electric drum set

I’ve shared a lot of my loves and hobbies and passions on this site. I’ve talked about how I love traveling with a hammock, how I prefer listening to music on a vinyl record player more than any other source, how I’ve wanted to learn how to sing, and, of course, my love for raves and electronic music concerts.

What is surprising is that I have never mentioned drumming before. Drums are a natural instrument for those of us who are really into electronic music. Sure, we like to get out the turntable and spin some vinyl, using it as an instrument through scratching and such, but even better is producing our own music.

When you produce music, you can use drum machines or keyboards or samples or all of those on a computer. But I prefer using real instruments. I feel it sounds much better. And the instrument I like playing the most is the drums. I actually had a drum set growing up. Yes, my neighbors hated me.

And I just got a new drum set, but this time I won’t be pissing off my neighbors. Why is that? That is because I got an electric drum set this time. The set I got is certainly not the best electric drum kit you can find online, but it is quite good. More on that below.

electric drum set

First, I want to explain more what e-drums actually are. These didn’t exist when I was young, but to me, they are an incredibly important invention.

They’re basically like a regular drum kit, except the sound is not created by hitting the drums and echoing out. Instead you hit an electronic pad and everything is done digitally. Sound is interpreted and reproduced digitally.

That means that you can play very quietly. You can hit the pads and have the sound turned down. Is this as good is playing loud? No, of course not. You lose a lot of things when you play quietly like this.

But it does have one huge advantage. It does not bother your neighbors or anyone else. And that means that you can practice far more often. With a normal drum set, you’re limited to certain times of the day, usually those times when you have agreed with those living around you that they will suffer through your drumming for that one or two hours. Outside of that time, you simply cannot practice anymore.

With an electric drum set, you can practice during those times. You can practice anytime you want, because you can turn on the sound and not bother anyone. That completely changes the way drummers practice and get better.

Previously, so much time was spent on trying to find a suitable practice base, or trying to work around other people schedules. Now you practice anytime you want and pretty much anywhere you want. That frees up so much more time to practice your drumming. You can make progress much faster. As a result, I think these electric drum kits are better than acoustic drum sets.

Now, I am obviously not a professional drummer. I just like to do it for fun. I do record some of my own music and I hope to press some of it to vinyl some day. It would just be so cool to listen to my own music on my vinyl record player. But even if that never happens, I just love making music. Even if no one else ever hears it, the joy of creating my own tunes, and now doing so with my own drum set, is just unbeatable.

If you’re wondering about where to get an electric drum set, I bought mine online from a place called Percussion Cave. Well, I read their review of my kit, but bought it elsewhere. You can generally get them at a local store that carries instruments.

There are a bunch of different brands available. I bought a fairly small one that doesn’t have too many different parts. I didn’t need anything fancy. It is considered a beginners kit, but it has so many advanced features that I think the only thing that makes it beginner is the fact that it doesn’t have more pieces.

It was really more of an advanced kit, but one with fewer pieces for the drummer who doesn’t feel like he needs to show off with hundreds of different components. And that is me, since I’m not really a real drummer anyway. I just need enough pieces to be able to make the sounds that I want and I have that.

I’ve been using my kid a lot since I got it and I absolutely love it. If you are a drummer or thinking of becoming one, I highly recommend getting an electric drum kit. Obviously, if you play live, you’ll need a real drum set too, but you should still get an electric one to practice on. They are actually surprisingly affordable. You owe it to yourself to check them out.

woman in parachute hammock

There are only a few things I always take with me when I hit the road. And perhaps the most important one to me is my hammock. That’s probably surprising to hear, but there’s a reason for that and it’s a pretty good story. Before we get to that, let me introduce you to my hammock.

woman in parachute hammock

I have what is called a parachute style hammock. I bought it online from some website. It was not a huge site, but they have a good selection and they have great prices on parachute hammocks. They also sell other types of hammocks, like Mayan hammocks and Brazilian hammocks and tree tents, but parachute hammocks are the best for traveling.

The reason parachute hammocks are so good that they weigh very little and they roll up into a tiny ball. You stuff them in the pouch they come with and they take up very little space. Despite that, they are very strong. More importantly, they are incredibly comfortable.

