Completely new to this!

[Trykki]

For the last 6 years or so, my passion for electronic music (mainly Trance and House) has grown and grown. When asked what my dream job would be it's always been Producer/DJ.

So I've finally decided to start at the ripe old age of 18! Basically thought I'd come on here and look for advice on how to get started, what to do what to buy etc.

I appreciate I'm gonna have to start out small and thought It'd be a good idea to use one of the free DJ programmes (e.g. VDJ Home). Is this a good place to start out? I've got a fairly healthy music catalogue and I'm looking for advice on hardware to buy, as at this current stage I don't want to fork out hundreds on professional equipment and also any tips you've got for a complete and utter n00b.


Any help is humongously appreciated. Thanks! xx

[Finnish_Fox]

18? You might be a bit too old to start, I'm afraid... :P

If its something you are passionate about, invest in it. Seriously.

[Trykki]

18? You might be a bit too old to start, I'm afraid... :P

This is something I feared, a bit like when I applied to be a Jedi Knight.

But yeah, looking around at the stickies it certainly is intimi******. :eek:

[g-sep]

But yeah, looking around at the stickies it certainly is intimi******. :eek:

Just take your time my friend, DJ'ing isn't going anywhere. I was 20/21 when I started. Now almost 24, I'm happy I waited a little while. More disposable income because of higher paying jobs so I can afford what I want up front. Just give some stuff a read on here, google other things, make a list, a plan of what you want to do and how you want to DJ and then go out and buy some gear. Check the classifieds on here, CL and eBay. Deals are to be had from someone getting out of the business.

[Trykki]

Just take your time my friend, DJ'ing isn't going anywhere. I was 20/21 when I started. Now almost 24, I'm happy I waited a little while. More disposable income because of higher paying jobs so I can afford what I want up front. Just give some stuff a read on here, google other things, make a list, a plan of what you want to do and how you want to DJ and then go out and buy some gear. Check the classifieds on here, CL and eBay. Deals are to be had from someone getting out of the business.

Yeah, I finish my exams on the 31st May so I think for the next two months I'm going to do as much research as I can, have a look for some bargains and then practice like a biatch over my very long summer! Would you say a Controller + Laptop w/Software like Traktor or something would be a good way to go considering my entire catalogue is digital?

[g-sep]

Yeah, I finish my exams on the 31st May so I think for the next two months I'm going to do as much research as I can, have a look for some bargains and then practice like a biatch over my very long summer! Would you say a Controller + Laptop w/Software like Traktor or something would be a good way to go considering my entire catalogue is digital?

Sounds like a good plan. A controller would be your best bet, or you can go with cd players and either burn your music to cd's or use a usb drive (if they support it).

[Gareth]

Your music being digital doesn't restrict you to anything any more... even if you wanted to DJ with TTs you could go down the DVS route.

I think a better way of looking at it would be to start with your budget - how much do you have to spend on hardware? If you're only looking to spend a few hundred bucks and want the best bang-per-buck ratio then a MIDI controller is probably your best option.

If you've got more cash to splash then maybe you'll want to consider other things too, e.g. how much space you're gonna have at home, how portable it needs to be, if you want to be able to just 'turn up and dj' somewhere using someone else's kit, etc...

But money is usually the first point to consider as most of us don't have an unlimited budget sadly.

[Trykki]

Yeah, to be perfectly honest using CDs does appeal to me more it has to be said, so I'll have to look around. Can you still incorporate a laptop when using CDjs?

[de.j.l]

You sure can, with a DVS or rekordbox and some CDJS, not all and not sure which ones to be honest, I play CDS so never fully looked into it.. 2000's for sure, 950's and 400's ? anyone got that info?

[Celestial]

don't rush into it like many of us did, think long and hard that this is what you really want to waste the money on, the chances of becoming successful are not so great even if you have the skills based on the fact that everybody and their dog are a dj nowadays

take your time, look around, research, read, do more research, keep in mind - this can be a VERY expensive hobby. Producing is cheaper than djing for sure so you could always start there if you're on a budget.