The Perfect Start to a DJ Career - Ep #3

In this episode we run through the Must Have's and the Guilty Pleasures when it comes to setting up your beginner DJ gear so you can start DJing from home or even book events and use your gear on the go.

We brush on what gets someone on this wild ride and what should someone invest their hard earned money into when there are so many things to choose from when it comes to getting your first controller and what software are you going to pick? What about headphones and speakers? Does it matter if you just do it for fun or a career or high-quality gear is always the go-to? We list additional sensible options when it comes to additional gear which is required such as a laptop with a stand and somewhere to store your music and finally to connect everything together.

 A very common question we bump into online is the topic of Where Do DJs Get Their Music? We list five popular options for anyone, beginner to a pro and let you decide what works best for you.

How did you learn how to DJ? We explore five of the best methods to get into this industry and thrive; whether you are just into playing music for yourself or for your house parties with your friends or you are looking to start a career and take this hobby to the next level and become an online sensation or DJ venues and parties all around the country and beyond.

Visit our website: https://thecleverdj.com

Follow us on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecleverdj
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecleverdj?utm_source=qr&igsh=ZnRubWZnMjl1M3ln
YouTube Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCleverDJ
YouTube Shorts: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCleverDJClips
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecleverdj
TikTok: @TheCleverDJ

Transcript

Ilia: 0:20

How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of the Clever DJ podcast. My name is Ilia and my name is Nino.

Nino: 0:29

Welcome, welcome, welcome, guys. We are proud to present another episode, yet another, another one, another one, another one. Yeah, so we have a cool topic today and it's pretty much for all the beginners. How do you get into this?

Ilia: 0:47

Yes, what do you need?

Nino: 0:49

What do you?

Ilia: 0:49

need All the must haves and nice to have. I guess we already heard how I started, right Like there's, we could get into some detail, but let's hear how you got into it, because that's, that's always nice story.

Nino: 1:05

Okay, well, the backstory is I used to be a professional singer. I used to. I was in a band. Actually we used to sing acapella, so basically no instrumental backgrounds, just our voices. So I know you guys see, like acapella singers, like I can't even name me right now Like boys to men does that really well. So we used to do that and so I got, I was singing all the time. So getting into DJing was pretty easy. I was, you were touring weren't you.

Nino: 1:40

Yeah, okay, you want to bring this up. Okay, we used to be open for, like the Backstreet Boys, backstreet Boys, right. But yeah, it was one of the highlights of our career, pretty much right. So when we came back from being boy bands, we all just we disbanded, disbanded. And then we came back back to Canada and then I would actually go to gigs with my friend who used to DJ from high school and I tag along literally just to have fun.

Ilia: 2:14

Just to have fun. You weren't helping him like I was helping you. No, no, it's different. I was just there to chill, just to mess around. He just wanted me.

Nino: 2:21

He just wanted to be with someone. Yeah, company, yeah, literally Right. So I would bring stuff, but I wouldn't really set up or do anything Right. So one day I was thinking, man, this is a lot of fun, I want to do this. So I figured I could do this. Why not music to? I love music. So I just kind of made it my own. I locked myself into the room and never went out. I didn't go eat for two weeks. I just beat match, talk myself how to beat match. So, yeah, I forgot to eat, forgot to go to the washroom. My brother was like you're terrible man. I'm like, yeah, but I'm going to get it, I'm going to get it. And then I did get it eventually.

Ilia: 2:59

How long did it take you when you just started and what were you using Like? What were you like DJ?

Nino: 3:05

Man, it took me a good like two, three months to get it good Right and I would beat match by ear, so I wouldn't look at the screen. I was using a Vestex 300 VCI man, it was a small little controller.

Ilia: 3:21

I gotta find it.

Nino: 3:22

It's pretty cool man. I liked it. It did the job right and I learned off of that. It was cool what you started by ear, of course, man. Were you ever a beginner? That was my beginning to start.

Ilia: 3:36

That's a nice start.

Nino: 3:37

It was, that's how I started.

