What You Need to be a Mobile DJ
Working as a mobile disk jockey (DJ) presents a number of challenges that the resident club DJ doesn’t have.One of the main issues is the need to carry all of that essential DJ equipment to each and every gig, wherever it is.
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. Each week I get to visit new locations and meet a whole new crowd of people. I’ve played in some fantastic locations including castles, stately homes, tents, gardens, onboard ships and yachts 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 mobile DJs must overcome is the need to carry all of our equipment to every gig. The club DJ only has to carry his tunes, maybe as records or CDs, whereas I need a medium sized van to carry all of my 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 I avoid having to carry power amplifiers and it simplifies the system setup considerably. These mean fewer cables to worry about and less that can potentially go wrong. For the past two years I’ve been using an excellent pair of active JBL PA speakers and they have proved to be a fantastic choice.
Another key consideration for mobile DJs is lighting and effects. Club DJs don’t usually need to worry about club lighting systems as these are often already in place and may have their own dedicated operators. Working as a mobile DJ means 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 probably the most essential piece of mobile DJ gear is the music. This isn’t equipment you say, and you’re right. But I’m really referring to the medium which can be vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and MP3 files. This means I need to carry turntables, CD players, a DVD player and some sort 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.
