Newbie Girl Needs Advice! :)

Hi Nina,

I didn’t quite get what you meant by ‘if my music is strictly put together on the laptop’ – are you saying you’d make mixtapes and then just play them out at parties? Or that you’d do your own remixes of songs at home, and then play those out when DJing? Either or, if you want to play live to an audience (and not just prepare a mixtape and let that play) you should get a controller (or CDJs/turntables and a mixer, whichever flavor or DJing you prefer).

Regarding controllers, many new DJs prefer the Numark Mixtrack Pro or the latest version Mixtrack Pro II, but a common complaint is that these are pretty easy to grow out of once your skills develop. The choice of a controller depends of course on how much money you’re willing to spend and the types of venues you want to play (house parties, wedding gigs, bars, nightclubs…). Numark has gear that’ll pretty much fit any setting, ranging from the (cheap) mixtrack pro to the (expensive) professional NS6 and NS7 controllers. The Vestax VCI-300 and it’s successor the VCI-300mk2 are a bit older controllers but the upside is that they’re reliable, not too plasticky/toy-like and you can find pretty good deals online if you buy a used one.

Maybe if you gave us a better idea on what kind of DJing you’re looking to do and what your budget is, we’d be able to help you out better 🙂

Nina, that’s exactly correct. Well, you CAN of course mix live using only your laptop and DJ software by using keyboard shortcuts, but doing this is far from intuitive and you for sure will have a much harder time pulling off all the cool tricks you could do with something tangible to mix with – a controller. Some “DJs” even play “gigs” using nothing but iTunes or winamp, but the quotes should give you an idea on what my personal feelings about this type of “DJing” are 🙂

And yes, you can pre-mix things at home and then just press play. Just look at what Paris Hilton does (ok, she doesn’t pre-record her own sets, someone else does this for her and she just stands behind the decks waving her arms and looking pretty). While an option to be sure, you will probably get a lot of grief from other DJs for doing this. After all, if you’re not mixing live, why should anyone hire you to perform, when they could just go on soundcloud and download a recorded dj-set from one of the world’s best DJs and play that?

So I guess what I’m trying to say is, get some gear to practice on, learn the art, and then go kick ass pulling off crazy mixes and wowing people left and right! 🙂

No problem at all, you’re very welcome!

We’ve all had that horrific first gig – the jitters, the nerves, the mind-numbing terror – but it’s just something you will have to eventually get out of the way! I remember my first gig, it was a college party and everything was going great until this drunk chick spilled her drink all over my controller. After rebooting all my stuff (I wasn’t experienced enough to have an iPod or something as back-up, so there was a loooooong silence) I finally got everything up and running again, but the crossfader on my mixtrack was busted and wouldn’t work anymore, so on top of everything else I had to mix with channel faders, something I hadn’t really practiced to do. So yeah, shit will happen, but in the end it’s all for good – from then on I always carry SOMETHING to play from as backup in case of mishaps, and also have a big sign on the table saying NO DRINKS ANYWHERE NEAR THE DJ-BOOTH —- AND DON’T ASK FOR JUSTIN BIEBER!

And then there’s the stuff you just can’t anticipate, like this one time at a rather rowdy pool party a buddy of mine got his CDJs and mixer all thrown into the pool when a drunk dude knocked over the table.

But enough off-topic… I really don’t use any looping software myself, so can’t help you there. Sorry 🙂

We rock? I thought we were into EDM, Old Skool Disco, stuff like that. Not rock … mmm.

Greetinx,
C.

p.s. … and who is the Hilton person people are referring to?

Yeah, I know … I was homeless before this place too … now … 3 square meals a day and a bed to sleep in.

Greetinx,
C.

Hi!
I would recommend you Ableton live.
And because he also hang around on these forums I would suggest you look up for Joshua Casper on YouTube.
He makes dope stuff simple, fast, super useful (ableton tutorials).

Hope you’ll have great time here.

El