Digital kit has never stopped Ritchie Hawtin rocking clubs worldwide...
Got a club gig coming up and scared about the practicalities of setting up in the DJ box when you get there? Worried about buying digital DJ kit because you want to play in clubs and feel you should learn CDJs instead?
Calling time on timecode
While many DJs have DVS systems so they can use a pair of Technics in a club environment, there’s only one way all that malarkey is going, especially as most clubs don’t even have Technics any more. (Mind you, at least with Technics you know what you’re getting. Trying to use timecode CDs in a club opens you up to worrying about what type of CDJs you’re going to find there too…)
And as you’ve still got to take a laptop, what are you really gaining over the laptop/controller route by using such a system?
CDs still rule, but they’re a cop-out
This is why even today many DJs still choose to organise their music on their laptops, but then either burn it to CD or – for the few lucky enough to play in clubs with compatible equipment – put their sets onto USB drives to use with installation club players like the Pioneer CDJ-2000s.
Which is a real shame, because such DJs are missing out on all the advantages of DJing with a laptop and a controller, such as familiarity with your own equipment, lightning-fast search of your complete collection, access to previous playlists, the ability to throw everything in your bag and head off to DJ at after-parties wherever you wish, and so on.
That litttle glowing Apple has become as common as the Technics and Pioneer logos on DJ kit.
Things are changing all the time
When I started DJing in clubs, it was vinyl all the way. Then we started booking acts who mixed live and sequenced music with their vinyl or CD sets. (I’m thinking the likes of Hybrid with their acid groove box, or Groove Armada’s Tom Cato marching round our dancefloor with a miked-up trombone…) Later still, we started seeing DJs turning up with Ableton. I knew the game was lost and got a laptop myself. That was 2004, and things have got MUCH better for digital DJs since then.
So how did we do it? How did we squeeze all those increasingly weird and wonderful combinations of acts, gear and DJ systems into our DJ booth?
Playing it by ear
Truth is, just like the acts and DJs we booked, you’ll never know exactly how to set up in a new place until you get there (unless it’s local and you can check the DJ booth out beforehand, of course. It is? Great! Do it.)
So here’s some of the things DJs often do.
- They put the lids onto the Technics record decks and set their equipment up on the top of those
- They carry fold-up stands (such as these sold by the ever-excellent DJ Tech Tools boys).
- They unplug and move CDJs (Alright, so it’s probably good manners to plug then in again if then next DJ needs them, but that’s life nowadays in DJ boxes. It’s no biggie.)
But you can think more laterally too. Why not set up away from the normal DJ box? We used to set up on a club stage in a great position way away from the DJ box. We’d Duct-taped long phono-to-phono or XLR leads connecting our digital kit to the “main ” DJ booth. After all, no amount of jumping around will make digital DJ sets skip and jump like records or CDs, so why not get out into the crowd instead?
Laptops, controllers, records and CDs can co-exist happily in today's DJ booth.
Smile and be bold – it’s all been done before…
The lesson is to try things. Investigate. Be prepared. Be bold. Digital is fun, so use its flexibility. With USB controllers and long-life laptop batteries, you don’t even need a mains socket to pay for a couple of hours nowadays, as long as there’s a PA for you to plug into!
Another thing is, the venue manager has probably seen it all before. So just make sure you explain how you work, and ask beforehand (when you’re booked preferably).
But the most important thing is that you shouldn’t ever feel shy or feel inferior about using controllers or laptops to DJ from in clubs – DJing is about music, not kit. You could play off an iPod if you loved it enough and your tunes were hyper-cool. I’m being serious.
There’s a lot of rubbish spoken by blinkered people about “you have to do it this way, or that way”, and they’re mainly just scared of new (probably younger) DJs. Telling you that you “can’t play in a club with that kit” is just another barrier such people try to put up, a barrier that you’re going to have to break down if you want to make it as a modern digital DJ.
Have you got a story about getting your digital DJing kit set up in a nightclub? Are you going to be playing in a nightclub and feel worried that you’ll have problems with getting set up when you get there? We’d love to know your thoughts below.
