DJ GEAR: AN IN-DEPTH GUIDE

Welcome to our in-depth DJ Gear guide! This article is designed to help any budding DJ discover what equipment is on the market, which should hopefully help you to decide what gear is best for you.

The topic will be divided into four separate articles, looking at vinyl turntables, CD decks, DJ mixers, and mixing with software and controllers. Each sub-article will aim to look at the advantages and disadvantages of each mixing method, as well as recommending products for beginners, intermediate DJs and professionals. If you have any questions after reading, then feel free to leave comments and I will be happy to give my advice. Just remember that these articles were written in March 2012 and new DJ products are being introduced all the time, so click here to view our up-to-date range of DJ gear stock!

Oh, and if you're interested in learning more about a fairly new way of DJing, using your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad, click here to read our iOS DJ round-up!

Links to all the DJ Gear sub-articles will be provided at the bottom of this page, as and when they are uploaded. Enjoy!

INTRODUCTION

Entering the world of DJing has never been so complicated! It wasn’t long ago that if you wanted to play records to people, you really only had one option; to purchase a pair of turntables and a mixer and put needle to vinyl! The only thing that you had to consider was what quality of turntable (belt drive or direct drive) and mixer you wanted (which was usually dictated by your budget), whether you wanted equipment that was more suited to scratching or club mixing and perhaps how jazzy you wanted your slipmats and needles to look (‘what’s a slipmat’ I hear you youngsters asking!) You could even be confident that pretty much any club you would be playing in would have similar equipment, which was a pair of rock-solid Technics turntables! How times have changed…

If you are thinking about DJing nowadays, there is a whole lot more that you have to consider! Do you want to keep it traditional and stick to mixing with vinyls? Would you prefer to mix with CDs? If so, do you want an all-in-one CD unit or do you want two separate CD decks and a mixer? Some CD decks even allow you to plug in a USB stick and mix tracks from there! Would you prefer to do away with the turntables altogether and mix all your music off a laptop? If so, how do you want to mix off your laptop? Do you want an additional controller to give you a more hands on experience and if this is the case, what features do you want it to have? What software do you want to use? What interface do you want to use in combination with your laptop? Would you prefer to use timecoded vinyls or CDs to give you an authentic DJing experience whilst still mixing in the digital domain? Do you want the best of both worlds with a set-up that combines a bit of everything?

On top of all this, you will also need to consider what equipment the clubs you will be playing in will have (if you are planning on playing to audiences). Will they have traditional record decks and will they have their own needles? Will they be using CD decks that you are unfamiliar with? Will it be a hassle to set-up your equipment quickly if you want to use something that the club doesn’t provide? Ahhhh! Headache!

So, in this article I’m going to talk about the equipment options that are available to the modern DJ and hopefully give you a little bit more of an idea about what is out there and what equipment is best suited to you. This is by no means an extensive guide, and no doubt a host more relevant products will enter the market once I’ve published this article, but hopefully you will be a little more sure of how you want to start on your DJing journey once you have read this. For up to date advice and information, please feel free to call us on 01202 597180 or use our online Live Chat service and we will be happy to help!

DJ GEAR ARTICLES

Click any of the links below to read the relevant article.

• Mixing with Vinyl: Click here to read the article!

• Mixing with CDs: Click here to read the article!

• DJ Mixers: Click here to read the article!

• Laptop Mixing - Software and Controllers: Click here to read the article!