How to Choose DJ Equipment

You've decided to try being a DJ. But there is such a variety of equipment at a really high range of price and quality. Where to start? What to get? This article is intended to make that process easier to understand.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. First, do some soul searching. Are you totally sure that you are going to become a DJ? Are you just trying it out, to see if you are really into it? This is important, because as you will see, there aren't a lot of great middle-of-the-road options. Once you've decided, it's time to go shopping.
2. If you are definitely going to be a DJ, turntables are the easiest to choose. Almost all professional DJs (and even advanced amateurs) spin on Technics or Vestax turntables. They are roughly in the same price range, but have some differences. While Technics have been battle-tested for over thirty years, Vestax is a newer brand, and their turntables may not prove to be as durable in the long term (although so far they seem very stable.) Vestax tends to have a lot more features, including reverse, higher pitch control ranges and universally higher torque. If you don't want to make that kind of investment, or you aren't positive you are going to be a DJ, do not get a middle of the road turntable. Get the cheapest you can that will still work. Stanton rules the market of high-quality entry level turntables. They have a low cost turntable with all the features you need to figure out if you are going to stick with it, the STANTON T.50.
3. After this, you need to select a mixer. You only need a two-channel mixer with a cross-fader and headphone "cue" functions to learn to d.j. Things like equalizers, effects, additional channels and hamster switches all come later. Stanton also does a good job at high quality entry level mixers. If you are sure you're going to be a pro, you probably want more channels, to include additional turntables, CD players, effects inputs, samplers and any other external devices. You also want a mixer that you can replace the faders on because they will wear out. Pioneer, Vestax, Allen & Heath, and Rane are the brands of mixers generally used by professionals. They have so many different features that you should just research them and find out what matters to you.
4. After this, you need speakers. You can get a pair of 20 to 20,000 hertz studio monitors that are self powered for a very reasonable price from Roland. That is about the cheapest high-quality sound system I have found. Any stereo system that accepts RCA or stereo eight-inch inputs can play your DJ setup out of the mixer (possibly with some adapters). If you want to buy high end speakers, the sky is the limit. Just pay attention to frequency range, as this will determine what you hear of the music you play.
5. The last step is to select vinyl or digital. Systems by Final Scratch and Serato allow DJs to spin their mp3s on pieces of blank vinyl. They are costly, but offer the use of a huge variety of music that isn't available on vinyl, including the DJ's own collection. Vinyl is cool because it sometimes sounds better, you can go digging in old record shops, and it has a certain pleasant non-reliance on a computer (which both Final Scratch and Serato require).

Tips & Warnings

• The reason you want to go high or low, and not in the middle, is that you can tell just as well from a low-end turntable as a middle-of-the-road turntable whether or not you like it. If you go low and want to go higher, you haven't spent as much money. If you go high, you're already set.