To record a mix in “the old days” you would have to get a funny and illusive rca to headphone jack cable from a store likeRadio Shack. Or you would have to buy a full on sound card to be able to record in stereo from rca to rca. Now the Pioneer DJM 350 makes it easier than ever to record a mix with a USB plug for that specific purpose.

Now as you mix you can record your mix as you go so that you can analyze your set to see how you can improve or even just double up a club set as a mix CD for your friends. The DJM 350 makes it even easier because there is a mark button on the mixer that allows you to set a chapter point where the mix will automatically be cut. This means that you will never have to edit a mix again.

Once your done your set you can burn it to a CD and the tracks will already be cut up!

The feature is also super handy for recording vinyls to MP3s for those records that you cant find an MP3 of online.

Pioneer REALLY scored with these new updates to the DJM 400! The DJM 350 is awesome!

(If you want to see how cheap and easy learning to DJ can be sign up for our newsletter by clicking HERE now

Well Laidback Luke walks you into his studio which is nothing more than a room in his family house with a small computer screen, a small keyboard and a Microphone. You get to see one of Luke’s unreleased tracks! Joachim Garraud, another superstar French DJ is behind the camera.

He plays off of his laptop so he doesn’t need DJ equipment at home. He doesn’t even use his speakers because he doesn’t want to wake his kids up at night. Luke one best DJ / Producer in 2008 and this is where he did it from!

So you don’t need a super fancy expensive setup. You don’t need every piece of DJ gear around. You don’t even need speakers to be the best DJ in the world…

Does this change your idea of what dj equipment a DJ needs to have?

Now for those of you that don’t know, Serato and Traktor are digital mixing systems that let you mix just off of your laptop or the conventional CDJs or turntables while still being able to play the MP3s off of your laptop.

So instead of explaining the differences myself I found a great walk through of the serato dj software and dj mixing system online.

You will also quickly realize after watching this video that DJs are really just technology nerds that somehow get mis-placed as cool…

DJ Beat Matching using serato scratch live
Cargado por Hak5Darren. – Descubre más videos de ciencia y hi tech.

I hope you enjoy this video on Serato. I will have some soon of Ableton Live and Traktor as well!

If the CDJ 1000s weren’t good enough (they’re the nightclub and music industry standard) These new CDJs take traditional DJ Mixing and digital djing with dj software to the next level. (To take your DJing to the next level sign up for our Dj training newsletter by clicking HERE now!)

This awesome piece of dj gear will store all of your music, it can play all of your music from USBs, SD cards, MP3 CDS and even DVDS. The 2000 works VERY well with ableton live and has built in controls to work smoothly with traktor and serato scratch live!

I just found this awesome dj video featuring the best piece of dj equipment on the market right now:

There is a new raised color screen that makes finding and skipping through songs so much easier! This CDJ 2000 even has its own sound card!

The combination of a Pioneer DJM 8000, HDJ 1000 dj headphones and the new Pioneer CDJ 2000s is unreal!

Last night I treated some friends and took them to the grand opening of a brand new club here in our city. Despite there being a MASSIVE line up outside of the nighclub, we all rolled right past the line.

I love getting my friends into nightclubs and hooking them up with free drinks. If you want to be able to do things like this as a DJ, sign up for free DJ Training Videos by clicking HERE right now!

After the grand opening we headed to another nightclub where Superstar DJ Joachim Garraud from France was Djing. Again, getting my crew past the massive line wasn’t an issue.

I thought it was going to be a solid night out at the nightclub where I would groove while watching the DJ and talk with djs in training with aspiring DJs at the club. I didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary.

I ended up getting BLOWN away by the DJ show that Joachim put on. The guy busted out this piano guitar (a DJ keyboard that was hung around his neck like a guitar) and started jamming out on it while he was mixing!

The crowd went nuts. Its so simple but its creative, fun and it takes DJing and DJ training to a whole other level.

While you’re learning to DJ, make sure that you get creative and take dj lessons on new instruments like a keyboard guitar!

It doesn’t matter weather you’re using DJ Gear like CDJs (dj cd players), vinyl turntables, dj software like ableton live, a digital and analog setup like traktor or serato. There are always opportunities to mix it up and learn to dj with different instruments.

To give you some idea of the possibilities for new DJs like you…..I’ve seen:
-DJs that sing while they dj
-DJs that play the flute
-DJs that play bongo drums.
-DJs that show up wearing ridiculous costumes
-DJs that rock the cowbell
-Djs that will bring their full production setup and create new tunes while they dj

The possibilities are endless. Do you have any cool ideas of different elements you can add to your DJing or that you think I should add to my DJ Training Courses?

