I’m thinking of trying my hand at being a DJ. What would a beginner need in order to start off?
So far, some people are recommending I get either a Technic or Gemini turntables. Thanks.
what kind of dj? where are you located? How much are you willing to spend?
Mostly hardcore techno or just anything above 140 bpm. But I’ll expand to trance and other “slower” types of electronica.
Southern California.
Seeing some of the prices on eBay for turntables, I think I’ll set aside $500 - $1000. But I’m having doubts that this will be much, although right now I’m not going to put a lot of money in as it will be more of a hobby rather than as a source of income.
Kasuo -
I’m in the same boat you are in that I have a general interest in dj’ing, have done it a few times, and feel the bug biting me. About 1/3 of the people I work with are DJ’s so they’ve steered me straight on some of wilier gear acquisition strategies.
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- (not really related to gear) If you think you are going to make money doing this, you probably will not. This is not meant as a slight on your potential talent but just some statistical observation I’ve compiled. I live in a relatively large market town (Vancouver) and the 15 or so people at work spin probably 3-4 days out of the week. Not a single one of them has recouped their equipment and record costs, despite some being heroically talented. Just had to get that out of the way L:)
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- The biggest bite is getting a pair of turntables. What a friend suggested to me is getting one GOOD deck and one CRAPPY deck. This way, you can still mix things up (albeit not as high fidelity as you’d like) and when you save up enough for the OTHER good platter you’ll have THREE decks to play around with for some of that Carl Cox action. By getting one good deck and one mediocre deck you can cut your original purchase price by up to a 1/3. You might need some of that money for point 5.
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- Buying used is your friend, if you are in the know about what the dj equivalents of ‘slightly foxed’ and ‘totally screwed’ are. Do some hunting in the bargain finder (or whatever the SoCal equivalent is) and set up some appointments. If you have one, take a knowledgeable friend along with you to examine any gear for subtle defects. If you don’t have a knowledgeable friend check them out yourself but ditch the sale at the SMALLEST feeling of discomfort or detecting a rip-off stench. You might miss a deal (unlikely given the informed nature of the market) but you can also avoid getting ripped off. Things to watch out for are shoddy cartridges/needles(not bad in themselves, but might indicate the level of care by the previous owner), damaged arms and rotor motors, discernable noise from the spindle, and any evidence of liquids entering the case. There’s probably tons of others but that’s what I can think of off the top of my head.
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- If buying used doesn’t work or “isn’t your bag” a lot of big eq shops will actually do installment/purchase plans on even relatively flimsy credit. Around here Long and McQuade is the biggest game in town in that respect, but there’s probably someone similar in your of the woods (maybe even an L&M - I have no idea how entrenched the franchise is).
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- When you do get your gear, PROTECT IT. Try and get a coffin as soon as possible. I helped tear out a gig a few weeks ago and the guy was transporting his tecnics in the cardboard boxes he bought them in! All it would take is some really dumb loader to put the decks on the bottom of the truck and SMOOSH. The larger idea should be, always have your gear ready to move SAFELY. It’s rare that a gig will happen in your home/studio environment. That means you’ve got to move to where the action is, which means two heavy (yet delicate) turntables and a smackload of records. Yes, protect those records too; get a decent DJ bag, or even better an airline travel case. The dj bag is good for carting them around, but for long term storage you should have a nice case of some kind (cardboard boxes are marginally OK).
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- Speaking of records, be wise and clever in your acquisition of them. Buddy up to local record store owners and employees - it’s unlikely they’ll give you a deal but it’s VERY likely they’ll tell you what they think is good, reserve imports for you, and probably help you out in finding gigs. It’s easy to spend over triple your deck-acquisition budget on records in the first half year or so. Rein in that impulse (unless you can afford it. Then it’s go baby, go! All the way to the bank!). There’s at least 3 kinds of record buyers. Guys who buy everything that comes out and spend 22 hours of their day filtering out the crap. Guys who buy only the top 40 club hits and other ‘safe’ titles. Guys who are somewhere in between. It’s possible to get a happy medium, but like all happy mediums it’s impossible for me to describe exactly how.
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- Speaking of record stores, hang out there. It’s probably the only place you’ll find cool people who are into the same things you are. Maybe it’ll help you land a gig if you have a buddy who knows you spin some of the same stuff he does and he happens to be short for a party. Maybe you can get a tag team with some other dj’s and get maybe 1 hour of exposure for your ‘debut’ and then move on to bigger stuff. As mentioned earlier too, record store owners and employees are veritable gold mines of information about current events, cool new releases, and promotors looking for talent for their events.