Ilia: 3:38

You just had it in you, man, you just, you just understood it on a different level.

Nino: 3:42

I did and I already had it in grade. In my head I was like I'm going to get this. So, yeah, I just wanted to learn the old fashioned way, because I knew that was the way to learn the really the fundamentals, right? So that's it. That's my story.

Ilia: 3:56

Nice, now I'm yeah very, very like short version with with, you know, a few more episodes and a few more episodes. Maybe you'll hear some more. But yeah, we have just a few points. We want to cover a lot of stuff that people are asking or, you know, mostly asking you because I hear how he, I hear what people are asking you and I had those questions too, and now that I go to gigs, people actually approach me and ask me the same questions. So it's interesting, it's nice, it's nice to be the one who's answering them. But yeah, like, how do you even get into it? So we said the love of music. You know, loving to party depends, like you know really depends on.

Nino: 4:39

Everybody's situation is unique, right Like this, like this guy he had, he actually loved music as well.

Nino: 4:47

Right yeah you were working another job. But he's like I really want to get to do something in music. So, yeah, he transitioned to that and he met me and then it transitioned to that. So we are here right now. Some people start when they're really young, like they want to. They start when they're in high school and they just like it's the cool thing to do back in the day. Right, learn how to DJ. Right, because you're the cool guy who can, who can play the music for people. Press everyone, press everyone. So it's the cool thing back in the day.

Ilia: 5:18

But you know what, like me personally, I learned how to play guitar, piano, sing, dj, and none of it was for those like cheesy reasons, to like impress someone, press a girl.

Ilia: 5:28

I did it because I loved it, yeah, right. And also I just I don't see myself do anything else for us long term, you know, like for 20, 30 years and being happy as much as it's something in the music industry. And I told myself, whatever it's going to be, maybe I'm going to write music, maybe I'm going to write like lyrics, maybe I'm going to be in the behind the scenes, like working for like some TV company, maybe a DJ. I told myself it's going to be something in music and I'm going to go just like branch out from there, like the way we started this podcast, right, we never, I never planned it, right, yeah, so you're doing it, buddy. Yeah, we are doing it. So you know, everyone has a different start, but mostly it's because you love music, you want a party, socialize, meet people. You know, some people get forced into it, like the stories, people, you know.

Nino: 6:19

I know some people who got forced into it, like doing a friend's wedding, like a cousin asking like, can you please just just play some music? We're not going to have a DJ, so play some music and we'll see how it goes. Okay, and then you end up doing a great job and then everybody's like giving you props and stuff. You did such an amazing job. And then you figure out, oh shoot, I can do this, right. So it's kind of like forced upon you, but not really forced, but you can. You can take it to that next level, yeah, right.

Ilia: 6:48

So and yeah, go ahead. No, and I was just going to jump to, like, the most obvious point here, after, like, the actual love for music, lots of music producers actually end up becoming DJs, because I have a couple friends who were pretty big on YouTube and you know they more than a couple, actually that entire group. They all have friends that you know. We all grew up together and at some point they got some cool deals back in the States and they were, they were. They got an opportunity to Demo their music, present their music, right. They had a new album coming, new EP coming out and they just they were told, hey, do you guys want to DJ? And we were not DJs, but they had to learn how to do the very basics to get in the club and play their music Because it's EDM, right, yeah, so, or maybe it's because you actually plan to, because you, you want to Promote your music, or you know.

Nino: 7:46

Yeah. So it kind of goes hand-in-hand DJing and production. So to get to a certain level, you want to do both. Right?

Ilia: 7:53

not necessarily, but it helps a lot if you can do both lots of the very successful Producers are DJs and lots of the very successful DJs are producers. It's true, it's not everyone. Not everyone don't have to.

Nino: 8:04

But but it does help. Yeah, a lot of Guys I know, like I know girls DJ as well, but a lot of guys just want to Meet girls. But you meet and socialize with, with girls at gigs and stuff like especially clubs, right, yeah, that's a great way to meet. It's a great way to meet someone?