Joachim takes the art of learning how to dj to the next level!

Keep rockin’ it!

A lot of you know me for my one line of advice that I always give when it comes to DJ Gear: Buy cheaper gear to start out with and spend the remaining money on building a music collection and educating yourself.

As with most things in life, there is one exception to the rule. This one piece of gear is essential to your DJing from day one. The piece of Dj equipment I am referring to is Dj Headphones. It doesn’t matter if you’re just learning to dj taking dj lessons or you’re already playing gigs, get a good pair of headphones. If you are just learning how to DJ, sign up for free DJ Lesson Videos by clicking HERE right now!

A good pair of DJ Headphones is essential for a number of reasons:
- You are going to spend hundreds of hours with them on your head in the studio and the dj booth. They have to be comfortable.
- You are going to beat the headphones up. They will be dropped, kicked, spilled on, stretched and pulled. They need to be sturdy to take this everyday DJ wear and tear.
- Some headphones put out a higher frequency. This high frequency damages your ears a lot more than a low end frequency. Buying a cheap pear of Iphone headphones and using them to DJ will leave your hearing spotty as you get older.
- Dj booths, studios and parties are loud environments where the DJ needs to hear what is in his headphone and not whats going on around him or her. You want to block out the noise around you at all costs so you can concentrate on a song or mix. Quality sound-blocking is a must for any DJ.
- They have to be flashy and look cool. You want people to know you’re the Dj right?!?!

The good news is that high quality DJ headphones aren’t that expensive (compared to most dj equipment) so they’re worth splurging for.

Here are the top three headphones recommended for comfort, durability, frequency, sound blocking and cool factor:

3) Allen & Heath XD53

These headphones look sick. They have incredible booming sound. They also have decent isolation but expensive they are super expensive which is the only reason why I don’t rank them higher. $276.00

2) Pioneer HDJ-1000 Pro DJ Headphones

The Pioneers have become the industry standard. They are lightweight, they have felxible ear cups and they sound great. Sound blocking is solid and they look awesome. I have a pair of these and you might want to look at picking them up too. $199.00

1) Sennheiser hd25

These headphones are incredible despite not looking like much. They were actually meant only for studio mixing by DJs have been flocking to them because of their incredible studio sound. They are lightweight have a strong but clear sound. They also offer the best sound blocking. Best of all, they are the only headphones where the parts are replaceable. You snapped off one of the ear pieces stepping on your headphones in the Dj Booth? No problem! You pulled out the cable from the headphones while DJing? No worries. You can buy new parts like ear pieces and cables and pop them back in. Pick up a pair of these bad boys before you sign up for dj lessons! $268

For more options on headphones and advice on other Dj equipment, sign up for the Learn To DJ Fast free DJ Lesson Videos by clicking HERE right now!

Lets be honest, nobody likes to see a DJ with his head stuck in a laptop up in the DJ booth. He might as well be checking his email or writing up his grocery list for after the gig!

You have to give programs like Ableton Live and Traktor DJ Studio credit. They are kickass pieces of DJ software that can do some pretty incredible stuff. Even just the ability to get the Dj Software to beatmatch for you opens up so many doors for your DJing. If you want to learn more about digital DJing, sign up for free DJ Lesson Videos by clicking HERE right now!

But the obvious downside was that all of this computer based software did not do well with the performance aspect of DJing…. until now.

Over the past few days I have seem some really cool pieces of software that really get the DJ involved. Take the video above for example.

A dj from Uruguay, Gustavo Bravetti, does an awesome job of demonstrating how creative you can get. He shows how you can use ableton live and Nintendo Wii controllers for your DJing.

So once you learn to dj (hopefully you’ve taken some dj lessons) get out there and have fun with it. Try different pieces of DJ gear. Try out Dj controllers. There are plenty of DJ Lessons for this sort of Djing!

I hope this helps!

“What dj equipment do you recommend I start with?”

This is a question I get asked daily from my Dj students. Its usually proceeded with “I have a budged of $xx and I’ve been told I should buy turntables or CDJs…”

While I have a FREE DVD coming out that will teach you everything you need to know about DJ Gear, let me give you the answer to this in a few words. In the meantime, you can learn a lot about DJ Gear through our Free video DJ Lessons. Get yours now by clicking HERE!

Don’t buy turntables if you are just starting out.
Don’t buy expensive CDJs (Pioneer CDJ 1000s – dj cd players).
Don’t buy a $2000.00 laptop

Most DJs that start out want to get the coolest pro DJ gear possible. This is a waste of money at the start because you will just be learning basic mixing techniques to begin with (cue & throw, beatmatching, pitch riding etc).

