“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!
This is a question I get a lot from a lot of aspiring DJs that want to learn to DJ. When I sit down and think about the question it makes me laugh because there are so many things that go into succeeding as a DJ. Theres the style of music you play, your motivation for djing, your style, your cd, your marketing and promotions, how to build a following, how much you network, the dj equipment you choose and many other factors.
But if I had to break it down to one secret it would be this:
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“.
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.
I wanted to post this video as an example to help answer a question that I get asked a lot: What is a Re-edit? Different variations of this questions usually get thrown my way:
“What is the difference between a remix and a re-edit?”
“How do you do a re-edit?”
“Why do DJs re-edit?”
Its simple, a remix is where you take a track and completely rewrite it. A re-edit is where you take different pieces of the track and re-organize them as this crazy David Guetta video sort of illustrates.
For those of you that don’t know, the hip hop sample of the guy speaking “body moving….body moving….body moving” is from a Run DMC track from the early 90s. David guetta re-edits one of his favorite tracks Bodyrox – Yeah by dropping in this well known hip hop sample before “Yeah” kicks in. He isn’t mixing this in live….he edited this at home in the studio.
Of course the next question is, why would DJs want to re-edit a song? Its usually because they don’t like a certain part of a song but they like another part. So they cut the part they don’t like out and add more of the part they did. Or maybe they think a certain vocal would sound great over a grooving track so they’ll throw that in there during the break down. Or they want to make a song a little more interesting for the dancefloor by dropping in a sample from another popular track (as illustrated by David Guetta).
The top pro DJs in the world use re-editing a little differently though…
I was DJing in a Nighclub last night and a young guy came up and asked me what Dj Gear I was playing on. I showed him…. The Pioneer CDJ 1000s (dj cd players), the Pioneer DJM 600 and traktor DJ software.
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.
All I can say is that he is one intense DJ. I want to Learn To Dj like him!
—– Richie Hawtin’s DJ setup
Richie Hawtin is known for his love of new technology and currently employs a rather complicated setup to DJ with.
Anyone who has recently stood beside Richie in the DJ booth will no doubt have been scratching their heads because alongside an Allen & Heath Xone:92 mixer.
He also has two Allen & Heath Xone 92 mixer:1D controllers and two laptops running.
“You know I’m one of Richie’s closest friends and I’ve known him for years, but even I have absolutely no clue what he’s doing in the DJ booth,” says Jon Gaiser, one of Minus’ biggest artists.
If you have a friend thats a doctor, you might introduce him as Doctor so and so.
If you have a friend that is a lawyer, you might introduce him as so and so the lawyer.
People like to know what each other does for work.
This is usually great! A lot of times people want to know more. Others say that they have heard of me or seen me play before. There is a third group of people that don’t care, which I respect….
There is also a group of people that seem to always want to pull me into an argument about weather or not DJing requires any musical talent. I have learned over time to deflect these sorts of questions but the argument from my new “friend” usually is that DJing on turntables and a mixer takes way less musical skill than playing the guitar, the bass guitar or whatever ‘skill full’ instrument tickles their fancy… Read the rest of this entry »
1) How To DJ. Advice To Help You Learn How To DJ: How To DJ 2) Advice On DJ Lessons For Beginners: DJ Lessons 3) How To Be A DJ. Advice On How To Become A DJ: How To Be A DJ 4) A Review Of The Best Dj Games: DJ Games