Ilia: 8:24

Yes, and sometimes it could get out of hand. You're gonna meet too many people, especially if you have a girlfriend or wife or a wife yes, and that's one of the difficult parts of DJ, when it becomes a career to actually Juggle a family life and then to actually become Semi popular or very popular DJ.

Nino: 8:50

It's just another topic on the phone.

Ilia: 8:52

Yeah, we're branching off again, but what's the best way to learn? So I feel like I had a perfect start, because that's just me, that's you, that's how you want to start right, but a lot of people would like to start that way. Yeah, perfect start. I wouldn't say perfect because I could have done better in many, in many aspects, but there were, there were a lot of reasons why didn't go as smooth as I wanted. Right, but perfect I mean the opportunities I had, right. So Lots of different connections.

Ilia: 9:20

You know, before I met you, I had a couple other friends where I was working and they were Digging there, the same venue, and and you know, I tried. You know I tried with one guy and like he took me to a few, a few events and it was interesting and just it never like it was. I wasn't ready yet and A few years past I kind of like tried to understand it a little bit, but I never got really like good. And then we met and that's when I decided to go full into it. So some people start with an online course or you know, like they get anything on YouTube or Udemy, or I don't even know how to say Udemy, udemy, yeah, masters class.

Ilia: 10:02

Yeah, master classes, they, they, they get one. Those like private courses that people Put out there and they're great. But I find that there there's no like one-size-fits-all with those courses. Like I've done several of them, I've paid, paid good money for those courses, and often I find myself in a situation I'm like well, this doesn't work for all of these tracks, so you got a kind of it's like a guideline.

Nino: 10:26

I wouldn't say that'll teach you it also depends on how you're learning style to right, sometimes that teachers Don't teach the way you need to teach. Sometimes you need to be in front of and do things hands-on.

Ilia: 10:41

Yeah, or maybe you just like, don't click with their style.

Nino: 10:43

Yeah, with this style of teaching, but some people just love it.

Ilia: 10:46

They're. They're not very social to like do this with someone else. They just prefer to watch someone on the screen and learn that way. Right, and they're just. They learn well that way and that's, that's another point.

Nino: 10:55

In the next point, which we can go to a, you can go a little class to. They have classes in your cities. You do, yeah, you do. Oh, yeah, I went to one. Yeah, you went to one Come on, you would nobody.

Ilia: 11:07

Yeah, I love that class because I Got you to prepare me for it, so I was already like the only one who really knew what he was doing there. But I was still like Much more of a beginner than I'm even today. But this was on vinyl, yes, so that was even harder. I've never done that.

Nino: 11:27

That's impressive. I like the way and the fact that he taught you a guy's on vinyl. That's yeah, that's cool.

Ilia: 11:32

Met lots of, lots of good friends. Lots of them are, like, are actually decent DJs today. Certain things they do they do better than me. Certain things I do better because I went a different way. I do open format. They do something else. It's just interesting like that that that course only now I can see Some of the results. You know like what, why it was so good. It took like a year to develop after that, but it's always very good to to go to a course, a program. If that's how you, if that's how you learn hands-on.

Nino: 12:02

Yeah next part. The best way to learn is just by doing it, by literally just going. Well, not even just events, events Getting thrown into the fire like it's like that saying right, if you can't Stand the heat, get out of the kitchen or something. Yeah, literally it's the best way to learn, but of course not the expense of the client you want to start, maybe even friends gigs. Yeah, friends gigs like small parties, like maybe for families and stuff, cousins, just just get your foot in the door.

Ilia: 12:35

Yeah, like it's the best way, offer your, your, your, your friends at work, your colleagues down, tell them, hey, I'm gonna throw a party for you guys.

Nino: 12:43

Yeah, so there's no pressure. Yeah, there's no pressure.

Ilia: 12:45

Yeah, I actually tried to do that myself, but when, where I want wanted to do it, they had way too many rules about like how loud it's gonna be and all that stuff. And then I just started getting my own gigs and If one day I'll find it, I'll definitely, I'll definitely still Still do it if I find a spot for it where they can, where everyone can come together from wherever they all live. Yeah, that'll be fun. We also have an MC at work. Oh, you do, she does, she does weddings. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, so that's good. Yeah, it's. It could be a lot of fun.

