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Hopefully, this page gives some useful information to anyone thinking of starting out as a DJ. Its quite a lengthy article so you may want to bookmark it and read it off-line. You can never find out too much, so look at all the websites you can find, and, more importantly speak to other DJ's. If you dont know any DJ's already, you should frequent your local disco equipment supplier, or indipendent record store, introduce yourself, and you'll be sure to meet loads people eager to give you advise. Not all of it will be good advise necessarily, But you should be able to tell whose full of shyte and whose the professional DJ... The first thing to do is to start building up your CD collection. I will refer to CD's throughout this article but at this point you should decide what medium you are going to be using. The choices are: CD - Most popular, Most versatile, Easiest to use and lots of choice regarding players. Use a decent quality professional twin player unless you can afford a pair of Pioneers! I use Numark and I really do rate them highly, but there are a lot to choose from. Vinyl - If you really want to mix and get into the club scene consider this. For mobile use it is only for purists because you dont always get a decent place to set up. I remember going to disco's when I was a kid and we all used to jump around like crazy when a decent tune came on... next thing the needle would go bouncing across the track and the DJ would be giving us a right bollocking! If you want to use it on the road, carry CD's as well, they are much less prone to jumping. MD - Minidisc is OK, but If your going to use this as your main format, bear in mind a profesional MD player is not cheap. I use a Household Sony Minidisc as backup but it is very restricting in comparison to my CD players, No pitch control, It wont stop automatically at the end of the track, No cueing facility.... need I go on. MP3 - A Professional DJ MP3 player with pitch control etc (ie PCDJ Red). If you are just starting out consider going down this road - It could be the way of the future, something like this WILL happen eventually, so why not get ahead of the opposition and start off as you mean to go on. Disadvantages would be having to set up a computer in addition to everything else, and also having to transfer everything onto MP3. You wont get far without a REALLY good knowledge of computers and dont forget if you want to stay within the law for EACH MP3 copy you have, you must be able to produce an original licensed recording like a CD or Record. I do have limited experience with regard to using MP3's, I use a laptop occasionaly but I wouldnt recomend it for extensive use. Use a proper PC, as the drives are more reliable. It doesnt need to be latest spec, about 1Ghz will do. Also you WILL need a quality soundcard with TWO STEREO outputs so that you can use a proper mixer. You can also use a controller which looks and acts just like a Professional twin CD player but apparently a lot of DJ's use a keyboard with the buttons relabelled! That would save you about £290! Another good idea also is to incorporate a removable hard drive cradle, and carry a spare hard drive in case of emergency. Above all make sure you have some sort of backup to cover any eventuality, a handy backup would be a CD walkman with MP3 capability, a hand full of discs would last you all night in an emergency! How many tracks you will need before you start DJ'ing will depend largely on what sort of work you want to do. If you are young you probably will want to start off performing for your own age group, which means you wont need too much apart from current chart stuff. Personally I carry about 400 CD's and some MD's as backup, but If you are just starting I would have thought you could get a fairly comprehensive collection on about 200 CD's. You can save space these days by making up your own Compilation albums if you have a CD writer. Again make sure you can produce originals if challenged. Having decided which way you want to go and started to build up a collection the next step is to get your CD players and a mixer. I have already talked about CD players (or whatever format you eventually decided on...). There is an infinite choice, visit your local supplier, you'll find them in the phone book, and see what they have to offer. They should be able to let you try out several different models to see which you prefer. You may also be able to visit a DJ show like PLASA before you buy. PLASA takes place every September at Earls Court, EVERY major manufacture is there and you can try all there products. There may be other smaller shows at various places around the country, your local supplier should be able to advise you if there are any in your area. Next you need a mixer. If you are only using two players or decks, a small 2-channel mixer may be sufficient. If you need more channels however you may need to consider a 19" mixer with usually between 6 and 10 channels. Sound quality will vary as well as the number of features. Talking about features, extra features are only useful if you are actually going to use them. I have a 24 second sampler on my mixer - I havn't used the damn thing for about 2 years! Some of the other features I use constantly though, like individual bass/mid/treble for each channel, asignable crossfade, and a stereo/mono switch. Kill Switches and Punch Buttons are features I think I would use if my mixer had them! Think about what you will need and talk to your supplier or other DJ's for further advise. Crossfaders wear out if you use them, on some mixers you can replace them in a couple of seconds... others need to be sent away to the workshop. Once