Equipment for teaching…

Snow Boy, post: 19477, member: 2060 wrote: Hi
Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll care to offer suggestions.
I’m seeking a range of opinions about the right equipment and software for teaching digitial DJing.

I teach in the UK. The courses I am about to teach (from September 2012) are for 16-18 year-olds who are interested in a range of musical endeavours including being a bedroom producer/musician, performing live, forging a career in any number of streams of the music industry, composing and arranging music and learning on a variety of instruments including DJ equipment, controllerism hardware, and more traditional instruments such as guitars, percussion, etc. The courses are at Levels 2 and 3 (college level). Some students will be interested in digital DJ skills, and therefore I’m looking to choose the right equipment and software. Some of my students will be pure beginners, and others may have used some DJ equipment before or even have considerable experience. I don’t wish to limit those who are experienced, but I want the equipment I choose to be suitable to engage beginners also (not too complicated to get their heads around). There will be around 15 students, and each will have access to an Apple Mac, but there will most likely be only one piece of DJ equipment (similarly there will most likely be only one of many of the instruments).
So, I’d like to ask peopel “which hardware and software combination do you think would be most suitable for the needs of my students?”
Thanks very much for your help. 🙂
SB
P.S. I think I’ve covered everything there, but feel free to ask for clarification on any points.

I think that is a tricky question as you seem to want to cover all experience levels. However as you mention you will be teaching composition and production I would think the logical route to take would be Ableton.
The reason I suggest this software is because it would be an easier learning curve for those students that are learning the production side as they will be familiar with the software. You mention that you only intend to install software on one Macbook for Djing; however if the students were installing Ableton software on there Macbooks anyway, this would allow every student to be able to practice whenever they want without having to wait there turn to get on the Macbook that has the DJ software on.

One point to note on using Ableton as a Djing tool is that it requires a lot of preparation of your tracks to set beatgrids in advance, before even starting with mixing, and is also not seen as a “traditional” way to DJ. Some beginners may not be able to grasp beatgridding and clip launching as easily as other methods of DJing.

Also, it may be worth asking the more experienced students what software they use. Once people decide on the software they use, most people tend to stick with it. If you use the same software then the course material will be more relevant to them + they could help with the less experienced students.

If I was having to make a decision like yours I would draw from my own experience; Traktor 2 and Kontrol S4.
I found everything I needed to learn the software and hardware on line, from Youtube videos and blogs like DJ Tech tools and DDJT.
Once it is all set up you can dive straight in easily and mix one track into another. You do not need to have 100s of hours of experience behind you. However if needed (for the more experienced students), you can get into some serious tinkering with all sorts of advanced settings if you want.

I think you have a really difficult decision to make if you want to narrow it down to one software choice and one controller as there are several DJ programs and 100s of options when it comes to controllers and just like people on this site, someone’s preferred software / controller set-up will be different to another persons, as everyone develops there own style for DJing.

HTH and good luck!