My Music and DJ Style
Most of the venues where I work regularly are High Street Bars where I play current Chart and Party music. The emphasis is on being a chatty personality DJ, getting involved with the audience, commenting on anything that’s happening in the crowd, comparing any events or party games and plugging promotions. I also DJ many one-off Ibiza Revival Club gigs playing Trance and House Anthems from the late 90s. 1995 to 2000 was the period when I was learning my craft as a DJ and during that time I amassed a huge collection of CD and vinyl albums and singles. Now Retro events are becoming very popular I am finding my knowledge and music collection from this era to be evermore invaluable in securing gigs at large venues and events locally and around the world. When performing as a DJ I am able to draw on my experience and skills as a musician and sound engineer to enhance my performance in areas such as general sound quality and mixing in key and musically in phrase.
DJ Equipment
This is a list of the DJ products I currently use and recommend after many years of trial and error with a variety of equipment from budget lines to the most expensive products.
Denon HD2500
A Compact twin Hard-Drive player. It has all the functions and responsiveness of most high-end flatbed CD players and I manage to store all the music I require for most commercial gigs on it’s internal hard-drive. I spent many years working off CD and a brief period working off laptop using Serato, but I have found the HD2500 by far the most stable way to play back recorded media and the most flexible form of track location and loading.
AKG K77 Headphones
Retailing at around £45GBP this is classed as a budget product although in my opinion the sound quality is in line with much more extravagantly priced offerings from brands like Technics, Sennheiser, Pioneer and Sony. The best feature of these headphones from a DJs perspective is that they are connected by a flexible bar with no moving parts avoiding those embarrassing tangling and folding up moments when you are trying to hold your headphones with one hand.
Sennheiser E835S Microphone
Retailing at around £120GBP the 835 is at the top end of Sennheiser’s Evolution series and provides crystal clear vocal reproduction. A feature I really like on this product is the magnetic switch that is patented to Sennheiser, it can never wear out as it has no physical connections and it is totally silent when switching on and off. I also carry a budget Eagle G158C microphone. As well as being a spare I find it useful in situations where feedback is an issue, normally due to close proximity of speakers or performing in confined areas such as alcoves or under low ceilings. The cheaper Eagle microphone is not quite as sensitive and prone to feedbeck as the Sennheiser, but still quite clear and audible.