The only hammocks that are (slightly) more comfortable are Mayan hammocks and Nicaraguan hammocks or perhaps Brazilian hammocks. For me Brazilian hammocks are a bit too warm, but Mayan and Nicaraguan hammocks are cooler. All three are very comfortable though. They are the kind of hammocks you can sleep in. The drawback of these hammocks is that they are bulkier and they weigh a little bit more and they are much more expensive. That is why I have a parachute style hammock.

I started carrying a hammock with me when I first began DJing in other countries. Back then I could not afford to stay in nice hotel rooms and even hostels were a bit expensive for me in the long run. I quickly learned from other travelers that you could often stay in a hostel for much cheaper if you brought a hammock with you and simply hung it up on the property.

They would charge you half of what they would charge for dorm room and often even less. In exchange for that, you get access to the kitchen and their bathroom facilities. For me this was important. I know I could’ve hung my hammock up out in nature and not paid anything, but I really wanted to be clean. You can’t roll up looking like a homeless person when you’re DJing in a club.

Because of what I said earlier, you’re probably wondering what other things I take with me. The others you can probably guess. Naturally I always bring my phone and a lightweight laptop. I need these for my business. I don’t bring much DJ equipment anymore, since I can do everything from my laptop. Sometimes, when I play big festivals, I do bring actual turntables and a mixer. At these types of events, I like to still spin it old-school style with real turntable record players. Apart from that, I just bring the standard stuff you would take when traveling: clothes, toiletries and so on.

Like I said, there’s nothing too surprising in there. Except for the hammock of course. These days, I can afford nicer hotel rooms, but I still like sleeping in my hammock to be honest. Sleeping in a hammock is much more comfortable than just about any bed.

Of course, this presumes that you know how to sleep in a hammock. Most people do it wrong. They lie init like a banana and that is not comfortable for a long period of time. You have to lie a bit diagonally, so that your body ends up being straight. Lie in one like this and hammocks are super comfortable and also great for your back. You get the best sleep of your life, trust me.

Dj playing music

People often ask me what made me want to become a DJ. They are also often curious about my desire to travel and one of the most common questions overall that I get is whether I always wanted to be a DJ. Have I known my whole life that this is what I wanted to do?

Dj playing musicThe truth is no. That said, I do usually tell people that I always wanted this career path. I’m talking about music when I say that, but they assume from that that I always wanted to be a DJ, but that is not quite true. When I was younger and up until high school or so, I actually wanted to be a singer. Whenever you see a band playing live, the lead singer gets all the attention. And that’s what I wanted. I wanted the attention. This was back when DJs were not yet the focal point of a music festival. When DJs just played music and nobody really paid much attention to them.

But back in the 90s that started to change. I watched a movie and I would like to tell you what it’s called, but I can’t remember. It had the actress who played the foreign exchange student in American pie. I want to say her name is Shannon Elizabeth but I am not sure. Anyway she was in it and a whole bunch of people I’d never seen before and have never seen again in a movie. In short it wasn’t a great movie.

But it involved a group of friends who went to a rave. One of them went for the first time and being at the rave changed his life. I know that feeling, because my first rave was a special experience too.
But what really got me from the movie were the DJs.

It featured several DJs, but only one was really famous. That was John Digweed. Now, he is not my favorite DJ by any means, but seeing him and the other DJs in the movie really left a lasting impression on me.

The crowd really loved the DJs and they controlled the atmosphere of the crowd. The music they played ensured that people had a good time. And if they played bad music people did not have a good time. I loved that you can have such an impact on people’s moods as a DJ. And that is when I change my mind. I no longer wanted to become a singer. I wanted to be a DJ instead.

From there, I got myself a set of turntable record players and started practicing. This is before the Internet was huge and before YouTube, so I couldn’t just watch videos like you would do today. Instead, I rented books at the library and tried to follow from them. That didn’t work too well.

traveling the worldSo what I did is just went to club and befriended some DJs and learned from them. Eventually I started to get some smaller gigs that then lead to larger gigs. I also got some better equipment. It was around this time that I really got an interest in traveling.

