Yo Anon, if u serri-us bout doin the dj thing, u need Direct drive decks, NO belt drive, if u learn on them u´ll be abl 2 mix, but then th e1st time u play on good decks, i.e. technics 1200 or 1210s´, the power and crispness of the pickup on the plate will f*** u up evri time, so thers no point. So in my opinion, just knuckle up and buy the 1200 or 1210s´, they´re not cheap, but they are hardy, dont need to be serviced very often and can last practically 4eva, I gave my lil bro my old 1200´s, they took 7yrs of hard play, and he still butchers them tryin to be a dj evriday. They still nearly as crisp as the day i bought them. The new Vestax reversible decks are also very nice and fancy but even mor expensive and I´m a purist. Technics been rockin 4eva.
As to how long its gonna take to be good, depends entirely on u, if u hav talent u could be not bad in 2months if u practised evriday for at least 2 hours. Seriously practise is the only way to be good, Mzansi´s dj-god, Ready D, still practices at least an hour evriday, an he´s been at it mor than 10 yrs.
1 luv