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DJ Midi Controllers: The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide 2011
Dealing with Unwanted People in the DJ Booth
7 Easy Ways To Sound Better Than Other DJs
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Tags: club djing, digital djing in clubs, djing in clubs
“But the most important thing is that you shouldn’t ever feel shy or feel inferior about using controllers or laptops to DJ from in clubs – DJing is about music, not kit.”
Yes, it’s about music. And sound quality is directly related to what music is.
Dont get lost in useless talks about vinyl v/s CDs or 320 kbps vs lower rates. Digital music could be every bit as good as vinyl and even better, but that is if you play WAVs, not mp3s. Not ANY mp3 does it. An “all 320 kbps set” Dj doesn’t actually exist, so get over this and play a 100% uncompressed WAV set and feel the difference. Yes, it’s about the music.
Try telling virtual Djs that mp3′s harsh treble tire people’s ears, its similar to telling newbie Djs to keep green volumen levels.
Mp3s could get away with it at home, car & headphones and possibly at very noisy small pubs or with noisy music styles(indie, punk) but any medium to big installed amplification with mostly any other music style(even Metallica and 70′s funk fits this category) will sound completely different when sourced from WAVs instead.
Party and Local owners are starting to realize that attendance early-leaving is not because of bad quality booze, but sound systems and bad quality sourced music inficting on the listeners ears. There are studies about this, even with people who could’t tell the difference, but reacted after some time of exposure…
That is the remaining barrier for Digital Djs with controllers & laptops at Nightclubs. Its not the gear, its not some kind of anti-controllerism or a condescendent attitude from due past turnablists or beatmatchers; its the much spreaded own Digital Djs unprofesionalism when comes to gathering their music.
And sites like this one contribute to this effect by not providing visible enough correct advice in this sensitive matter.
[ link ]I’d be interested in seeing these studies about why people leave clubs early that you mention?
Also many DJs these days test out new material in clubs, stuff they may have made that day, home mixed and no proper mastering. That may be a wav file, but is it the same?
File format alone isn’t enough. I know for a fact that some big name DJs use mp3s and no one complains. Weirdly it tends to be the smaller fry DJs that make the most noise about this.
[ link ]nice article – i love the empowerment tone. Like Nike – Just Do It.
As for banning mp3s – I’m not necessarily going to agree with that. While I do notice the difference while working on a track in the studio, I’d like to think we should facilitate the forms of music that DJs are comfortable with – mp3′s, wav, DVS, etc. But let’s be reasonable, regardless of the file format, I really believe that’s what’s most important at the end of the day is what comes out of the speakers. Any file format has the potential to sound harsh, I think it comes down to how to use what you have…
[ link ]Just do it – that’s what DDJT is all about
As I just said to another commenter, and as you can probably tell from the article, I am so not a purist! I love music and DJing and have played all kinds of clubs big and small and I don’t give a damn what I play from – my ears instantly tell me if something sounds OK or not and I react accordingly.
Give me a dodgy sound system and an unresponsive crowd and I’ll take the bait! If I can have them hanging from the rafters by the end of the night, then I go away happy. To me, the real world isn’t acoustically dead enclosures and lossless WAVs mastered by the best engineers out there – it is compromise all the way.
[ link ]@James,
Give me some time (and that may take long) to track the forums where cited them.
“I know for a fact that some big name DJs use mp3s and no one complains. Weirdly it tends to be the smaller fry DJs that make the most noise about this.”
I’d like to know whose Big Djs admit (or just use) mp3s. The ones I’ve been lucky to meet where very picky about sound quality.
As a long time Dj and part of a collective organizer of events it is discusting when you set up a great venue, a good sound system and all involved and suddenly all this care is “lowered” in what we dare most; music sounding.
And it tends to be the smaller fry Djs that usually make the most noisy sets (pun intended).
That is something difficult to control when you try to open to multiple scenes with several dancefloors on days-long events http://www.earthdance.cl As a dancer, audience you may forgive the comparative bad sound for a while (or go to another stage) but in the whole mayority of events you have just one dancefloor and a few hours and you dont want the sound quality to fall into lower levels, least not in the middle of the night.
