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The survival guide for Digital DJs One of the most dangerous places to take your gear is to the exact place where you are heading towards to – your gig. We’ve got some great ideas for things to do to make sure that your DJ kit comes home with you ready to play the next show. We’ve decided to divide up our gear protection advice into three sections: before, during, and after a gig. You’ll want to make sure that you take the right steps to not only defend your possessions from the worst possible disaster, but you’ll also want to make sure you’re prepared for when your defense fails and you’re scrambling to restart your computer/unplug USB cables/get the music back on.
Before The Gig Prepare Your Backups We’re starting with one of the best pieces of advice we can give: if you’re playing a gig, bring backups. Absurd redundancies be damned, if your normal setup isn’t working, you want options.
We recommend: Bring a Bootable Clone Of Your HD: This will allow you to boot into your setup on any similar laptop, so if you’re on the road and need to play an emergency set on your tour manager’s MacBook, no problemo. Put Your DJ Sets Into The Cloud: If you were to lose your harddrive, having your sets ready to download from the internet could be a lifesaver- consider using Dropbox, Amazon Cloud Drive, or Google Music to keep your tracks ready to redownload. Bring a Mix CD – This might seem archaic in the digital age, but if you’ve got a CD with you, odds are that you’ll be able to play it in a jiffy in nearly any DJ booth.
Don’t Bring Your Gear Naked Last week I saw a resident DJ carry their Kontrol S4 into a San Francisco club under their arm, completely bare. Don’t be this DJ! No matter what you’re carting around, put it in something to keep it safe. Whether this is a gig bag, a flight case or coffin, or even just a simple backpack is up to you. A good bag should hold almost all of your kit, including a laptop, controllers, soundcards, and anything else you might need. Scout The DJ Booth Like any good warrior, know the battlefield. If you’re playing in a brand new venue, and you’ve never seen their booth before, go check it out the night before! It’s a great chance to plan out how you’ll
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