Nino: 13:18

Yeah, you can get her to MC your wedding and just DD.

Ilia: 13:21

Maybe I told her we could, we could like actually collab together, why not? Another one is shadow and mentor. That's where we come in, or my story, that's how I like to learn. That's hands-on, like the, the class, the program, but it's like one-on-one. Hey, I can call you, I can ask you a question, I can send you my mix. Tell me what I did wrong, what I did where I did well.

Nino: 13:48

Yeah, it's the fastest way to learn. I think we have that one one with with your mentor and you can literally go out to gigs with them and and Just sponge everything that he's doing, just being around the, the environment, with the, the events, it, just it. It shows you the whole whole world of DJing, the event DJing and stuff.

Ilia: 14:12

So yeah, it's that hands-on Really helped me work my like my nerves before my own gigs. Yes, because I already knew how that feels when you show up there.

Nino: 14:23

And you know what to expect. You know exactly what to expect pretty much or it's different when you're doing your own but you kind of have an idea, right, yeah?

Ilia: 14:31

it's very different when you do it your own, like on your own, your own gigs, and every, every gig is different. Yeah, but that feeling when you're standing there from the client, people are coming in, people are talking to you like it's not the first time anymore, right yeah?

Nino: 14:45

so for weddings, definitely I would say shadow a mentor first, because just so many moving parts at a wedding and there's so many things that can go wrong If you don't know what's going like how to handle it right, so he can the mentor can show you exactly what to do and how to handle things.

Ilia: 15:02

Yeah, and another great way to learn is I already mentioned it partly with a friend or a group of friends, and it's better if they're all beginners. So when we finished our program, and it was about three months, we all became friends and we started this like DJ community, not a very big one, but you know it was Kind of successful. You know we made lots of good friends. We had like a hundred-summit people join and we just, you know, we all learned, we all gathered, you know, created, started events, just so we can all have an opportunity opportunity to DJ in front of each other and not judge each other, because it was a safe space for us.

Nino: 15:50

Yeah, so that was a very. You guys are still kind of together right, well, we're.

Ilia: 15:54

That's the thing, like, once we all kind of start getting out of that super beginner zone, we all branched off the different things right, but we're still. You know, we still talk, you still touch it. Yeah, that makes sense, but yeah, we all found our, our niche and that's the thing with doing it with friends.

Nino: 16:10

It's that motivation factor. You guys all motivate each other for, like, you guys learn a new trick and their new DJ technique, mix technique, and you guys help each other do that right and it motivates you to just keep going and push further. Share music, share music, scratch techniques, anything right, scratch not, not not for us, not for beginners, but but technically yeah but when I came over to your Party, that was impressive.

Ilia: 16:38

I've never seen anything like this.

Nino: 16:39

Well, with my crew, right, we have like a scratch crew. Well, oh gee, crew, and we get together a couple of months here and there and we we get together.

Ilia: 16:48

This guy joined in and Just to watch I was actually preparing for a gig that I came away laptop and somebody turned some. That was you. I think you turned off my laptop before I got to save stuff.

Nino: 17:00

Was it? Oh yeah, I did it by accident, yeah.

Ilia: 17:03

Yeah, so that's it all over again.

Nino: 17:05

This guy's laptop. It you just have. You have to have it plugged in for it to work, so battery doesn't work. If you unplug it, it turns off.

Ilia: 17:12

So I can feel the judgment from everyone right now it's so risky, so I have, like I put like tape on it so it doesn't like get unplugged in the middle of the game. You need to change that battery, I'll change the laptops and but yeah, that's that about the first two points. Yeah, and older sub points. Now One of the most famous questions what do you need to purchase? Do you need? What kind of gear do you need? Like, when I bought stuff I didn't need to buy stuff. He told me don't buy stuff. I still went and bought it, right, so I like to have my new stuff, my new toys.