We had to say this to Djs who were promoted or asked to participate, and stablish this as a general, overt rule.
@ Phil,
I can really feel what you say. You -and judging by your words only a few of the readers- could imagine how basic or bad quality gear had been transformed into a great musical instrument on cetain nights… Cassettes?, no mixer? boomboxes? you name it.
About unresponsive crowds, that -luckily- is not my experience. Early on I had to search for the crowd that would actually enjoy my unusual music styles. Once located we haven’t parted just increased or varied.
But I dont let my roots or most dificult experiences cloud what I aim to. Actually in ’96 when it became obvious I needed a DJ name (and so unknown people woudn’t talk me like they knew me, don’t worry just a few, only sometimes annoying few), at that time when machinal techno and “acid” everything meant lowfi and noisy sets I selected music that had spatial depth and resolution… so to play with dynamics. Since then and since a kid really always wanted to have a realistic, veritable and creative, vivid sound experience…
And now, mostly from 2008 it has become technologicaly feasible.
I am so happy it is now widespreading soo fast!!!
Finally.
In many locations you as a DJ might actually dring your good quality external DAC and amuuuuse the crowd -if you’d done your hi rez homework in the rest of your input (quality files, connections, mixer)-
And talking about the future. WAV is perfectly Ok at 44.000 kHz 16 bits with good DACs and sound chain… just wait till you listen to an “spiced up” higher rez set on Ableton, say 8 channels where maybe 2 carry the original track. Too long, too off comment already, but the possibilities.:
[ link ]@phil – exactly!!
[ link ]um, I actually do only have 320kbps mp3′s on my dj laptop.
[ link ]Well, in my opinion this is really complicated, the format war, i know some vinyls that sound terrible because of bad mastering, the mp3 sound a normal person in a normal place wouldn’t notice the differencefrom a cd. Now, the interesting part is: a shitty sound card whot sound great no matter if flac, wav or mp3, a shitty mixer o amp or anything in the chain from the hard disk to the speaker will sound terrible no matter if all the other things are great.
From my experience i have played mp3 since 3 years ago and no problem anywhere i have played. And the clubs that hae great sound quality to mantain dynamics of the tracks are counted in the world.
Just my 2 cents.
Saludos desde México
[ link ]Format war for music is like computer war from pc to mac and linux.
I agree with Phil, if you can make the night with what you have, doesn’t matter if it’s tape decks, vinyl, cds, flacs, wavs or mp3.
Great post Phil, like always!
[ link ]“DJing is about music, not kit.” – Amen!
[ link ]It always make me chuckle when ppl tell you they can tell the difference in Wave and mp3 in a club on a loud PA.
I’m a live sound engineer(for my real job) I set up, tune, and operate large format PA systems on a regular basis. And yes I do agree Wave sounds better. But people arent leaving the club early because the dj is playing mp3s. Yes the Highs, degrade as its compressed down and start to sound washy. But if you are getting 1st generation 320k mp3 I challenge anyone to tell the difference in a club. Hell even a 128k is nearly unnoticeable unless you really know the song and know the tonal balance.
And also what a lot of people dont realize is that any sound system out there has digital processors managing it. Its applying EQ, Compression and Limiting. All effecting the way the track sounds.
Also lets not forget that yes those Funktion ones sound great but the best speakers in the world put into a club with shitty acoustics Is going to wreak havoc on your ears. Especially at 110db or more.
As long as the DJ has a good soundcard, and understands proper gain structure, and doesnt play crappy songs that were ripped off of youtube, i really think its fine.
[ link ]I’m a beginner DJ and I’m using a Behringer BCD2000. This hardware has been used in a bar once or twice and has sounded quite poor although I wasn’t manning the controls (someone else was using it), but at the same time the bar PA was pretty rubbish. This device is fine for recording straight to wav, but the quality of the sound that comes out of it while live is not perfect from what I’ve witnessed.
