How to Become a DJ on a Shoe String Budget
If you are interested in becoming a DJ and have very little money to work with, you
may want to see how I did it. The total price is around $400 dollars and the equipment
can service about 75 to 100 people. (See the picture)
My amplifier is a Pioneer surround sound XV-HTD520, which is 500 watts. I paid $75.00
for it on Craig's List. The mixer is a run-of-the-mill Behringer UB-1204P-PRO, which
cost me $100.00 on Craig's List. And, I have two used netbook computers to run all
my software and library of music on. The entire set-up is worth about $400.00. You
have to purchase some XLR cables, and at least one cheap dynamic microphone for around
$20.00
The Amplifier
Most professionals say you should use expensive PA amps and speakers. If you visit
a music store you will see all sorts of powered and passive speaker systems. They
range in price from around $500.00 to several thousand dollars. Why did I decide
to use a consumer grade “surround sound” amplifier to do a party with 75 people?
Because I'm cheap; and I also know something about sound. Five hundred watts is plenty
of power for most small venues. The problem is that most DJ's don't want to run wires
all over the hall. So they would rather have massive speaker systems on stage. This
is usually a problem for people sitting close to the speakers – they get blasted.
By using a consumer grade PA amplifier, you must place the speakers in various locations
around the room. Therefore you have to run wires and you must make sure they are
duct taped to carpets so people don't trip over them. In most cases you have to check
the manual for the amplifier to see if there is a mode that uses all of the speakers.
In the case of the Pioneer XV-HDT520, I had to use the “virtual surround 2” mode.
This means that full audio comes through only four of the five speakers. The center
speaker is not connected. I could not find a mode that worked in such a way that
the center speaker was activated at the same time with this particular amplifier.
Maybe yours will be better. The fronts are 115Watts, and the rears are 52 watts.
Therefore (115 x 2) + (52 x 2) = 334 watts. The sub-woofer is another 114 watts.
That brings the total power to (334 + 114) = 448 watts. In my case the center channel
was only worth 52 watts. In terms of decibels the 448 watts is not much different
from the full 500 watts. That's plenty loud.
On one occasion a person grabbed a microphone and screamed into it at the top of
his lungs. I had set the level for a reasonable range and was surprised to find that
the sub-woofer speaker was distorted after that nice little event. When I went shopping
for a replacement, I just happened to find a store that had a variety of sub-woofer
speakers. I purchased a nice cylindrical one rated at 130 watts for only $15.00.
The amp could pump 114 watts, so this speaker was perfect. See the picture – Bottom
Left. I think the new speaker works even better than the original. The room was saturated
in low frequencies. This system worked very well. But watch your levels and don't
let anyone shout into a mic without somehow limiting the level. You should be able
to use any decent consumer grade amplifier for use in a PA setting. Just make sure
the manual says that you can get all of the speakers going with pure audio. You don't
want effects on the rear channels. You want full spectrum audio. What good is a nice
echo delay on the rear channels, when you need lots of power, not effects.
The Mixer
The Behringer UB -1204-PRO mixer is a 5 microphone, 2 line input mixer. Virtually
any mixer will do, so don't go spending a lot of money on this. I needed 3 mic inputs
because I had a floor mic, a DJ's mic and a wireless mic. The two line inputs are
from the two netbook computers. I take the headphone jack output of each computer
and run that into the input terminals of the mixer. The software volume settings
on the computers are adjusted for max and the level on the board is controlled by
the slider for each channel. The output of the mixer goes directly into the AUX input
of the surround sound amplifier. You will need a kit of adapter plugs for your mixer.
Go to Radio Shack and get some. I use a lot of “one quarter inch, phone to RCA”
adapters.
