You have this fantasy that you’ve been playing on your mind every time you’re stuck at work. You’ve always wanted to pursue your passion of being a professional DJ – mixing music, controlling the crowd with your personalized beats and showing the whole world what you’re entirely capable of, music-wise.
Finally, you’ve decided that enough is enough, and that life is too short for you to be scared of working on your dreams. “This is it”, you tell yourself. “I’m finally going to be a professional DJ!”
Congratulations on taking the leap! Now, before you start quitting your job, spending all your life savings on buying DJ equipment and working on your DJing skills, why don’t you spend five minutes reading this article? It’ll help you deal with the most common concerns of beginner DJs. Let’s get started:
1. “Please tell me what I need to do to become a DJ!”
First things first, you need to identify what kind of DJ you’d be like, find out if you’d like to do it full-time or part-time for now, figure out your budget for the DJ equipment that you’ll buy, invest in hardware and work on your DJing skills.
Naturally, you also need to promote yourself so that you can land paying gigs in the future.
2. “Can you let me know what the biggest misconceptions are about being a professional DJ?”
The biggest misconception people have about being a DJ is that your work stops the moment you leave the venue. Actually, being a DJ means that you have to be “on” most of the time – you need to always market yourself and network with other people in your industry, to listen to the tunes that you want to take over the dance floor, to look for ideas for your next mixes.
People may think that being a DJ means music manipulation only, but if you really want to make it big, you need to start treating it seriously as a business.
3. “What are the most common kinds of DJ equipment for my setup?”
– Turntables: These are record players that let you scratch, switch songs and albums, slow down tempos, and change the pitch, among others. Even though digital-based setups are preferred nowadays, it’s always recommended that you have at least one turntable in your setup.
– Mixers: Use your mixer for song transitions, volume control, and seamless “mashups” of different beats. You also plug your DJ headphones into your mixer so you can preview what song is coming up next.
– Controllers: You know about turntables and you also know about mixers, so what are controllers? They’re a combination of the features of both mixers and turntables! Controllers are amazing all-in-one pieces of DJ equipment that lets you tweak track settings, adjust volume levels and customize your music manipulation preferences – all directly from your computer.
– DJ Software: Your DJ software can help make or break your career as a professional DJ. This allows you to mix, edit, copy, cut, paste, add effects, “mashup”, change the tempo, organize files and playlists and even “scratch” using MP3’s.
– DJ Headphones: DJ headphones are a must-have because you use them to presently hear what you’re playing to your audience right now and also what you’re going to play for your audience next.
4. “I’m a beginner DJ! What should I buy for my DJ setup?”
Here’s the truth: you can either start with the minimum SJ setup or you can also work on completing your ideal DJ setup. It all comes down to your preferences.
For the minimum DJ setup for beginners, you can get started just with your laptop, headphones, free DJ software and a mono splitter cable.
Why do you need a mono splitter cable? As a professional DJ, you’ll need to hear a different track in your headphones compared to the one your audience is hearing. Normally, this’ll be the next track to play so you can make the necessary adjustments before playing it for the crowd.
Now, for the ideal DJ setup, you’d need to invest in hardware so you can market yourself professionally. This means a DJ setup of a laptop, a controller with a built-in audio interface, DJ software, DJ headphones and amplified monitor speakers. Being a digital DJ is the most popular direction for a beginner DJ because of the DJ equipment’s reliability, accessibility and portability.
At the end of the day, being a DJ is about the art and the science of music manipulation. While the software and the hardware are important, don’t forget that what kind of music you express and what kinds of moments you bring about because of your music are important as well.