I’m not a professional DJ and no little about sound systems and much of what I’ve read above has put me right off doing my first gig with it on boxing day. It’s only entry level equipment and I’m now worried that it’ll sound shit in a large venue .. Wish I didn’t read this, but it’s still good to know
[ link ]On the WAV vs MP3 issue…
I do think DJs should play uncompressed audio if they can, but I don’t have any time for people that claim _all_ MP3s sound terrible and shouldn’t ever be used on a big sound system.
I think Jeff (two posts up) makes some excellent points. The weakest point in the audio chain is where the sound enters the air, i.e. the speakers, and the way it interacts with the room and other speakers in the system.
Clubs and Bars almost always have poor acoustics. I’d be very surprised if anyone could tell the difference between a first generation 192k MP3 and WAV on most club systems. Most people can’t tell the difference on top notch studio gear.
I think the reason “MP3″ djs get a bad rap is that some of them get all their music from illegal download sites or Youtube. Files that have been re-compressed several times, start out at very low bitrates, or that have just been badly produced in the first place really will sound terrible on any sound system.
Digital music has made it a lot easier to get into DJing, which is great… but…
When many of us old timers started, getting music was very time consuming and expensive. I used to travel for hours on the train to get to a decent record shop, and pay £7 or more (sometimes much more) for each record. When your time and money is limited (as it is for most people) it forces you to REALLY LISTEN to what you are buying, and be very critical about what you choose.
This is the skill that the new generation of digital DJs need to learn. Get a good pair of headphones and REALLY LISTEN to your tracks, be ruthless and ditch the ones that sound muddy, flat or lifeless.
Learning to spot great production will make you a better DJ. As always, the best advice is to use your ears!
[ link ]I’m with Jeff, Colin and Ocean Factory on this one. While there are legitimate concerns about sound quality, made worse by digital DJs who donp’t know better ripping from YouTube etc and wondering why their MP3s sound awful in club, common sense, using your ears and a modicum of knowledge will keep most of the people happy, most of the time.
djcl.ear is right to raise the point though that some digital DJs need educating on the basics, as digital DJing is not the same as just putting a record on or a CD in a player – and it is also true that with the barriers to releasing music lower than ever, a drop in mastering standards means there is still work to do (enter Platinum Notes and the like) for the diligent DJ looking to really impress with their sound quality.
Marvin you’re right, rocking a party is about so much more than file types – but nonetheless it IS important to at least listen well to your music before playing it live, and it is also true that stuff that sounds good at home/in headphones CAN sound bad on a big PA.
To GKPMusic – The Behringer is budget kit, it’s true, but if you’re happy to use it (and it sounds like you are), don’t let sound quality put you off. DJing is meant to be fun, it’s not heart surgery. Use good quality music files you’ve listened to at home on good headphones as Colin says, read 7 Easy Ways to Sound Better Than Other DJs, and learn as you go along. If it were me, I’d DJ in your bar with your Behringer at the drop of a hat, no hesitation. Don’t be put off. Bad DJs don’t even think about this stuff – you are thinking about it, and that’s what counts. And please let us know how you get on
[ link ]I love this blog, thanks for the post and the insightful comments.
[ link ]I have used my Behringer bcd3000 with the Native Instruments Audio DJ 2 and it sounds great. The basic card on the Behringer isnt that great. Once I switched to the Audio DJ 2, its quite loud!
I love this blog!!
Thank you Phil, I check here everyday for more useful information.
[ link ]Thanks for the article. I have to admit I was feeling a bit intimidated by what kind of equipment I “should” have. I just want to have a good time and the crowd to have a better time. I’ve just started dj’ing; I’m damn good at engaging the crowd, but was still concerned with being perceived as a fraud for using a laptop and controller instead of whatever the purists deem legitimate. Cheers.
[ link ]To Scrapple: you know who really doesn’t care what you’re playing on? The audience! It’s the other DJs who might – but you shouldn’t care about them.
[ link ]It’s funny how this whole Vinyl vs. Digital war is panning out.
I thought with the introduction of DVS that it might actually bring the DJ community together but the real truth of the matter is; you either see other DJ’s as a someone to bounce ideas and experiences off, or you see them as the enemy, a competitor, someone who will steal your gigs.