you have your players and your mixer, and a pair of headphones as well, you are ready to set them up plugged into your HiFi and get practising. You need to know your mixer inside out as well as be able to mix two track's together with some sort of fluidity. An ideal mix should be seamless but I'm not going to teach you how to do that. There are a few other sites giving good instruction on mixing for beginners, that is a whole new topic in itself. I can beat-match and stuff, but for the sort of work I do, its not really required so to be honest I dont bother that often. What you need to get used to is what goes together and what doesn't. That way you'll know when you can just mix two tracks into each other and when you've got to pick the microphone up and talk your way through it. You will need to recognise when the beginning of a track is not suited to the dance floor and be able to set a cueing point some way into the track. Thats where your professional CD players start to come into there own, as you can wind the cue point back and forth just like on a turntable. Cutting out the duff bit at the beginning of some tracks will make the difference between the dance floor staying right there or heading for the bar! Practice makes perfect and if you want to be good you have to practice, practice and practice. And then you have to practice some more... When you are performing in front of a crowd it needs to be second nature... you will make mistakes, but if your quick enough to rectify them you will probably be the only one to notice! As a last resort you've always got your microphone so think of a whole load of phrases that you can run off in an emergency... And dont forget that whilst your gobbing your way through your spiel you've got to be frantically cueing up another CD at the same time! At this stage it would be really useful if you could go along with another DJ as a roadie, you'll gain valuable experience without being in a position to be making any mistakes. Talk to as many people as you can and ask questions! Most DJ's love showing off about there gear and will be only too happy to tell you all about it! Okay, so you've
got almost 200 CD's, your got your twin CD player, and
you've practised so much you've already had to replace
your first crossfader on your mixer. As for lights... Spend as much as you like. The old light screens are about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Some people use them to "hide there wires" and stuff but if your worried about that get someone to knock you up an illuminated box with the name of your show on the front and use that. All your lighting needs to be up in the air, on stands, so that people can see them when the dance floor is full. You'll need a fog machine in order to enhance the effect of your lights, and you can start off with just 2 or 3 cheap effects like Twisters.. A good old mirror ball is a lot of effect for not much money and you'll get enough light coming back off it for you to see what your doing. If your entertaining teenagers they'll expect a strobe but otherwise dont bother, and I find it useful to have some par-cans or pinspots as they give a visual effect even when you havn't got the fog going. (There will be times when you are absolutely forbidden to use fog!) Apart from that have a look around and see what tickles your fancy... Your supplier will be able to demonstrate any lighting your interested in, or again try and get to PLASA if you can! Theres a few other things you want to be thinking about... Several extension leads and some 4-way trailing sockets are a must, as is an RCD safety adapter. You should protect your most expensive gear with suitable cases, These can be quite dear but if you need to cut corners there are short-cuts. I used old Melon boxes for CD cases for the first 6 months. And I built most of my other cases myself, you can buy all the components to make proper flightcases if you are that way inclined. You should consider some Public Liability Insurance (PLI) and if you've just spent a fortune on your gear you may want to insure that too. That might cost you a bit though. Get some suitable transport sorted out, and be prepared for your motor insurance to go up about 500% when you tell them your a part time DJ. As for Public Performance Licence (PPL), its easy to assume the venue sorts all that out, and in most cases they do. There are exception's though... possibly Schools, Church halls, and anything outside is suspect. If in doubt check! All you need now is your first booking... You probably wont get paid much (If at all) for your first one, if its for someone you know. You may want to offer to do a Friday night in your local pub, or if your more ambitious ask one of the DJ's you've gotten friendly with to refer anything short notice to you, there's always some desperate soul whose been let down or forgotten to book a disco and there ringing around frantically trying to find someone whose free. Initially you will probably get most of your bookings from other more established DJ's and if you've practised like I told you then you'll soon establish yourself a good reputation and hey presto! in no time at all you won't remember what it's like to have a free Saturday night! Okay then, that
should have given you something to think about, If I've
forgotten 'owt please dont hold me liable, I just typed
this into the PC strait off the top of my head. If there
is one last piece of advise for me to give you it is BE
PROFESSIONAL. Its easy to get a good reputation if you
use a bit of common sense... Its even easier to get a bad
reputation if you rush in without a thought for your
customers. Good Luck....
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