I started dating a girl who had done a lot of traveling and her stories maybe want to see the world. I also started to watch a lot of movies about traveling and that really gave me the travel bug. Plus, my girlfriend got me into international bands, like Le Zoo, Yvon Krevé and Le Partisan. Yes, they are all French. And yes, my girlfriend was French.

I was starting to make more money from my DJing, but I gave it all up when I started to travel. At some point on the road, I realized I could use my DJ skills to make money while I travel. I would never be as big of a DJ, because it takes time to establish yourself in a location, but that was a sacrifice I was willing to make to see the world. That is how I got you where I am today.

DJ singing

There is a common misconception about DJs, that they don’t have any musical talent. The can’t play any instruments and they can’t sing. Actually, this is probably not that big of a misconception. This is true for a lot of DJs. In fact, I would say, a lot of people who really want to get into music, but have no talent whatsoever, end up becoming DJs.

DJ singing

Obviously, not all DJs fit into this grouping. Many of them do have musical talent. But because they became DJs, they never really fostered it. That is a shame. I think as DJs, if at all possible, we should learn to play at least one instrument and perhaps also learn to sing.

Playing an instrument helps with music production, but singing probably provides the best benefit of all. Nothing helps you get in tune with your musical abilities more than learning to sing. It has a ton of other benefits to, from confidence to breathing, to posture, etc. It will also help make your DJing a lot better, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

First, the big question is how do you learn how to sing. Singing teachers can be expensive and if there are no good ones in an area, then you would have to hire one over the Internet, which takes away some of the benefits of having a teacher.

There are also a lot of courses that cost a few hundred dollars. These are generally pretty comprehensive and can take you quite far. But when you’re first starting, you do not you need to spend any money. You can find a website like this one that provides free vocal training and has a ton of tips and techniques to help you improve your voice. This is a great way to learn to sing, if you are a beginner. It will take you out of the beginner stages.

After that, it makes more sense to hire someone. If you want to really get good as a singer, you will eventually need a live teacher. It could be a live teacher over Skype, but even better if it’s a teacher in person. There are so many of these available, including teachers who have taught quite a few famous singers.

As a DJ, though, it is not necessary to become the world’s best singer. Just working with a free site like Musicaroo, will take your singing to a much higher level than it is currently. The improvement you make from just learning the basic singing techniques is incredible. After that, it takes a lot more work to improve more, so it only makes sense to do that if you actually want to become a singer. As a professional DJ, you probably do not

Once your voice is a bit better, you can actually use it in your music production and sing on your own tracks like these famous DJs. You probably do not want to sing complete tunes, but you can add some hooks and such into your music.

You can even incorporate singing into your live sets, if you don’t suffer from stage fright. A lot of people don’t like to sing to an audience, but if this does not bother you, it would be great to add some singing to your DJing. This is especially true if you are a female. People just love female voices set to electronic dance music.

Whether you’ve got any music ability or not, you can learn to sing and you should. It doesn’t really take that much time for the initial improvement jump. That comes quite quickly. Once you’ve gotten that, go ahead and stop. That’s all you really need as a DJ. You just want a basic singing ability; one that puts you above most people, but not in line with professional singers. As a DJ, this will help you out in your career. Trust me.

a traditional vinyl record we all enjoy playing

vinyl record for a turntableA few months ago I wrote a post about turntable record players making a comeback. I got so much mail from my readers concerning this post. It’s weird, because the site isn’t really even about that topic, but it seems to have really hit a nerve with people.

Most of the messages I got were people telling me that they love vinyl. Like it does for me, it reminded them of their time growing up, listening to the dad’s record collection on his player. They want to relive those nostalgic feelings, but they don’t have a record player of their own and their dad’s has long ago disappeared. Sure, they could get music files that were taken from vinyl and recorded into the digital format, but it really is not the same.