I used to get upset about part-time DJ’s not even asking for half of what I charge for gigs until I saw their work. A laptop running a single line-out into a crap mixer and even worse speakers, playing music they’d downloaded from http://www.idontpayformusic.com
I believe in the right gear for the job and I also beg anyone to notice the difference between 320kb mp3 and 256kb AAC. I’ve played 256kb AAC files from 22:00hrs – 07:00hrs in 200sqm marque on a 3000watt system running at nearly 100dB for over 6 hours and I just couldn’t tire the guests out. I basically ended the party on a mutual basis but I’m sure I’d still be there now if I hadn’t said 5 times “Ok, this is the last song.”
I didn’t have any solid walls keeping the bass in and perfectly placed speakers for the best acoustics.
So from 1st hand experience I know that WAV vs. Digital isn’t the issue. A lot of top DJ’s are producers and push 24-bit files through their PA systems which just makes a laughing stock WAV anyway, so should we be demanding .aif from record companies to play out in clubs. What does surprise me is all bitching about HQ audio but there’s enough video evidence on YouTube showing so called top DJ’s having their mixers lit up like July 4th. So in that respect they could well be playing 24-bit .aif audio but all that’s coming out those metal bins is crap. Mind you at over 100dB the crowd can’t tell either.
So really this is about the lazy vs. the professionals. The evolutionists vs. those who can’t comprehend. When I see a turntablist I don’t think “Dinasour”. If i see someone using a little midi-controller I don’t think “cheat”. If they’re rockin’ the crowd that’s all that counts. However when I see some gimp playing a YouTube stream from his iPhone and the crowd are holding their ears in pain then I feel like stamping on his iPhone and smashing it into as many pieces possible and then say to the DJ. “That’ll be you next time I see you ever do that again.”
Please don’t class all digital DJ’s as the same. we’re not; just like not all turntablists can scratch.
[ link ]“Please don’t class all digital DJ’s as the same. we’re not; just like not all turntablists can scratch.” – I think you hit the nail on the head there.
[ link ]Great article!! Although I am committed to and exploring getting the best sounds I can – I just don’t think anybody cares except the DJ’s!!! There’s no way you can quantify if people stayed because of the quality of the sounds or not…it’s just apples and oranges with the obsessive desire of trying to reach the apex of sound quality. It may matter at those clubs with million dollar sound systems where the DJ’s get $10K per set, but at a neighborhood club where the sound systems are ‘pretty good’ at best, I dont think anybody can tell the fine differences between formats beyond whether its distorted or if you need more bass. On a production level is a different story, but in terms of spinning – no one will notice if you are using FLAC or 320 kps mp3′s and if they do notice they aren’t getting into the mix or the journey -it’s an intellectual argument at best that the only people who care about it who arent DJ’s are guys – whereas most clubs are geared towards ladies anyway…
Now if you are playing on a ridiculously massive/high quality system that is another story I think…
[ link ]Did you burn that 320 mp3 yourself from a CD or Vinyl? or did you download it from limewire? Or did you buy it from a music download store? If limewire, you don’t know how it was encoded and chances are it wasn’t good.
Now if you can go with all wav’s or physical format, more power to you but I don’t see a problem with 320′s as long as care was taken to ensure that they are true 320 quality. Can you tell on the finest systems? probably. Can you tell with 500 people dancing and talking? probably not.
For me, the challenge of fitting a full music library of wav’s on aninternal hard drive would limit what I had available and having the music avaliable only via CD’s kinda defeats the purpose. Unless you know the club has, or you have CDJ2000′s then DVD-ROM is out. Now however with compact 1 TB external USB hard drives, I can see it happening. Even the largest collections probably would only take a few of these drives loaded with pure wavs and the drives are now quite inexpensive. I’m currently in the process of converting my entire CD collection to wavs.
[ link ]On the subject of quality of mp3′s over WAV’s…does anyone think back in the day customers walked out early when we were mixing between a top 40 45RPM 12″ and a US import 12″ at 33RPM with half a dozen mixes crammed on to one side that was painfully quiet…and let’s not even consider the sound quality of TRAX import 12″ singles…
[ link ]Good point… I used to have some shocking US pressings (and some good ones – Strictly Rhythm I liked). It’s all academic to 99.9% of the population.
