It used to be that you rocked up with a bag of vinyls or CDs. The house normally had a DJ setup. You spun some records and went home. But now, there are so many different ways to DJ. Besides that, DJs are expected to be technicians, producers and software engineers! Gone are the days where two turntables and a mixer were the norm. Here are some of the setups which have replaced them.
Laptop and controller
The number one most popular way of getting into DJing is having a laptop and a controller. It’s awesome having the ability to essentially play an infinite number of tracks, loops, clips or even oneshot samples. Having a grid controller allows for live remixing. And now, laptops are powerful enough to run their own lighting rigs alongside the audio! Laptops have blown away many of the limitations of DJing. But as we’ll see, limitations are actually often required to do something remarkable. Check out the DJ Courses Online Mixed In Key course for more on this style.
Media players and club mixer
They used to be called CDJs, and now they’re called media players. You already know what a club mixer is. These devices imitate traditional turntables by allowing you to spin the platters to control CD playback. There’s no computer involved, just two small LCD interfaces that allow you to browser files. This makes the setup much more audio-leaning than a laptop screen. Here’s a pretty good review of all the new features in Pioneer’s CDJ-3000.
Digital Vinyl systems
A DV system is a way of controlling digital files using vinyl. Using software like Serato DJ Pro, DJs can control MP3s by cueing and scratching a special control vinyl on any vinyl turntable. No more heavy crates! By converting the signal encoded on the surface of the control vinyl into code a computer can read, the software knows the timestamp of your MP3 file. There’s a dedicated Serato Scratch course on DJ Courses Online you might want to check out.
These different approaches to DJing all have their pros and cons. But it really doesn’t matter which software you’re using as long as you’re collecting cool tunes and getting the floor going. Don’t forget to make eye contact with ‘em!