In short, they want to buy a record player, but they had no idea where to get one. The really aren’t many stores selling turntables like this anymore. Most of the ones you buy are specifically tailored for DJs. DJ turntables can obviously be used to play records, but they have a lot of features that you don’t really need and are missing other features that you probably do want. You end up paying for a lot of things you don’t need and, of course, missing the features that you really could use.

a traditional vinyl record we all enjoy playingI actually thought the answer was obvious, but from all the messages it appears it wasn’t. And that answer is: buy online. Seriously, there are so many online stores that sell practically anything these days, that it seems like a no-brainer that they would also sell record players. A site like Amazon, has thousands available.

Now obviously, that presents a whole other problem. Of those thousands of record players available, which ones are actually any good and which are simply ripoffs? The truth is, the majority are cheap products coming from China. Some of them won’t work at all, but most will work for a while and then breakdown. Usually they will break right after the warranty period runs out.

So how do you avoid these crappy products? You do your research. You’ll find a ton of sites online that review the top record players and give you a list of the best ones. Not only do these reviews have a ton of information on each product, most of the sites also feature charts of the top turntables, so that you can see at a glance which one is best for you.

Check out the website I mentioned above, or do a quick search and find hundreds of similar ones. You may notice that most of them are written by a mentally challenged four-year-old. Or so it would seem. The one I mentioned is well-written and that’s why I mentioned it. So many of the other ones aren’t and their reviews are completely useless. They were clearly written by people who’ve never used the products themselves.

So there you have it. Online is the best place to buy record players, but you face the same dangers as you do with any other products online. A lot of them simply aren’t very good and it’s hard to tell which ones those are. Furthermore, the sites that claim to review those products have the same issues. Most of them are worthless as well.

I had all of these same issues when I got my new electronic drum kit. I had to weed my way through hundreds of terrible review sites until I found one called Percussion Cave that actually had useful reviews. Those helped me decide on the electric drum set I ended up going with and I am very happy with the drums I purchased.

So you first need to find a good review site (I helped you with that) and then you need to go find a place to purchase a record player that you decided on. If you do all of this correctly, will end up with a wonderful player that will help you enjoy your dad’s old vinyl collection or your new one. Alternatively, you could go to a store selling DJ equipment and pick up a turntable player favored by DJs. Either way, happy listening!

a more modern vinyl record player

On a recent trip to Japan I was walking through one of their many old-school shopping arcades when I stumbled upon a quaint little music store. I walked in to check it out and found they were selling hundreds of different turntables. And I’m not talking about the DJ kind of turntables. I’m talking about record players. You know, the ones that play those ancient vinyl discs. And there are some cool players in Japan.

an old turntable record player
This looks like the record player we had growing up. By Hellbus – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Actually, I  hadn’t seen one of those in many years. My dad had one growing up, since at the time cassette players were the only alternative and they were far below vinyl in terms of quality. Unfortunately, all the records we had back then were crap. My dad and I definitely do not have the same taste in music and I did not have enough money to buy my own records at the time. By the time I started to buy music, CDs were the medium of choice. I did buy a few cassettes before CDs came out, so I owned a couple of those, but only a few.

During my high school and University days I amassed a collection of over 500 CDs. Nowadays they’re all gone. Everything is digital these days and by digital I mean MP3s and other files like that.

But through it all, vinyl somehow held onto a small piece of the market. Of course there were always the collectors, but there are also quite a few others who still prefer the sound of vinyl. Personally, I’m not really one of them, but I do see the appeal.

And I definitely saw the appeal on this day, walking into this record store. Actually I should say music store. They didn’t sell any actual records, they only sold the players. They ranged from incredibly intricately and elaborately designed players to ones that were quite cheap and basically looked like what my dad had when I was growing up. The prices weren’t too bad either. Basically they were what you would expect, ranging from under $100 to many thousand dollars (obviously actual prices were in Japanese yen).

a more modern vinyl record player
Another style of record player.

I talked to the shop owner for a while and learned that there is actually a huge subculture of vinyl collectors in Japan. And not just the DJs. Obviously DJs collect vinyl everywhere in the world. But in Japan there are a lot of music lovers who have returned to vinyl. Also many who never left. I found that quite interesting. It sounded like there were definitely more people in Japan percentage-wise who own a vinyl record player than there are in the US.

