What do the "pros" practice on?

As for the actual question.

Pro’s don’t really practice that much anymore. They know they can beat match, they know how to use FX, etx.

What they ARE doing, is music discovery, finding those few tracks each month that deserve to enter their collection. Making sure they know those tracks intimately and that they are properly tagged, keyed, and beat gridded.
Also they are prepping for gigs. Going through that collection and making new playlist, selecting what to bring to the next gig.

Back in the day when I still felt I needed to practice the technical skills and I had a residency, I’d go in in the afternoon and fiddle around for 1-2 hours, often running a tape. I’d then listen to the tape over the next day to find out what I could have done better.

Valid points. At places like MoS the engineers are totally geared to help smooth transitions between DJs even if both come in with their own controllers. Most DJs bring a laptop anyway (whether they hook up the Nexus players for HID or controller use is secondary), so no “profit” there.

Being worried about your laptop getting stuff spilled on is valid issue too, albeit it one that I believe comes with the territory. I played on a ship a few weeks that had a faulty steering. The skipper ran (slowly) into the bottom of a bridge. Since I was in the front facing backwards I had no early warning. I came THIS close to having my controller fly off the desk and onto the floor, which at the very least would have killed some cable connections. It work gear and you run a chance of it getting damaged when used.

I guess you can’t race in Formula 1 if you are afraid you might crash your car in a sudden rain shower.

I am a mobile DJ and as such always bring a minivan type of car with gear, carrying more or less stuff around is never an issue. In my wallet I will usually have a USB stick in case I find myself in a situation with “club gear” and a strong desire/need to do and impromptu gig. And on my keychain is a DJ-splitter to turn my phone into a mini DJ setup in minutes with my regular phone in-ears.

Practicing the things you mention like beat matching manually can be done without the visual aid the laptop offers (toss a tea cloth over it and you don’t even get BPM info LOL.

And yes, lack of muscle memory might cause an extra mistake or two, but only shows there is an actual human behind the decks.
My experience is (and I play a LOT less on club gear than I used to) that it takes me a while (about 5-10 transitions/tracks) to be back in the zone again. This is about as long as I need when I play on gear I haven’t played on before.

One of things I love about digital DJ-ing is the track management aspect of it. When I am tossed back to turn/press a knob navigation on CDJs I get really jittery being so used to having a keyboard, mouse and lots of screen real estate at my disposal. Not being able to find the next track in time has me way more worried than being able to hit the right buttons in a transition.

I even carry my core collection with me on CD (triple redundancy and all that) and I sometimes will not even bother myself with USB sticks but just use the CDs. Everyone has his/her own favorite way of working.

Again, if you feel you need to practice some on the actual gear, renting it is an option. Another option is to just go to a place with gear and ask if there is a way you could come in before opening and practice some (you could even offer to come in and play on slow days in exchange for the practice option.

Maybe it’s the many years (going 39 next year) on the decks, but I find very few gigs truly nerve-wracking anymore. I do realize the responsibility I have at events like weddings that are a “one chance only” deal. But the “stress” there is more on the music selection part and can you move the audience than it is worrying if all my transitions will be perfect of hitting a wrong button once in a while. Experience plus age have probably put me in a place where I still have some jitters before going on for really big/important events, but I don’t take myself so seriously anymore. And funnily enough that gives me the peace of mind and calmness to deal with most situations without freaking out.

I have a small gig (unexpected to do someone a favor that lost his live band 5 days before the party) coming up in Germany this weekend. It is themed, so I have been busy getting, selecting and prepping tracks and a few playlists for it. I haven’t bothered getting my controller out of storage to practice. I am doing all prep work on my 6-core desktop with fast SSDs in it. All that is left to do now is run the new iTunes playlists through beat gridding and I am done.

If your equipment fails it’s your fault. If provided equipment fails, it’s the booker’s fault.
Very important difference when it comes to money.

The “drinks too close to equipment” situation happens to me all the time. A good practice is to agree with the venue in advance that they will pay for any damages to your stuff by guests.

My 2ct:
I play in a bar regulary – they have a PA and a small house mixer (PA mixer not DJ mixer) and nothing else. So you have to bring your own gear.

I play in a club regulary – actually a very big one – they had a full Nexus setup until last month, when they sold the whole thing. They now still have an A&H DJ mixer and to each side of it they have a connector board so you do not need to fiddle behind the mixer. Something their house tech made, very neat. But end of story: Bring your own mixer. (They have to dated Denon CDJs for backup, but they have no real features beside a pitch fader and one cue button)

I play on at least 2-3 festivals per year: All have moved to bring your own device, unless for superstar DJs who can order what to have on the stage (as most of the time it will be playback anyways).

I play on a lot of events with a local sound company: They sold all their 8 Nexus setups and now only provide up to the PA mixer and cables. So basically you show up with your gear but without cables and they hook you up.

So long story short: Within 2 years all my business associates have moved away from the classic setup. Showing up with a USB stick is no longer an option. We have some smaller clubs who still have CDJs, but they have so old gear that I would not use it if my live depended on it.

So what do I practice on: Well as Vintage said we do not practice a lot, but what I like to do: If I bought or got a bunch of new tunes, I make a playlist and hook up my controller and have a go at them, to get the feel for the new tracks, set some cue or loops and integrate them into my sets. But I do all on the same controller that I use live or at home.
(and I just got an email that the club that sold the Nexus actually will get a DDJ-RZ, so you can move from show up with USB to show up with MacBook)