I’ve worked as a DJ onboard cruise liners, in a hospital, on the radio and in various clubs but these days I make my money as a mobile DJ. Every week I meet new people with diverse musical tastes in all sorts of locations. I’ve gigged in stately homes, onboard ships and yachts, on a private jet and even one night in a well known London museum. It’s the variety that I particularly like about this work, but lets get back to the challenges.
One of the biggest problems that us working mobile DJs must deal with is lugging enormous amounts of equipment to every gig. The club DJ only has to turn up with his selection of records and CDs whereas I need a medium sized van to carry all of my DJ gear.
These days I’m lucky enough to have a fantastic assistant who helps setup and break down my sound and lighting rig at each gig. But only a few short years ago, before I started to charge a decent fee, I had to carry all of this equipment myself. The key to selecting equipment for mobile use is compactness. It must be compact and as light as possible.
The DJ speakers that I use are the powered variety. This means no need to carry power amplifiers and much simpler system setup. Less leads and less to go wrong. I’ve been using an excellent pair of JBL active PA speakers for the past two years and they have been fantastic.
Another key consideration is lighting. Club DJs don’t usually need to concern themselves with club lighting systems as these are generally already in place, often with their own dedicated operators. For us mobile DJs we’ve got to do it all ourselves. But luckily these days there are some compact DJ lights that use LEDs making them relatively lightweight, low power and cool.
But I suppose the most important piece of DJ gear is the music. This is music media, not equipment, I hear you say and you’d be right. But I’m actually referring to the medium which can be vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and these days MP3 files. This varied media means that I need turntables, CD players, a DVD player and some form of MP3 player. These days I carry one DJ CD player, a pair of reliable Technics 1210s and my laptop full of MP3 files. I route all of these through my excellent DJ mixer and I’m just about ready for any requests, from Mantovani to the Wombles.
You must log in to post a comment.