Tips for a very light club setup?

I was smiling reading this post. Coming from the age of vinyl, it’s almost unbelievable to see people complain about the setup you describe as being heavy, bulky and annoying.

One single Technics SL-1200 weighs about 12,5 kgs WITHOUT flightcase (and you were really dumb to transport them without adequate protection). A decent case weighs in at about 9,5 kgs. Total 22 kgs.
Obviously you’d need two. Plus a mixer, also in a flightcase, add another 14 kgs or so.

Thats a grand total of 58 kgs! This is excluding all the additional stuff like headphones, spare stylii, cables and -of course- without vinyl which ways a ton in itself.

Your current setup weighs less than 5 kgs! Add a 1 kg headphone, 1 kg of cables and a stand (not sure what you mean, assuming a laptop stand) that folds up into a small package and weighs 1 kg or less. Finally 1 kg of small stuff like power supply for the MBP. Grand total less than 10 kg and it will indeed fit into one biggish bag.

Not sure what you mean with pricey cabs, never heard of cabs charging you extra because you have a bag with you or the bag being over a certain weight. Perhaps you mean you don’t like travelling public transport with the “big, heavy” bag and take a taxi instead which is more expensive than train/bus/tram/metro/whatever?

There are gig bags with trolley wheels and handles so you can just roll it like a suitcase though.

I don’t think DJ-ing on an iPad without an attached controller is anything like using club gear or a controller. I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it other than at an imprompty house party or something. But if it tickles your fancy then by all means go for it. Getting an external sound card that works with and is support by an iPad would most definitely provide much better AND stereo sound than the splitter cable would.

Not sure what soundcards are supported though. Perhaps others can comment on that particular bit.

Chuck – I get the impression he means taking a cab at all is pricey, as opposed to just biking to his gig which. Free is a very good price.

Yes DJing on the iPad with Traktor is fun, but it is nothing like real DJing. It still is toy status for me.

I often go with a bike to a club and I bring:
– reloop Terminal Mix 8
– Laptop (MacBook pro or Air)
– Cables
– Headphones x2

Fits nicely in a Magma Controller Backpack XL and if you cannot have that on your back while biking then invest in a gym membership.

Indeed.

I’ve got a Mixtrack pro 2, Sennheiser HD201’s (courtesy of my friends here) and a 14-inch laptop. All fits into my school bag and whenever I’ve had a gig, I’ve ridden there on my bicycle. No extra charge spend on mobility or portability 🙂

Honestly, the whole concept of charging to use the nice gear sounds a bit shady to me… why would a club manager deliberately cripple themselves just to charge a few extra bucks to use the nicer gear? Their money is made from the club goers, not the DJs.

Confusing.

Very much so.

That’s my man!