Over To You: What Gear Do Pro DJs Practise On at Home?

Digital DJ Tips reader Entro writes: “I’m curious, what gear do pro club DJs practise on? I’ve been DJing for two years or so and I still want to make the ‘jump’ from small controller to CDJs and mixer (more out of convenience than anything else). But what’s holding me up is getting chances to practise on club gear.

“Which made me wonder, what gear do pro club DJs use at home? They all can’t make enough money to drop $5000+ for a home Nexus setup, can they? But I don’t imagine they use controllers either…”

Digital DJ Tips says:

From the pro DJs we know and from our own experiences DJing full time, really the truth is that unless it’s practising certain routines (controllerism, turntablism, a particular mix…) pros don’t really practise that much. They know they can beatmatch, they know how to use FX, etc – it becomes a bit like riding a bike.

What they are doing is music discovery, finding those few tracks each month that deserve to enter their collection… making sure they know those tracks intimately and that they are properly tagged, keyed, and beatgridded. You hit the stage where you can “run” a mix in your head without actually doing it!

Also, all pro DJs are definitely prepping for gigs: Going through that collection and making new playlists, selecting what to bring to the next gig and so on…

Personally back in the day when I still felt I needed to practise the technical skills and I had a residency, I’d go in to the actual venue in the afternoon and fiddle around for a couple of hours, often recording my session. I’d then listen to the tape over the next day to find out what I could have done better.

Back to your question though, in our own circles people have everything from a controller to full blown set-up, to just a laptop for prepping their music… there isn’t really any “set” gear or set-up that pro DJs keep at home. We know one guy who has his own club, on the top floor of a building he owns… and others who don’t even have a permanent home, never mind a DJ set-up! Pro DJs are a weird bunch 🙂

Over to you… Do you DJ full time? What type of set-up do you prefer to use at home? Or do you just save the DJing for your actual gigs? Please share your thoughts below…