If you’ve followed this blog for a while, then you’ll know that I’m a planner. I don’t do the spontaneous thing very well. That’s not to say I can’t adapt when things go awry. This is definitely a skill ultrarunning has forced upon me, but I don’t begin by having a plan to be unplanned. So I didn’t wake up one morning and randomly decide I wanted to start DJing. This is something I’ve been thinking about for quite a while. I’ve been stalking beginner DJ subreddits for years now getting little bits of background information. This was less to learn how to DJ and more what it all entailed. I was pretty sure this was something I wanted to pursue, but I needed to do some research first. This was especially crucial when determining what equipment I wanted to buy in order to get started.
Why Branding Matters
There are a bunch of different DJ equipment manufacturers out there, but it basically boils down to Pioneer DJ and everyone else (Denon, Rane, Numark, Allen & Heath). When people talk about “industry standard” they’re talking about Pioneer DJ. When you look at the top club setups they are all Pioneer DJ’s top of the line models. It’s not that the other manufactures don’t make decent products. They just have much, much smaller market shares within the space. As such, Pioneer DJ commands a premium price for it’s gear. You can buy similar technology for a lower price point.
You would think being the cheap SOB that I am that I would gravitate to the more cost effective DJ brands out there. You would be wrong. I got burned early on in my childhood by knockoff brands when my parents got us the Odyssey gaming system rather than the more popular Atari. The games weren’t quite as good and all my friends had the other systems so I always felt a little out of place. This was reinforced when I got a Macintosh back when 98% of the world was still Windows based. I don’t mind being different now, but it taught me the value of being in the mainstream when it comes to technology. Yes, there’s a premium attached to the brand, but it’s one I am will to pay.
Buy Once, Cry Once
Once I settled on Pioneer DJ, I now needed to figure out which specific unit I wanted to buy. You’d probably be surprised to learn there are quite a few options ranging from the very basic entry level (FLX4) at $300 all the way up to professional club standard (CDJ3000/A9) at $8,000. I’m pretty confident this is going to be a serious hobby for the next number of years so didn’t want to end up buying multiple controllers as I progressed. I’m also confident that this isn’t going to be a second (third?) career so there’s no need to drop $10k on equipment once speakers, wires, traveling cases, etc. are added. I eventually settled on the Opus Quad which is about in the middle from a price standpoint, but much closer to the high end from a feature standpoint.
My mind is completely blown away with the amount of knobs, buttons, screens, levers, jog wheels, and effects included. It took me about 2 hours just to set up the unit and figure out how to play a song on it. I’m about 10 hours in now and I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. This is a good news/bad news situation to be in. The good news is I will definitely get my money’s worth learning how to use it. I will most assuredly not get bored with this piece of equipment. The bad news is that since I know nothing about DJing right now it’s essentially the world’s most expensive MP3 player.
I’m nowhere near good yet, but I’m better than I was a week ago. More importantly, I’m having an absolute blast!