Whew! That’s all I’m going to say for now, though I can think of a few extra things but my fingers are tired and so am I. It’s a fun scene to get started in but don’t get totally immersed in it either. The whole situation is as artificial as any subculture - there are important things inside and outside of it. Last thing - you probably should avoid the drugs at least at first. The idea of doing rails off your tables is romantic in a perverse sort of way but most of the stuff out there (e, coke, acid) will wreak havoc with your time when you’re trying to match beats. Wait until you’ve got a bit more experience under your belt before performing ‘under the influence’*.
- note that I do not endorse drug use of any kind L:)
Scaramouche - Post #2
It’s always the guy with more amps. Always.
OK, I’m not a DJ (well, I did radio DJ’ing in college [with vinyl], but that’s a different ball game), but I know a bit about equipment, so I’ll try to help you out.
First, the defacto DJ standard turntable is the Technics SL-1200 MKII or MKIII. The primary advantages of these models over others in the Technics line are torque and durability. For that you pay a huge premium. Note: the original SL-1200 is nothing like the MKII or MKIII.
If you just want to get started you might look at any Technics turntable that has direct drive, pitch control, an S-shaped tonearm, and an on-off switch other than the tonearm-controlled microswitch. True, the torque won’t be as high, but you’ll pay about 1/4 as much (or less) than for a 1200. In the future, if you decide you want to go pro, you can sell these on ebay and buy the decks you need. Manual models are preferred, but it’s fairly easy to disable the auto-return mechanism if you buy a semi- or full-automatic model. In the past few months I’ve sold (on ebay) at least 3 Technics models that you could have used; all sold in the $50-$100 range. Check out models like SL-D1/D2/D3, SL-D202/D303 (pretty much the same), SL-3100/3200/3300, SL-5100/5200/5300, SL-1300/1400/1500/1600/1700/1800. All are direct drive and should fit the bill for a beginner. Avoid the quartz-locked models unless you know for sure that they have a pitch control (such as the SL-5x00 series), as many don’t.
For cartridges, Stanton seems to be the most popular for DJing; they’re reliable and cheap. You’ll also need a mixer, amp and a pair of speakers. Mixers can be gotten for way less than $100, pro amps and speakers are out of my area of expertise. There’s a lot of stuff on ebay all the time, that would be my first destination. There are also loads of websites out there; any decent search engine should be able to find what you’re looking for.
Thanks a lot Scaramouche. You’ve provided a whole lot of useful info. I’ll make sure to put it to good use.
I have a couple questions though:
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What would you consider to be a good turntable/deck? not-so good table?
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Would using one of those milk carton crates be alright for transporting records?
Thanks again!
Kasuo–I been spinning hip-hop for a couple years now. I know it’s not house/techno/etc, but we use the same equipment. Scaramouche gave some good advice, but when it comes to turntables, you should save up and get the Technics right off the bat. If you like the music then most likely you’ll end up enjoying spinning. Which means you’re just going to buy the “other” Technic sooner or later. When you’re trying to match beats you don’t want to have one table that keeps slipping also. On the flip, if you decide you don’t like spinning, then Technics have incredible resale value. If you keep your decks in good shape (and it’s a sin not to) then you can probably sell then for what you paid (or really close to the original price). So my advice for the decks is to get your Technics together or save until you can get them.
Carts and needles (stylus) are a personal thing. Some people like these and some people like those. It will all depend on how you want your music to sound. I’d guess though, since you like techno, that you’re going to go for sound quality (meaning you’re not going to do alot or any scratching). Some friends of mine (that spin house) are keen to the Ortofon pro series. I think they’re blue or gold. They sound great,plus they come as a single unit (otherwise you have to buy the cartridge and stylus separately). I went through alot of carts and needles when I was first starting. I started out with Stanton 500s (carts) and AL or EL styli. They were OK. Then I tried the Stanton 680 cart. It had better sound quality. Then I tried some Ortofons. They sounded good but they didn’t track very well (I like to scratch and they liked to jump out of the groove). And I would borrow carts and styli from friends to sample without investing. Right now I’m using Shure M447 carts/needles, and I’m happy with them.
Do you have any other stereo equipment (amp/speakers/etc.)? It’s becoming an expensive hobby huh?
As far as mixers go…shop around and DO your homework. There’s so many mixers out there right now. I’d say go for something in the mid range of quality/prices. Don’t get something really expensive, but don’t get some piece of shit either. You would do good with a mid range Gemini or something comprable. For future though I think Rane have some of the best built, best sounding mixers out there. I’m saving right now for one. Vestax have great mixers also (I’m using a Vestax now). Figure out what you want your mixer to do and then go from there. Just make sure you do your homework!
Scaramouche gave great advice with the vinyl. All I’m going to add is make sure you hit those used record shops/bins. I’ve found so many treasures in the used bins. It’s crazy to think someone got rid of what they did!
Final word…just make sure you’re doing this for the love of the music. Otherwise it’ll be a short lived, expensive hobby.
ps. Stay away from those “package” dj sets. They’re usually shitty deals. And stay away from American DJ products. Good luck and have fun!!
