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january 28th, 2025
by: Dillon Hamann
| Musings of a Space Cowboy |
Everyone seems to know someone with a DJ deck nowadays, right? I can't speak for yall though, since I'm one of those someones who got a DJ deck during lockdown. Disclaimer- I'm also an Audio Visual technician, but after almost four years of owning a deck, I've still never played an official gig. I have, however, hosted many parties and mixed for my friends countless times, and I can confidently tell you how to create the best set for your bestie's birthday party or start making your own sets to upload to YouTube or SoundCloud. The secret to making a good mix is knowing your crowd and feeling the energy. You're creating an experience- a story, one with rising action, climax, and resolution. But let's get all the boring stuff out the way first. Here's a quick and easy 5 step guide to becoming a DJ.
1. GET A DJ DECK
This one's pretty straightforward, but it's gonna hurt your pockets. You can buy DJ decks online (sweetwater.com has the best customer service for music products) or at your local Guitar Center. As a beginner, the best option is a Pioneer DDJ-400. It costs about $300 and will allow you to do everything club DJs do, but only with two songs at a time instead of 3+. You won't need anything more until you get bored of it after learning everything you can do with it. It's gonna take a long time before that happens; I still use my DDJ-400 all the time.
2. YOUR SOUND SYSTEM
This is the most important step, aside from actually knowing how to DJ. Depending on the size of the party and how loud you want it to be, you'll either want to rent an entire system for the night or purchase something that you'll use consistently. For loud sound, you have two good options:
PA Speakers
You can rent a system which will have people really feeling the bass for around $300-$500 depending on what options are available to you, but if you go this route the AV company will help you figure out what system you need based on your event.
If you're on a budget, you can purchase a single PA loudspeaker for $200, which can last you a lifetime if treated right. These wont have you feeling the bass as much, but they can be used at house parties of any size. You might need 2 if there's a large indoor area AND outdoor area. Purchasing a basic PA speaker is probably the best option if you want to start being mobile and doing sets outside too. Their only downside is that the sound quality can be a bit subpar, but you can always save up for one with better sound if you really want it.
JBL Partybox
Getting one of these is probably the best investment if you consistently play at house parties and the like. The sound quality is great for a PA speaker, and they also let you connect to Bluetooth or aux if you want just to put on a playlist.
If you're trying to be a bedroom DJ on the other hand, you'll most likely want to go with these three different options, all similar in loudness but differ in expandability or purpose. For example:
Movie Theater 2.1 System
Almost every super cheap theater system (~$150) with a sound bar/two monitors and a subwoofer will sound great and still be loud enough to annoy your neighbors in your apartment building. Just don't play them too loud for too long, they're known to get blown out after a while.
Studio Monitors
If you're gonna take your DJ journey very seriously and genuinely care about clearly hearing your mix while practicing at home, these are the way to go. The sound will be the clearest you've ever heard, so much so that you'll think your mixing is extra crappy since you can hear every detail.
Stereo Receiver System
These have much higher-quality sound, but they can run your pockets if you're not careful. On the crazier side, you can get a receiver with so many outputs that you can create an entire wall of speakers if you want. Even if you had the money for that, I doubt you'd want to set it up. Luckily, a standard old stereo receiver + speakers setup is used by audiophiles around the world, so you can find entire audiophile setups on Facebook marketplace for $150 to $300. As long as you're not getting bookshelf speakers, they'll be loud enough to fill your entire house.
3. CREATING A SETLIST
There are countless things you have to consider when choosing what songs to use before you even start mixing. But you should first worry about where you will be playing. Is it a birthday party at your apartment, a local frat, a cafe, an abandoned warehouse, the park behind your house, or are you opening at Coachella for Sexyy Red? Long story short, know your crowd and know what type of dancing people will want. Now that you know what vibe you're going for, it's time to choose things like the songs you'll play at the crowd's highest energy vs. songs to have a moment to rest or not care about paying attention to the music and everything in between. It's good practice to choose too many songs and take out what doesn't work well during the next step.
4. FINDING YOUR TRANSITIONS
There are endless ways to transition between songs, to the point that some DJs get to a point where they're basically live-producing using loops from multiple tracks and adding more effects simultaneously. Unfortunately, not everyone is so talented so before you start actually mixing songs together, it'd be extremely rewarding to research how song structure works. Most dance music utilizes 8, 16, or 32-bar phrases that all consecutively build up and break down, meaning your first song can have a breakdown that lasts exactly 16 bars towards the end, and your next song will have a simple 16-bar buildup at the beginning where they can seamlessly mix without much help needed from you. Some of the most bang for your buck (in terms of difficulty and sounding good) ways of transitioning between songs are using songs that share the same lyrics, choosing songs where phrase structures line up well, and using effects like echo and reverb. Once you understand song structure and how to mix different phrases, it's probably time to hit YouTube and watch your favorite DJs or some genre-specific tutorials.
5. PLAYING IT LIVE
Now that you have your setlist and figured out what songs mix into each other well, it's time to practice and practice and PRACTICE that set until it becomes muscle memory. This preparation will allow you to not only mix live confidently but also interact more with your friends and the crowd. DJs need to dance too!! Reading the crowd's energy as the event goes on is the next key step to your DJ journey. Then, as you make more sets over time and gain more muscle memory, the more you will start knowing your song collection like the back of your hand; you will be able to make magic happen effortlessly after enough time spent on the DJ decks.
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