I can kind of guess why this might be. The Japanese have always had a love for tradition. It is a very traditional culture and they hang onto many traditions. That creates a lot of problems for them in the modern world, actually, but it also makes the country one of the most fascinating on earth. Given all this, it only makes sense that they would continue to have this love for vinyl.

You are probably thinking or wondering: did I buy one? No, I didn’t. I travel a lot and I have learned not to buy anything overseas, because you have to carry it back with you in the plane and it ends up costing you four times what you paid for them due to the baggage fees.

But I am thinking of buying a turntable record player the next time I’m back home. The only thing that’s holding me back is that I don’t have any actual vinyl records, part from A Sky With No Clouds. I would have to start a collection and that would get expensive. It’s something I really don’t need and probably shouldn’t buy, but somehow it is just alluring, especially after seeing that record store. In the end, I imagine I will probably get one.

A DJs turntable at a wedding

As you know, I travel a lot. I’ve been all over the world and have played all kinds of clubs. In addition to the clubs, I’ve played raves, I’ve played electronic dance music festivals, I’ve played birthday parties, I’ve played frat house parties, I’ve played weddings. You name it, and I’ve played it.

Now the list of places I hate playing is exceedingly long. The list of places where I love playing is shockingly short. But I’m not going to go into either of these two lists in this article. That would fill a book. Scratch that, that would fill a multi volume book. Maybe even an encyclopedia. You know one of those old ones that took up a whole bookshelf in your dad’s study? Yeah, the list of places I hate DJing could fill one of those. And you know that business card some idiot handed you the other day? Turn it over. The list of places I like playing would easily fit on there.

A DJs turntable at a wedding
DJing weddings is even worse than DJing for tourists

Anyway, I digress. Today I want to talk about one specific club. A type of club you may well know if and even play quite often, if you travel and DJ like I do. It is the club full of tourists. Like this one. I hate these. That is not to say I especially like playing local clubs either. Those very much depend on the country. In some countries, the locals are great. This is true in much of Europe. It’s even true in parts of the US. It’s not true in China. It’s not true in Thailand. It’s not true in countries like those where people dislike horrible music.

Again, I digress. Back to the tourist clubs. Why do I hate them? I’m sure you can imagine this on your own, can’t you? I realize tourist is a general descriptor. They come in all shapes and sizes and have all different tastes in music. That is the problem, I suppose. When playing a club or show, I like the audience to have generally the same musical taste. That way I can create a set that will take them on a journey. It is specifically tailored to what they like and as a result they love me.

When you have a lot of different musical tastes to cater to, this is impossible. Every song you play, 60 to 90% of the audience will hate it. You can’t really create a coherent set. You have to just wing it. In many cases you have to do the unthinkable: you have to take requests. Now this is the absolute worst. People never seem to request good music. They generally request stuff that doesn’t fit in with anything else you’re playing or stuff you would never be caught dead playing. They expect you to have tracks no one has heard of and tracks everyone has heard of, but no self-respecting DJ would have. Dealing with these requests is the worst. And if you try to do any singing, don’t even get me started…

But when you travel and DJ, you often have to play events like these. You’re not going to get the best gigs when you’re new in town. It doesn’t matter how great your reputation was in the last country, people won’t know you in the next one, unless you are one of those superstars. So you have to build up your reputation again. That means you have to start from near the bottom again. It’s simply the price you pay for traveling the world in our profession. As with any other job, if you want stability and security you can’t move around.

So what do I advise aspiring traveling DJs to do? Suck it up. If it gets too much, vent to your friends. If they don’t want to hear it anymore, do what I did. Start a blog and vent to the public. Probably no one will read it, but some people might. You just did, after all.

Womb Nightclub in Tokyo, Japan

International DJs like me, get a chance to travel all over the world doing what they love. We see great destinations, meet beautiful women and play music all along the way. It’s a great life and I try never to complain about it. That said I’m going to do just that here: I’m going to do some complaining. To make up for it, I’m also going to do some raving. In short, I’m going to list my favorite destinations for DJing and my absolute least favorite.