It’s been about 10 years since I’ve done this stuff, but I’ll give it a shot.
If you don’t plan on beat-mixing (although with House and Trance, you’ll want to), the Technics are overkill. If you do mix and want to buy a pair, look for used ones. If the only defect is a cracked/broken cover or the little pop up light is burned out, you should be fine. I don’t know if I ever worked in a club where the turntable light worked.
While beat-mixing is an important skill, don’t underestimate the power of reading your audience and timing. I used to have jocks from neighboring clubs come try and learn what made our place so popular. They’d leave with entire sets written down on paper, thinking that duplicating them would cause their patrons to react the way they had at our club. I’d later visit their club and watch them play one of my late night sets right after opening their doors. Needless to say, that doesn’t work. Note: if you hear a DJ do a really smooth mix between two songs, it IS okay to steal that. 
A really frustrating part of DJing at a dance club/party is getting the first few souls to venture out to the dance floor. If everyone is chilling just a bit too long for your taste, bribe, threaten, cajole or do whatever else it takes to get them started.
If you have one of those nights where everything is going right, push the limits a bit. This makes the night more memorable to your guests. At a club in Germany, we used to clear the dance floor at midnight. We would then turn the lights way down, fog up the place, pick a nice light show tune (i.e. Also Sprach Zarathustra) and do a short show. Right at the final note of the song, we would jump right into a popular song to start the second half of the night. Everyone knew we did this, so they were always ready to dance when it happened. On a particularly fun night, I got a little ornery and decided to try something, much to the chagrin of my manager and light jockey. I popped on a waltz. The folks in the club looked at each other for a second and then at me, then decided what the hell and started dancing.
I’ve droned on a bit too long and you’ve already received excellent advice from Scaramouche, so I’ll stop here.
If you have any questions, I’ll try and remove the cobwebs from that part of my brain.
Kasuo -
I’m not very knowledgeable about the specifics of brand x versus brand y as it relates to turntables and equipment (you’ll note most of my advice was anecdotal) but at work I did a quick straw poll of the dj’s who were and every single one is using at least two Technics SL-1200 MKIII’s each (we also have 4 decks at work for people who just feel like spinning during the workday. They’re also MKIII’s). I think frogstein is right when he calls them a de facto standard. In fact they’re so popular they’re hard to get right now, at least here. They come in and people buy them right away.
Milk boxes are one of the most useful byproducts of the dairy industry. Unfortunately in this case they’re only so-so useful. They’re all right for transport but the the carton boxes out here in Canada(I assume it’s similar through the rest of the country) are a fraction of an inch too short, so when it’s full of records you’ve got about 2cm of records sticking out. Works all right, but you can’t stack em for any length of time without warpage going on.
To add to the mixer discussion, it is important to know what you want. If you’re spinning techno you’re probably going to want a more demanding mixer than most. That said, I’ve only used top of the line Vestex mixers which are actually TOO MUCH I think. There’s so many knobs you get “knob blindness” and only dink the eq’s and filters (which are very nice, but probably not worth the large $$$ for a mixer that you’re only using half of at best). You probably only want a 4 input/eq mixer with 1 or 2 filters, though IANAE.
Lastly, American DJ stuff IS crap. The only vaguely good stuff I’ve seen that is actually marketed as DJ equipment (as opposed to just being nice accessories provided by an existing electronics giant) is the Ministry of Sound stuff.
I’m no DJ, but here’s what I can tell you about turntables.
There are essentially two kinds. There’s the DJ turntables, and then there’s the ones that your parents have. You obviously want the DJ kind. The difference is that the DJ turntables have a pitch control (sometimes called pitch adjust). This allows you to alter the RPM of the record.
This is beneficial to you because if you have two records that differ in BPM (which you almost always will), and you wanna mix them, then you can do that with the pitch control. The larger the pitch control, the better. That way, the range at which you can alter the RPM is greater.
Now, there are also two kinds of DJ turntables – belt driven and direct driven. The belt driven use a belt to turn the platter, whereas the direct driven use a magnet. Since you’re gonna be spinning the platter, to the point of abuse, you’re gonna want a direct driven since there would be less wear.
Another thing is the tonearm (the arm that holds the needle over the record). I’ve been told that a straight arm is better than a curved one. I don’t know how much truth there is to this, if any, but supposedly they’re better for scratching since they skip less.
As far as needles go, get the elliptical kind, as opposed to the spherical. The elliptical will fit into the groove of the record better, which makes it easier for you to scratch. They cost more than the spherical, but they are well worth it.
Don’t forget the slipmats either. I don’t know much about these, just that these are what allow you to actually scratch the record. You put the mats over the platter, then the record on the mat. They make mats that are screen printed, and one that aren’t. Don’t get the printed ones, because the print can wear off onto your record.