easier to search when they are burned one track per cd in order of Label then BPM... Or if your a house dj, Key then BPM :D

ask yourself a question, which gig will a play at will require more than 320 tracks?? (standard large CD wallet)


Oh dear... waste of space IMO - I have as many as I can fit on one CD, then I burn a 2nd copy of that CD (in case the next track I want to spin is on that CD or the CD fucks up)

My colletion goes with me everywhere - 3 CD Wallets covering everything from Funk, Breaks, Broken Beats, House, DnB, Hip Hop & Club RnB... I don't understand how a DJ can turn up to a gig with only 20 tracks, how do you know what will work? you need room for a direction change if it's needed...
Before CDPlayers my record bag was packed full every gig - squeezed 120 records into a 100 capacity bag to ensure I had a good range of music

[slackas]

^ so the answer is yes you wont need more than 320 cds :lol:

I dont play mainstream anymore, so i dont need to cover other genres...

people come to see my genre :D

[ballistix]

NO! I will not bow to The Man!

what the fuck is wrong with you?
"not bowing down to the man" means not buying overpriced operating systems - pirating Microsoft Windows, fine, I don't have a problem with that.

Paying a couple of dollars to a small time dance music artist who is TRYING TO MAKE A LIVING off selling his tracks (which you are apparently so 'passionate' about) is not a big request. You say that you support the artist by going to his/her gigs - do you go to as many gigs compared to how many tracks you steal? A lot of the artists don't even get gigs you fuckwit.

You are DJ'ing for all the wrong reasons, you have no clue how the dance music industry operates, and you should fucking kill yourself because you're detrimental to society and ESPECIALLY to the dance music scene.

[macc4]

I am really saddened by the fact that dj technology has literally been reduced to the conservation of burning/carrying cd's

Fucking dimwits

[mcdoofus]

I am really saddened by the fact that dj technology has literally been reduced to the conservation of burning/carrying cd's

Fucking dimwits

Oh please :violins:

[b0rna]

Ah, I get you.

Another thing, I know many DJs that use the CDJ400 but use CDs even though the CDJ400 has a USB port... and they have USBs and portable hard drives.

Why don't they use USBs and chuck every single song on the USBs and they wouldn't have to flick through CDs at all and swap them over. What are the downsides of the USBs rather than CDs?

[macc4]

Ah, I get you.



you are familiar with Generic Observational Trolling (GOT) techniques?

I believe it takes longer for the cdj to read a usb stick, but that would probably depend on how many files are on the stick