My number one favorite destination on earth for playing music is Tokyo. I just love the city and everything about it. I love the excellent food you get, I love the futuristic-looking buildings, I love the ancient-looking buildings and I love the way all of it melts together. I love the excellent transportation system, I love the friendly people, I love the nightlife. I love going out to clubs as a partygoer and I love playing them as a DJ. Nowhere on earth beats Tokyo.

Now, there are better destinations to party. Don’t get me wrong, though, Tokyo is great. The problem is that the Japanese people as a whole are pretty conservative and that there are very few international people in Tokyo, relatively speaking. If you’re totally into Asians, it’s a great destination to meet women; if not, you’re kind of screwed. They also love karaoke way too much. But if you’re a good singer, that works to your advantage. Nevertheless, because of those two points, I prefer cities like New York or Las Vegas for a great night out (find out where to see DJs in New York). But for a travel destination to play as a DJ, Tokyo is number one.

Of course, I love New York and Las Vegas and London and Paris and Berlin and all of these cities as a DJ, too (the top 5 clubs in Vegas). These are some of my other favorites. It should come as no surprise, that these are also my favorite cities in which to party. A night out in any one of these places is a wonderful experience, although all of them, except for Berlin, will set you back quite a lot of money. For that reason, I suppose Berlin is my favorite city for a night out. It has a strange nightlife, though, spread out all over the city and often hard to find the best place to go, but once you do, it’s a blast.

You may have noticed I left off Madrid. It’s true, Madrid has famous nightlife, but it shouldn’t be so famous. I think it’s only famous because the Spaniards enjoy going out so much, but the truth is, the clubs are pretty horrible and extremely overpriced. One bar closes after a few hours when a new one opens and you have to move there. You have to spend money everywhere.

I was felt like I was being herded around and ripped off at every step. I had some fun nights in Madrid, but I consider it one of the most overrated party destinations on earth. Playing Madrid as a DJ, however, can be quite great. The city attracts so many beautiful women, on top of the gorgeous locals, and being a DJ in the city attracts those women to you. Enough said.

Naturally, I should mention Ibiza. This is another one of the top destinations in which to DJ. If you get a chance to spin music in one of the famous clubs here, jump on it. The same goes for other tropical places in Europe, like the Greek Islands.

Speaking of tropical places let’s head back to Asia and to Bangkok. For a night out, the city is absolutely horrible. It’s another overrated one. It actual costs far more than it should, surprisingly, but what’s worse is that none of the clubs are really any fun. The music is far too fast and too loud and the crowds consist of Thai couples and hookers.

If you go to the bars that only attract foreigners, you’ll have a good time, but you’ll pay even more for it. And you’ll be dodging hookers all night. Apart from the working girls, there’s really no difference between those bars and ones back in the West, except the ones in the West are better.

Womb Nightclub in Tokyo, Japan
Club Womb in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

As a DJ, Bangkok is all right to play, but I generally prefer to stay away. In Asia, Tokyo is the best city and Seoul follows after that. Hong Kong is also a great destination but I think that will change as China takes over more and more. Chinese clubs are horrendous, and China’s one of the worst places to play in Asia. The only real exception is Shanghai and a few of its clubs.

I realize this list is far from extensive, but those are the places that popped into my head first. Someday, I’ll sit down to write a much longer and more detailed list, but for now just remember which cities you’ll definitely want to accept gigs in and which ones you’ll want to avoid. Of course, if you’ve never been, you might want to accept a gig there anyway, just for the travel experience. Oh, and a tip for saving money: always travel with a hammock. Read this post to learn why.

Equipment You'll Need To Become A DJ

Breaking into DJing is difficult. Whenever somebody asks me how to become a DJ, I make sure to make clear just how hard that path will be. It will take hours of practice to get good enough to play in clubs—and not good clubs mind you—and once you’re in those clubs, it will take years before you get into the good ones. But more than the time, probably the most prohibitive aspect of breaking into the industry is the equipment cost.