[ link ]What’s wrong with quality 320 mp3′s, they sounded 10 times better than cd’s played with some cdj’s. Besides that anyone djing for a longish time is probably half deaf by now and cannot hear all the frequencies within a track.
[ link ]Everyone has an opinion, if YOU are happy with the quality of your sound and equipment then really thats what really matters. I started off with average gear, was happy then as time went on i realised that you can be even happier with the better quality equipment. If you cant trust yourself then who can you trust.
[ link ]Hm, alright, all my mp3s are 320 kbs from Beatport, but now I’m getting worried that the sound card of my Vestax Typhoon won’t be able to handle the big PA of the club I might be playing at in about a month. Should I be worried about this? Are there real weaknesses in using a home controller at a club, if everything else is fine (mp3s quality wise, cables etc.)..?
[ link ]No, it’ll be fine. The Typhoon is not the ideal controller to use in a club because it is a consumer not a pro model, but I’ve DJed with consumer controllers in clubs with no issues. Don’t worry about it.
[ link ]Who really cares on what format you play your music. I’ve been a vinyl Dj for 17yrs and just this year got into digital djin. Of course you want to have the best quality sounding track. But on vinyl every record has different sound quality and as Dj you adapt to that and make it work. And I guarantee 98% of the people in the club are not audiophiles and give two cracks about the sound quality,all they want is you to keep the party moving and play the right tunes in the mix. Oh and there are eq’s on mixers so don’t forget about that part of the game being a Dj that will usually get you close to where you need to be;)
[ link ]I’m planning on the experience of bringing my Traktor S4 to the Quad in Atlanta some day soon. I’ve seen pictures of DJs using them so I think the scene is finally starting to give us Digital DJs a break. As for the whole WAV vs MP3 crap it really doesn’t matter. I played a set the other night full of 320KB songs that I personally purchased from Beatport played on JBLS, and the floor was losing it. Hell I even messed up, and they still cheered me on like nothing happened because they were just happy to be there. You can have as many WAV files as you please, but if no ones having a good time it might as well be static.
[ link ]I have been googling basic set-ups for a starter DJ, I would like to have a set-up that’s portable so I can quickly set-up and start playing tunes at any given location if a party was to break out. For this the laptop seems to be the best option however my question is:
All the talk about sound quality WAV / MP3′s / aif’s etc has got me thinking would an official downloaded song/album via ITunes (my current music source) play at the required quality levels you guys are talking about?, ie if I was to purchase the latest singles/albums via Itunesto get an up to date library would you be able to play them loud and would they still be clear?
Do you have a specific source or sources you purchase your good quality tunes from?
Sorry if this all sounds basic but I just assumed Itunes would be fine until I read this thread
[ link ]iTunes content is 256 AAC which is equivalent to 320 MP3. both are fine for big sound systems.
[ link ]Great post. I was just explaining some of this to a friend who’s a new DJ. Thanks for the helpful comments and for the original post!
[ link ]i actually knew a dj who thought converting mp3s back to wav’s would restore the quality. i suppose he never heard the expression ‘you can’t polish a turd’.
[ link ]great thread love this site.
[ link ]All DJ’s are responsible for their own sound quality. Do not hide behind the excuse that the venue’s PA is terrible. Do not play tracks that you know sound compressed and awful. Well-mastered tracks can be found in all analog and digital formats, but we’re kidding ourselves if the most obvious current offender isn’t laptop DJ’s who play lo-res mp3′s that they barely auditioned from earlier in the day. Do not hide behind the excuse that most of the party-goers will not hear the difference. If you can hear the difference, you are just rationalizing. Also, use the best quality gear you can reasonably afford and do not mix your tracks into the red. Again, you should know better.
[ link ]Yes you’re right, but the flip side of that is that if a track sounds fine to you, it is fine – whatever some audiophile tells you about its format or mastering or whatever. We’ve all got ears and as DJs, we should trust ours.
[ link ]