DJ Kit List – Essential Extras for Redundancy
5 min read
Have you ever gone to a gig and realised you’ve forgotten something? Is your setup not as perfect as it needs to be? This guide will cover all the essentials you should have (and some things you should get for added convenience) to make your life as a DJ easier.
While you would hope that most venues and events provide the basic setups, not all organisers are DJs themselves and may give you a bare-bones setup compared to what you are used to.
The goal of this guide is to look at the best value and quality options for covering your back. This means that I won’t necessarily be suggesting the cheapest things, but if you are on a tight budget, you’ll at least know what to look for.
You may also notice that I’m pushing for redundancy. It is not to bow down to capitalism, it is simply because I know too many people who’ve sets have been ruined or tainted by faulty gear that could have been saved with a backup.
Power
Power is an essential feature for any set. CDJs certainly don’t sound great acoustic, and sometimes if you have additional gear, there aren’t enough on-stage sockets to cope.
My suggestion here has three universal sockets which work with UK, EU, and USA plugs, and a bunch of USB ports.
This frees up the main plugs for the essential gear and allows you to still charge your phone and other peripherals.
Do make sure you hide this though; otherwise you’ll end up with twenty people wanting you to charge their phones.
Last summer, I DJ’ed at a small festival in a very rural area. There wasn’t much in the way of power at all and so to keep my phone going through the event, I used this charging bank.
I can attest to its quality and it lasted me all weekend. If you are playing at (or even just attending) a festival, a high capacity power bank is what you really need. Cheap ones are just going to run out fast and leave you stuck.
Added bonus: this one has a flashlight so you can get your phone plugged in when you arrive at your tent late at night.
USB Sticks
If you are playing on CDJs, you really need to remember your USB sticks. I recommend having at least 2 USBs per CDJ you are using for redundancy (even if the backups are smaller storage versions with fewer songs).
The first thing I recommend you get is lanyards. I won’t even bother linking any options as you will be just as well going to a sales or promotional stall in town and grabbing free ones. If you are a student you probably have hundreds collected from all sorts of promotions.
The great thing about USB sticks nowadays is how cheap they are. You can literally fit most people’s music collections on a single stick now and get 128GB for under £20 in some places.
Remember though, when a USB is formatted for CDJs, it can’t be used for other things so there is no point spending money on wasted storage space.
I find these USBs to be really good, they are narrow and compared to the chunkier Sandisk Ultra USBs, they don’t block extra ports on your PC if you have them plugged in next to each other.
If you shop around a bit, you can find some great deals. These USBs, for example, are 32GB but you get 5 in a pack for less than twice the price.
Do be on the lookout for scams or bad quality USBs. They are literally the source of the music.
There’s no point in redundancy if all the backups are rubbish too!
Finally, it might be a good shout to buy some cheap stickers or labels so you can tag your USBs and make sure you can find them amongst the USBs of other DJs in the booth.
USB Cables
If you are using a controller or wanting to connect your computer to the CDJs, you will want to have enough cables to do so. Try and have a few spare in case one gets lost or stolen.
It is recommended to get a USB cable with a ferrite block (the chunky cylindrical black bit near the end) to shield the signal from EMF.
Consider your needs here. Do you need a 3m cable if it is going from a CDJ to the laptop on the same table?
Cable management can be a nightmare but looks professional.
While we are talking about cable management, it is a good idea to have some electrical tape on hand.
Not only will this neaten your cables if you are setting up for an extended set, but it is also a great way to identify your cables in high-turnover DJ booths where things get left behind.
Try wrapping a unique colour of tape around each end of your USB cables in advance so you can quickly find them at the end of your set.
Ethernet Cables
If you want to link your CDJs so they share the music between them, you can buy some ethernet cables. This saves you having a USB stick for each CDJ (which adds up if you play on four CDJs).
If you have a two CDJ setup, you can just link them with a single cable.
With more CDJs, you will want a network switch or mixer that has one built in.
See DJTechTools‘s guide on this for more information. The big thing we recommend is multi-colour cables so you can quickly trace the right one.
Headphone Jacks
I can’t remember how many of these I’ve accidentally stolen, and how many I’ve had stolen from me.
Couple that with a steady rate of losing them and it amounts to a net loss of headphone adaptors.
Don’t buy anything fancy here. You just need them to work.
They will get lost so just grab a pack of 5 or more at a cheap but trustworthy price and move on.
The bottom line
Have redundancy. Don’t waste your money on the high end, only get what works or makes your life a bit easier.
If I’ve missed out anything important drop a suggestion in the comments below!
