I’ve been doing the damn thing since December 1983/January 1984, being a DJ that is... I started like most old school DJs using Technics 1200 and Numark mixers back in my beginnings but rolled with the times much to the dismay of my purist comrades in the business switching to CDs in 1992. In the 80’s it was vinyl (hence the 1200’s), the 90’s saw CD’s (I loved my old Denon) and now of course it’s digital baby!
My professional career (day job) took off and my moonlighting career of DJ/Entertainer took a backseat, but now that my main business (day job) is pretty much running itself now my interests in...I’ve been doing the damn thing since December 1983/January 1984, being a DJ that is... I started like most old school DJs using Technics 1200 and Numark mixers back in my beginnings but rolled with the times much to the dismay of my purist comrades in the business switching to CDs in 1992. In the 80’s it was vinyl (hence the 1200’s), the 90’s saw CD’s (I loved my old Denon) and now of course it’s digital baby!
My professional career (day job) took off and my moonlighting career of DJ/Entertainer took a backseat, but now that my main business (day job) is pretty much running itself now my interests in entertainment have returned. So now I fish in or practice for professional bass tournaments by day and entertain by night! Though I had toyed with digital (in private) since about 2000, I owned Atomix MP3 since around 2001. I got bit by the digital bug around Christmas 2008 and went on a shopping spree which is when I went full time in the digital age of DJing thus abandoning my CDs for mp3s!!! I haven't stopped shopping yet!
This is what I’m rolling with these days… VDJ 7.0.4 & Serato Scratch Live SL-3 hardware w/SL 2.2 software, an Odyssey FZ12CDIW Flight Case adorned with 2 Pioneer CDJ-400's CD/Software controllers, Pioneer DJM-800 Professional Mixer w/Effects utilizing Serato 2.2, VDJ 7.0.4 or Pioneer DJS 1.6001, and smaller setups utilizing a Numark DMC2 w/CUE 7.0.1, Numark C3USB mixer, Pioneer DJM-5000, Pioneer MEP 7000 19” rack mounted multimedia player utilizing Serato Scratch Live 2.2 and Pioneer DJS 1.6001 with three (3) Western Digital 2 terabyte My Book USB 3.0 external hard drives and a 1.5 terabyte Seagate FreeAgent Extreme. A Serato led backlit keyboard, BBE 882i Sonic Maximizer, dbx DriveRack PX, TC Helicon VoiceWorks Plus for karaoke and vocal recording, TC Electronics M350 Dual Engine Processor for karaoke and recording, A Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2 Mixer for karaoke, Monster Power PRO 2500 Power Conditioner. Roadrunner 19” 11 space by 16 space slant mixer rack mount DJ coffin on castors. 1.5 terabyte Seagate FreeAgent eSata external hard drive, Toshiba Qosmio X305 SLI Gaming & Multimedia Laptop running 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate, Acer Laptop Running 64 bit Vista Ultimate exclusively for the Pioneer MEP 7000 and DJS software. A new 15" MacBook Pro with the i7 processor. Smaller speaker setup includes the B52 Matrix 1000 V2 speaker system with Pro Line stands, Sennheiser e945 mics & Shure SM58 mics. For producing and recording I have various M-Audio Midi products and array of digital multi-track recording apparatuses, DAWs & VSTs such as Pro Tools, CuBase, FL Studio, Ableton Live, Sony Acid, SoundForge, Audacity, Adobe Audition and much more.
Allen & Heath XONE:XD-53 Pro-DJ headphones, Pioneer HDJ 2000 headphones, On Stage 10' Lighting Stand, American DJ X-Move LED Plus R moving heads, American DJ ComScan LED scanners, American DJ LED Jellyfish. ADJ Micro GOBO, Micro Galaxian & Micro Star RG lasers, American DJ Fusion Bar FXLED/Laser Strobe/ 4 Chauvet Scorpion RG lasers DMX light, Chauvet Vue 6.1 DMX rotating LED Cluster Moonflower, American DJ Vertigo Tri LED, American DJ Aggressor TRI LED, 2 American DJ Jewel LED Advanced Color Moonflower, two Chauvet TechnoStrobe LED panel white strobes and LED UV panels + black lights. ADJ DynoFog II, Omni Sistem Pyro Fog DMX/Wireless Remote fogger, ADJ Hazer.
Sharp Aquos 42' plasma and a VIZIO 24” LCD HDMI monitor for karaoke, music videos and effects, monitors are mounted on custom made LCD stands/ the smalle has mic holders for the singers. HDMI cables to connect to a much larger LCD/Plasma or Hitachi HD projector and 10' screens. 250,000 FLAC & mp3 songs, 50,000 music videos and at least 150,000 Karaoke files on one of the 2 TB hard drives and over 4200 CDG's. I use a Numark D2 Director as a backup digital media player just in case. Larger speaker package includes two powered QSC 153i 15" three way tops and two QSC 181i 18" powered subwoofers
I've been using my Akai APC40 Ableton Live Controller in addition to VDJ. I use them together. The Akai APC running Ableton Suite 8 (the full version that goes beyond Ableton Live 8) on a separate laptop (MBP) allows me to create my own samples with snippets of songs as sound effects.
I play them through my Pioneer DJM-800 mixer using it's built-in effects then tweak the parameters in Ableton, assign them to a channel then call them up at the press of a button for added effects and samples. The APC40 acts as a full on MPC sampler. I love it!
A Sennheiser G3 wireless mic system with an e965 capsule for myself and trusted clientele singers. For the additional mics, and other hardware I use the Presonus Studio Live 16.4.2 mixing board with built in FireWire soundcards and for studio and live recording.