Cheap DJ Equipment Is Always
A Great Thing
Everybody Can't Afford Numark
and Pioneer
Cheap DJ
Equipment DJs or disc jockeys as most people call them
are music professionals who remix popular songs from your
favorite artist for playing in discotheques, nightclubs,
dance parties and other musical programs.
Most of the time when you call
upon this talent it's for a private party and they can get
expensive especially for a great one. Remixing songs involves modifying their
beats, mixing
the sounds, altering the bass/treble effects, etc. This has
become alot easier now that creations like apples iPhone has
arrived but I'll get to that later.
DJs also juxtapose two or more songs
together to create a new music piece.
This is usually done with the instrumental of
one song and the vocal accapella of another better known
as a mixtape. Naturally, all this creativity requires a
lot of equipment.
The basic equipment needed by a DJ is a deck or
CD player, sound mixers, speakers and
headphones.
However if you are a disc jockey of 2008 or
better then you must have a laptop in your arsenal to keep
up with your competition. Most DJs use LP records, which are
played on turntables. The sound encoded
on the record is read by a stylus. DJs use LPs as they can
input scratching effects in the music. Turntables are
of four popular styles – belt drive, direct drive,
mixer hybrid and portable. The style of the turntable
essentially depends on the manner in which the record is
rotated and read. Direct drive turntables are considered
to be superior to others.
The most important part of the equipment for a
creative DJ is the sound mixer. Sound
mixers are of various types and complexities. At a bare
minimum, they contain adjustments for sound balance like
bass and treble adjustment, noise reduction, etc. Mixers
have input lines for phono or line selection. Recent sound
mixers are two-channel, i.e. they have provisions for both
phono and line selections. Sound mixers are also provided
with jacks to connect the microphone devices.
Headphones or headsets are
prime requisites for a DJ. Good quality headphones can
provide Dolby or stereo surround sound to the
listener.
The basic purpose of a
headset should be to shunt out the external unwarranted
noise and facilitate the DJ to listen to the subtler
nuances of the tones.
Headsets are equipped with
microphones which the DJ can use to make announcements. For
the audience, speakers are provided which are connected to
the DJ’s sound mixer via cables. The wattages of speakers,
i.e. their sound outputs, are selected according to the
size of the dance floor and the number of persons. For
small audiences, there are compact sized woofers which can
very well serve the purpose.
Always carry an
extra set of headphones with you because you will lose a pair
if you disc jock enough parties or a set will go bad on
you.
If you don't have these then you can't
effectively rock the event.
Nowadays, DJ equipment is bundled together and
available as packages.
- Decks,
- mixers,
- speakers,
- headsets and
- cables are the fundamental parts of any DJ equipment
package.
While opting for a package, DJs usually select the ones with
better qualities of decks and speakers. For amateur DJs, a
low quality mixer is enough to get started
with. Elaborate DJ packages can contain several other pieces of
equipment such as carts, styluses, slip mats, cross faders,
etc. which are used for the turntable.
Among the companies that have gained a reputation for
manufacturing DJ equipment are
- Numark,
- Pioneer,
- Gemini,
- Stanton,
- Ministry of Sound,
- Behringer, and Citronin.
Depending on your pockets you will always want to have
Pioneer and Numark within your arsenal. Do
whatever you have to without breaking the law to get those
names in your gig bag. Trust me they will pay for themselves
time and time again.
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