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When my old record player died, I picked up one of these, the Numark PT01. It has a built-in speaker, and will run off of batteries, and it even has pitch and tone controls. Best of all, it's light and small :)

The artwork looks even better on the record covers, too. They do take up a lot of space though. I've long since given up keeping CD jewel cases.

I have had this: http://www.numark.com/index.html?http://www.numark .com/products/product_view.php?v=overview&n=5 , turntable for a year now to archive 78rpm and 331/3rpm albums and EP's using it's SPDIF connector. I have 2 separate Shure cartridges for each type of album and use Adobe Audition 2.0 to clean up the recordings. The turntable is built very well and came with a Straight-Arm, best for DJ's and S-Arm, best for recording. Back in the day I used to by my albums, play them once to record them on Cassette's, and put them away,so now I have quite a few pristine vinly albums. My parents 78's are in rougher shape and I need to use Bias's SoundSoap to help in the clean up. Still I can get very good fidelity after the restoration. If you have a sound card with SPDIF it's a better choice than USB.

Ooh, you'll love this then :-)

Besides, my local Guitar Center (same store, different name) requires me to give my address and phone if I want to use my debit card (for "security reasons"... yeah, right).

I also don't know how Linux compatible it is. It ships with a free copy of Audacity... A bit redundant, since Audacity's free software anyway.

Ah, well... I guess I'll have to borrow a friend's turntable and go direct to my audio card.

Get thee to your local community radio station! Often this is at the university or community college. Also look for dj groups/clubs that may exist. These are usually the best places to find easy to approach people who will readily share their experiences.

Depending on what kind of media you are planning on investing in, your equipment costs will vary. If you are mixing tunes for your own consumption then you would do well with just software on your own pc. Being able to pitch-shift is the only necessity in this case, you can compose the beat-matched tracks in audacity.

If you want to play at the local bar/dancehall or whatever, cd/mp3 mixers will work just as well as vinyl. A lot of dj's went this route, especially in genres like trance and house. There are even hard-drive turntables now. If you want to start delving into turntablism, then you might want to buy a pair a pair of decent turntables and a mixer.. MP3 + turntable combos like final scratch (etc) are definitely cheaper than vinyl in the long run, most 12" singles are ~$15 CDN. You could also do live PA, adding your computer and/or other audio gear into the mix. The possibilities are endless..

If you are going to buy gear, either buy really cheap used gear or buy expensive brand new gear. If you are wary of dropping the cash, then try renting or meeting someone who will teach you first, and see if there is a place where you can get consistant access. Basic consumer instinct is to buy cheap and then upgrade, but if you drop $2000 CDN on a decent set of decks you will be able to resell it at 80-90% of cost. Anything less than this or packaged as a starter kit will be difficult to sell and will probably only be bought in used condition at 20-30% of cost.

I've found the ability to split channels in my headphones really helpful. Mathematically it's just making sure the waves have the same wavelength/amplitude and are in phase.

Welcome to the wonderful world of mixing. The first thing you're going to need is gear. Absolutely essential are 2 good direct-drive turntables (direct drive is essential, belt-drive won't have nearly the torque you need). The industry standard is the Technics SL-1200 (the MK2 is the normal baseline model, the MK5G is an updated version with selectable +/- 8/16 % pitch adjust and updated styling). Some other acceptable models (which are themselves heavily influence by the 1200) are the Stanton ST-100 and STR8-100, the NuMark TT1600 and TTX series.

Now, I know you're saying "Turntables? Vinyl?!! Are these the dark ages here?" Well, the fact is that most dance music is released primarily to vinyl, for DJs just like you. The good thing is that, since LPs are an analog technology, incremental improvements in quality are possible without breaking compatibility. In fact, record mastering is an art which has advanced considerably even after the invention of the CD, and well-taken-care-of LPs played back with professional-quality cartridges blow the sound quality of CDs away. Believe it.

Speaking of cartridges, that brings us to the next set of kit. There are a wide range of pickup cartridges, ranging from $20 entry-level models to the superior Ortofon Concorde at over $100. Honestly, get the Concordes. The cartridge itself is extremely high quality and delivers amazing sound quality without distortion, and the actual needle tips are replaceable (for much less that the cost of new cartridges), and can even be swapped out with different styli for different purposes (ultra high-fidelity vs. scratching, etc.).

The next piece of gear is the mixer. Here's another area where there is a vast range in price. The extremely expensive models feature loads of inputs, multi-band equalizers, full banks of filters, several effects loops (and possibly some integrated effects), quadraphonic mixing, optical faders, and maybe even full-digital mixing. The truth is, you probably don't need all those feature while you're starting out. The important features you want are a seperate 3-band EQ on EACH CHANNEL, nice smooth (and user-servicable) faders, and maybe an adjustable curve on the cross-fader. I use a Stanton mixer with these features, and an optical scratch fader, and it set me back only about $250 new.

Now, I know I said earlier that Vinyl is the DJ's medium of choice. That has been the case for several decades, but to be perfectly honest, there ARE some viable alternatives now. Stanton's Final Scratch system is a pretty amazing box that plugs into your existing DJ setup and your PC, and allows the playback of MP3s which are controlled by real, physical specially-encoded Vinyl. There is a slight latency involved with playback of the special discs, which is fine for mixing and even light scratching, but more complex scratches aren't really possible. Even then, the system is truly amazing, and it hooks in with the excellent digital DJ software package Traktor from Native Instruments.

CD turntables are also a major new technology. This field was pioneered by Pioneer with their CDJ-1000. The first model featured a large mechanical jog wheel that can be used to manipulate CD tracks like Vinyl (the platter doesn't spin on its own however, so it is slightly more limited than Vinyl). Since the introduction of this product, Technics and NuMark have both introduced their own CD turntables with full 12" platters that actually rotate. If you must use CDs, there are some good options out there (be aware that they are very expensive, however).

OK, by now, you're presumably kitted out and you've bought a couple dozen records that you like. Now, h

This is surely a nice idea, i personally hate having to use my mouse when mixing music,

It's too bad no one's thought of a way around that...

but i think the magic questions will be : Just how functional is this? Is it going to have a lot of flashy bells and whistles and doodads, or is it going to be efficent?

They're marketing it to DJ's .. but I don't see how it would be all that great. Tactile control is very important, espessially in a dark club and when you're trying to be fast. Think about trying to type on a keyboard that you couldn't feel (like, try touch-typing on your desk). How accurate is that going to be? When you're DJing, tactile feedback helps a lot - you can grab a fader by touch, without having to look, or you can feel when you've hit the end of the slider.

Also a turntable manufacturer

Vinyl still has a massive hold on the DJ industry, but it's slipping... Just my 0.02.