Common Dj equipment setup

That’s why it’s absolutely vital you do your research and you buy all the correct equipment from the beginning. You don’t want to have to buy things again, because you bought something substandard. You also don’t want to end up buying superfluous equipment. So make sure you buy exactly what you need and only what you need right from the beginning. Here’s a quick rundown of the essentials every DJ will need:

 

Input Devices

You’ll need a minimum of two input devices: either two turntables, two CD decks or whatever. You can get more but you need at least two to mix tunes.

 

A Mixer

You’ll need a mixer with at least two input channels, so that you can mix your two input devices into each other.

 

Headphones

Without headphones, you can’t DJ. You need them to hear the next to you will be mixing into the current one, to cue it up and to do all this without everyone else hearing it. Make sure you get a good pair of headphones with a good sound quality.

 

A Sound System

By sound system, I mean speakers and an amplifier. You will need these for obvious reasons. These days many people opt for powered speakers, which could save some money and is also easier to transport. Personally I prefer a separate amplifier, but this is just a matter of personal preference. Do what is right for you.

And that’s it (although I might add a microphone to the list, if you do any singing as a DJ and a hammock if you need to travel a lot and are on a budget). That’s really all the equipment you need. Of course, just this equipment will run you quite a bit of money. That’s what I would say don’t discount secondhand equipment. If you can find good quality stuff that’s been used but not abused, go for it. It’s a great way to save some money.

One thing you want to avoid in your quest to save money, though, are the boxed sets. You know the ones: DJ in a box, DJ kit, etc.. Stay away from these. They’re often substandard quality and they don’t always include all of the equipment you’ll need. I can also pretty much guarantee that you have to replace everything as you get better and demand more from your set up.

As for brands, Pioneer and Technics are probably two of the best. These are also the two that I would recommend buying secondhand, since they’re built to last and there’s not a huge chance you’re buying crap. If you can’t afford the best equipment, I suppose you have to buy something cheaper. Just know that you’ll probably want to upgrade eventually so it does make sense to buy the best from the beginning. Of course, that’s only possible if you have the money to spend.

One thing I might add down the road if you plan on producing your own music is some instruments. Playing on your own instruments is so much better than using samples. The first thing I would get is a set of electric drums. They are so much better than acoustic drums for producing music and for practicing. Plus, a drum set is just fun!

There you have it: that’s the equipment you need and a few tips for getting it. The rest is up to you. Make sure you do plenty of research and know exactly what you’re getting and why you’re getting it. And once you have it play some music. Then play some more music and then some more. Never stop practicing…

DJ playing an international club

That’s a good question. First of all you need to be a DJ. And I don’t mean somebody who plays his friends little parties, or even as a monthly gig at the club down the street. No, you need to be much bigger than that. You need to type the biggest clubs in your city. Actually, you need to be at the biggest clubs in the country. But that’s only to be a true international DJ. Maybe your definition is a bit different.

DJ playing an international club

Maybe you just want to be DJ who plays internationally. Someone who has a long-running gig overseas. Maybe you live in Madrid and play weekly at a local club. Or maybe you live in Bangkok and rotate among the few clubs there. You’re a DJ and you’re international, so you definitely fit many definitions of the term. But you’re not what most people think of when they hear the phrase international DJ.

A truly international DJ and someone who plays music in all of those cities. You spend a month in Shanghai, maybe a few weeks in Tokyo then head to Osaka been to Seoul and to Beijing and you go to Europe for a while. You’re so in demand that the biggest clubs in the biggest cities pay you a lot of money to fly you in to play there. Sometimes you only play one night then you move on.

An obvious negative of this lifestyle is that you miss a lot of the things you have at home. I always miss my sofa and my electric drum set the most. I only recently bought an electronic drum kit, but I find it so great for a stressful day to play on it. At first I hated that it wasn’t loud, but then I realized that actually made it so I can play the drums anytime I want. Except when I’m traveling for my DJ work.

This is what the biggest international DJs to and this is what I’m assuming you want to do and this is what this website is close to help you do. But even if your definition is the other one; just someone who lives overseas and place little bit of music, you’ll find help here. Getting started is not easy, but keep reading and hopefully you, too, can one day be an international DJ.