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5 tips for the Laptop DJ

I was chatting to Metrik today about DJ setups and he was saying he wanted to possibly make a change from USB sticks to a laptop setup and it got me thinking, what are my top 5 tips for a laptop DJ?

1: Shut it down!

There is nothing worse than stepping up in front of a big crowd and your laptop dieing halfway through a tune because you have not restarted it for 2 weeks. Before every performance I make sure I fully shut down and restart my laptop.

 

2: Spare everything.

I take spare audio cables, spare usb cables, many extra control CDS or USB sticks with tunes and timecode. I just burn a bunch of new Serato CDs every now and then. you never know when another DJ might need to borrow yours.

 

 

3: My way of connecting

I have to start off by saying I use Serato and CD’s to control it. I find it the best and most reliable system for me.

This is kinda a Serato/Traktor thing but when connecting my box to the system I find it makes so much more sense to just unplug the CDJ at the CDJ end of the plug (not at the mixer end)  then take that cable and plug it onto the output on my box and then use my own cable from the CDJ to the input of my Serato box. That way I am using my cables for the crucial timecode signal and not the crappy club worn ones. If that timecode aint right its gonna make your life hard for sure.

 

4: Wrap up your cables

Every time you badly wrap up a cable you break a strand of copper, after a while they stop working. I always take time at the end of the performance to wrap them cables nice.

 

5: The change over

I always try and be helpful to the next DJ and the DJ before me and always leave the Dj booth set up like I found it, Plugged in and working.

I never rely on anyone to plug in my setup either. nothing worse than having a sound engineer looking at you like “I dunno?” when there is no music and the crowd start to boo you!!

Oh yeah and have a good time! be super nice to everybody!!