Face it, we all want to be the ones who drop the tunes at parties. Most people think of becoming DJ's, but to become one, you must buy your first equipment to handle the big beat tunes.
Step 1
Have a good wad of cash, there is no true recommended amount of money to have because the money you will need depends on where and what you buy. Be wary anyway, DJ equipment is [NOT ] cheap.
Step 2
Research equipment online. Find a retail store with the lowest prices and with the equipment right for a DJ. http://www.guitarcenter.com has a good range in America and http://www.decks.co.uk I would recommend for the UK.
Step 3
Here's what the basic DJ equipment is:
- 2 Turntables and/or 2 mixable CD players or a laptop(see tips)
- Headphones
- Stereo cables suitable for your equipment
- Finally a DJ Mixer connected to:
- an amp and two or more passive speakers/two or more active speakers (amp built in)
Tips
- Digital DJing (using a laptop) may be cheaper, since songs can be downloaded individually at a reduced cost. It is best your laptop has a lot of memory or you buy a large external HDD. You might also want a decent program and an extra audio socket depending on your equipment's needs and abilities.
- A good mixer is the Behringer BCD2000/BCD3000 because it has a USB connection to the computer - no extra audio connections needed - and comes with a very good piece of software.
- You can hook up your mixer to your home stereo or a boom box if you don't have actual professional DJing speakers.
- Always buy direct drive turntables with a start/stop button and pitch control. Also makes sure that the CD players you get have at least a pitch control and cue function.
- Learn to work the equipment before operating. This means reading the manual, asking the seller questions and noting what sort of a volume everything needs to be at.
- If you're lucky enough to know an experienced DJ, ask them what equipment (and brands of equipment) they recommend. If they're willing to show you good techniques for using it, that's even better. You might even be able to buy their old equipment cheaply off them or borrow some to gain experience.
- Purchase amplifiers that can produce 1.5 times the recommended RMS wattage for your speaker.
- Check into buying from a retailer that allows you to use an item, and if not satisfied, return it. Most electronic products, once opened are not returnable.
- Look into renting a system before you buy one on a permanent basis.
- Check out your local record and CD exchanges to help get you started with a lot of popular music.
- Nowadays more and more DJ's don't use turntables and popular songs come out cheaper downloaded so try to get into disk jockeying or digital DJing.
Warnings
- Don't buy the all-in-one DJ packs. You may be able to find individual components of higher quality or at a lower price elsewhere.
- When buying turntables NEVER buy belt drive. Belt drive turntables do not have sufficient torque for DJing and cannot be stopped
- Never borrow more than you can afford from another DJ, in case they break.
- Don't buy a home stereo or a speaker system for your computer to do a DJing job out of the house. Most of these speakers can't handle the demand that professional speakers can.
- If buying used equipment, always have the seller take the time to set it up and show you that it works.
