Beginners Guide to Setting up a DJ Controller

With the rise of Electronic Dance Music or EDM entering the mainstream music industry, a lot of DJs or Disc jockeys have been able to showcase their musical talent and share it with the world. Online Platforms like YouTube, Soundcloud, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc., have tremendously helped new DJ’s to showcase their talents and have garnered massive audiences from the millennials. If you are an aspiring DJ or at least you are interested in becoming one, then you are probably going to start by playing with your DJ Controller setup first.

DJ Controller Setup

This guide show’s you how to set up and plug a DJ Controller into club setup mode. You will need the following to set up the DJ Controller:

Main Equipment, Your DJ Controller

There are a lot of mainstream DJ Controllers available in the market, so it is easy to get confused. Since this guide is aimed at beginners, we suggest you choose a DJ controller setup that is most comfortable and confident in using it.

Laptop

To give sound effects, beats, and mixing tracks, you will need to have a laptop to sync with your DJ controller.

DJ Software

For most beginners, the DJ Controllers come with free compatible DJ software, and that will suffice for you to learn the bells and whistles of the software. As you progress, we recommend that you upgrade to a professional DJ Software.

USB Connectors and RCA Cables

Having these cables in a few extra pairs will be of great help. It helps you to connect iPods, MP3 players, headphones, and speakers.

Speakers and Headphones

These are basically for your sound output. To get a clear and crisp sound output, select high-quality speakers that will give the desired results, soundcheck statistics, base, and volume control. To listen to your Mixes properly, pay close attention to the Headphones you are using.

Once your DJ gear is ready, it is ready to connect them to your DJ controller.

Start by connecting all respective cables and wires as they can be messy and confusing. Plugin headsets and audio connectors to their ports and connect your laptop, mp3 player or iPod if you have one.

Next, connect the Speakers to the DJ Controller. Connectors and Speakers wires are color matching, so connecting them will be fairly simple and straight forward.

Connecting DJ Controller to a Mixer

Let’s look at how to wire our setup into a club mixer. Look for an open channel to connect our DJ controller setup to the mixer. Make sure nothing is connected to that channel and make sure the channel is not labeled as a “phono”.

You should avoid connecting your setup to the phono channel as it will sound terrible if your DJ Controller is plugged into it.

Once you’re plugged into the channel, make sure all the knobs are dialed to 12 o’clock position. Check if the upward fader is down, which makes sure that nothing is going to come out into the main mix from this channel, whatever you do.

Start to tune the channel and adjust to the same level as the DJ who is currently playing. Check his side of the channel to see the level of music coming out of his channel and accordingly tune our channel level so that it won’t cross into the red marker.

You might be wondering where on earth you can find suitable DJ Equipment described above and with a vast range of selection how do you pick which is best for beginners alike.

Here we have curated a list of Best DJ Controller from best brands in the industry which is tried, tested and reviewed by the professional DJ’s around the world for both Beginners and Professionals.