Help! Playing My First Gig on a bars CDJ'S (never used them)

Depending on how many of the software features you use, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The mixer will have FX, much like the ones you use in the software. The CDJs aren’t too different from the decks on your controller. All you need to do is move your playlists to RekordBox (to be had free), run them through the RB analysis and load it all on two USB sticks (or three if the CDJs are not connected). Just stick the USB in the CDJ(s) and off you go.

If you use iTunes for your collection management, the transition to RB is an easy one. Open RB, go to the iTunes node, select your playlists and you are pretty much ready to go. Haven’t done it in a while, so can’t give you details off the top of my head. But that’s the general thought here.

The CDJs you are using should have USB/RB option. If they don’t, but can only handle CDs, my advice would be to kindly refuse the job, unless you feel like going and burning a bunch of CDs (first gig and all, I can see how you would be tempted to go and burn them).

CDJs 900s or 2000s, preferably in Nexus version and a DJM900 mixer would be the minimum requirement imho.

And frankly, I am a bit baffled by their request that you use their gear. I am currently at the point where I charge extra if I have to use their gear, because of the extra preparation it means for me and the loss of joy playing. I CAN use CDJs and have for many years, but to be forced to use them when you are used to a more advanced system is no fun.

Clearly you are at a different stage in your career, but it doesn’t hurt to be assertive in this business.

I get were Vintage and Chad are coming from, but despite that, ignore them!

DO NOT GO INTO YOUR FIRST GIG DEMANDING A TECH RIDER!

🙂 I joke. Sort of…

More serious now… They said you had to use their gear – but did they say no laptop? Because you can plug those CDJs into your laptop and just use them like a controller. Need pads? Get a pair of Neons or something similar and plop them down in front. Boom – you just turned a pair of CDJs into a full controller surface – and have some fancy screens to boot.

It’s important to know exactly what they have for equipment though – you don’t want to go in to find out they are old 1000s and you do indeed need actual CDs.

Yeah, no way would I go and try hooking up stuff I don’t know in a way I have never done before, adding a sound card to make it all work with Serato and two EXTRA controllers I don’t have and have to buy for the occasion with a good chance of never using them again. And all that while being all adrenaline pumped because it’s my first public gig. Like Rizki said “KISS”, Keep It Simple Sunshine!

On a separate note: Saying you would like to bring your own controller to plug into their system is quite something else from handing in a Tech Rider where you basically DEMAND that they provide you with the gear of your choosing. Nowhere did anybody suggest that is what the OP should do. I did suggest to him that in order to do what he needs to do on the house gear it needs to be of a certain level or the challenge might be too hard for a first gig or indeed facing some ancient 1000s with no USB.

Just reinforces my first advice. Go RB/USB, stick with what you know. What will impress the house is your selection of tunes and how it impacts the crowd. Better to be a great music selector and an average technical DJ than the other way around!

Go get them, I say!

Nope, you can use them as controllers, but still need a Serato compatible product like a supported mixer or sound card.

They are compatible, i.e. you can use them as controllers. BUT … you still need a certified mixer, controller or sound card to make it work I think.

Ok, I stand corrected.

Yeah or whatever you configure… it is a pain to configure the soundflow.