Instead of throwing away thousands on gear when you start, buy some cheap CDJs and a cheap mixer, or even better a DJ Software and digital controller package. These will be low cost solutions that you can learn mixing on quickly and easily.

The best part is that you will have tons of cash left over. Use this cash to build your music collection (which is most important) and to learn more about DJing by getting dj lessons or buying some programs (DVDs) to get you mixing better, to learn to promote yourself and to learn how to get big gigs!

Once you learn to dj and get some gigs or know for sure that you are eventually going to make it on to play gigs, then you can buy that $2000 dj mixer, Ableton Live dj software, DVDJs and enough effects units to make your head spin!

Do you guys agree?

So you want to Learn To Dj. Awesome!

Your mate that used to DJ says “go out and buy a pair of turntables and start learning to mix. You log onto the message forums and old school DJs say “buy turntables and learn the real art of DJing”.

You you want DJing advice, sign up for free DJ Lesson Videos by clicking HERE right now!

Here are the facts…. When the physical music industry fell apart 10 years ago, a lot of distributors went out of business. They owed the record labels a lot of money which they couldn’t pay so a lot of record labels also ended up going out of business. The distribution channels for vinyl records fell apart, so much so that 99% of labels stopped printing vinyl.

This is the number one reason why DJs stopped using Turntables. It wasn’t because records were too expensive. It wasn’t because vinyl was too heavy to lug around. DJs stopped playing on Turntables because they had nothing to play!

A lot of the DJs went against my advice and bought tables only to find out that they couldn’t find music to play! The only markets for buying vinyl were Ebay and local classified listing sites. Nightclubs too abandoned the turntables for dj cd players such as the Pioneer CDJ 1000s.

The great news for the die hard vinylists and for people that are learning to DJ is that you can now DJ with vinyl and have access to all of your favorite songs. The best of both worlds.

How is this possible….?!?!?!?

My friends, our savior is Serato SL 3. The DJ technology industry has gotten so good now that setups like Serato and Traktor can work well with real vinyl. You can have thousands of songs, as much as you can fit on your laptop, and can play them using the special timecoded vinyls that come with the Serato or Traktor setup. You can choose to buy just the software, the timecoded CDs for the CDJs or the timecoded vinyls as shown here:

In an earlier post called “Learning To DJ pays off…” you can see Superstar DJs Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano, and Loco Dice Djing using Searato with the cool looking white and red timecoded vinyl discs.

Over the last six months I have seen hundreads of DJs move back from playing CDJs or Ditital on dj software to using Serato to play on vinyl again.

Now you too can learn to dj with the feel and warmth of vinyl while still having access to all of your favorite songs!

Now get out there and rock it!

If you want to learn about DJ Gear, Mixing & Beatmatching or Playing Gigs, sign up for free DJ Lesson Videos by clicking HERE right now!

I asked him why he was curious about my gear and he said that it is because he is Learning To DJ and he had just bought his DJ equipment.

Naturally I asked what he bought and he told me the Pioneer DJM 800 dj mixer and the Pioneer CDJ 1000 dj cd players.

He said “I just started to learn to dj last week… “. I nearly fell out of the DJ booth and this is not the first time this has happened.

The reason why I almost had a Dj heart attack is because his dj equipment is worth over $5000 USD (…if he got a good deal). There is no reason to spend anything close to this when you are starting out.

If you are just beginning to DJ and have decided to buy gear, for the next few weeks or months (depending on how dedicated you are) you will be learning the basics of DJing. Cueing, throwing, beatmatching, blending, cutting, EQing, Dropping etc. All of these skills can be learned on a $100 mixer and two $200 dj cd players just as easily as on the $5000 setup that this young guy just bought.

No wait scratch that… You can learn the basics even FASTER on simple dj equipment as mentioned above ($100 mixer) because there are less extra features to learn. If you spend all of your time figuring out how to use effects and loops and other advanced features that come on a $5000 mixer, you won’t learn to mix as quickly as if you just focused on the basics first.

So here is what I recommend…

…start off with the cheapest set of DJ gear that you can find while still gear that isn’t going to fall apart on you. Learn the basics on a simple 2 channel dj mixer, basic CDjs or turntables (dj software is different because it is inexpensive and one program like Ableton Live) is all you need.

Spend your extra money on building your music collection and learning to mix. These are the things that will make you a good DJ, not the gear you play on. When you become a good DJ you will get a lot of gigs, be paid well and then buying expensive DJ Gear make sense!

Keep checking the email newsletter because I am about to release a FREE 45 min video explaining everything you need to know about DJ Gear and giving you recommendations on pieces of gear that can save you Thousands and get you mixing quicker!