Nino: 17:45

You gotta, you gotta, be careful with that stuff, man. Don't buy stuff that you don't need, even though you think you need it but you don't. That's why having a mentor is important, because he'll let you know, like, what you need right off the bat. Yeah, if you listen to them, just yeah, if you listen to them, right.

Ilia: 18:02

So like Off the bat controller or software, would you say you need it Honestly?

Nino: 18:08

you don't. You can technically just DJ off your laptop.

Ilia: 18:12

If you're broke now, most of us, most of us when you're in your 20s, maybe close to your 20s, maybe you're 25.

Nino: 18:20

You're working a job. You have two $300, right.

Ilia: 18:23

You can buy something used or brand new that costs just two to $300. The Rev one is 400 bucks Rev one. Dj two Long and equate. Had it for what Like half off 200 bucks yeah, half off 50% for their big sale, so it's not very common to get it at that price. There are inexpensive options out there. Anyway, you could get a controller and actually do it right, and it usually comes with at least the light version of either. Does Rekordbox have a light version? I never use Rekordbox.

Nino: 18:58

I don't know if they do, it just comes native with the Rood Serrano.

Ilia: 19:02

Well, Serrano, oh, no, no, no no Pioneer.

Nino: 19:03

Pioneer I mean Serrano. Yes.

Ilia: 19:05

Serrano, I know they have a light version and the pro version. I'm not sure about Rekordbox and I never used Rekordbox.

Nino: 19:10

I don't think so.

Ilia: 19:11

I think it's just a little bit of a Rekordbox, but yeah, so so technically you don't need a controller.

Nino: 19:19

You can do it off your laptop. But it's different when you have an actual piece of hardware playing with it. You'll actually might want to pick it up more. You're more likely to pick it up more than it. And just don't buy something so expensive because you never know, you might not like it and then you can actually just you know, you didn't fork out $2,000 on a controller.

Ilia: 19:40

Maybe DJing is not for you, and then you're out $2,000 because you got an amazing controller and maybe you got lights and maybe you got a microphone, maybe because you're like oh, I'm going to get into this, just get your basic controller, get the software. If you must have the pro version, like I did, you get the pro version and you're good to go. Now there's a few more things you'll need, but you most likely have them lying around, like headphones, speakers.

Nino: 20:09

Speakers. You can just use a Bluetooth speaker, any Bluetooth speaker that you can hook up your controller to. No, don't actually take it to a gig. Yeah, no, A Bluetooth speaker.

Ilia: 20:17

This is just for home stuff, just to get you started, right, yeah, but like any computer speakers, like, if you're a producer, then you already have decent speakers Like monitors and stuff, right. But then if you really want to get into like PA speakers, there are some inexpensive options to start. Now, the way I see it, I could afford a couple speakers that were together under, like what, $1,600, $1,800, something like that, after taxes. To me that doesn't sound too expensive, especially considering the investment and the quality is just insane, just amazing. I have the YXL 15s by Yorkville, yes, and Canada, yes, that's honestly. They are meant to take a beating.

Nino: 21:08

Just Yorkville. In general, all their stuff is like quality, high quality. You can throw them off a roof and they'll still work.

Ilia: 21:14

Yeah, that's what I like about them, because even if something happened to them, it's so easy to fix them too, and they do it on the spot there.

Nino: 21:25

And the thing is they won't break. You have to really try Really got to try to break them. It's going to take a while for it to actually break.

Ilia: 21:33

They're honestly great speakers and I'm glad I went for those, for the 15 inches specifically, they fit my car perfectly it does. Now the other thing you would need is a laptop and, unless you use one of those controllers, the more expensive ones which do not require a laptop because they're all in one controller, which again don't start with that, it's expensive, spensive, unless you have the money for it. Then don't listen to us, just get whatever you want. But if you care about your money and you care about actually making the right choice here and being logical which again it's hard for me Most- people are trying to be on a budget.

Ilia: 22:16

I was trying to be on a budget. I ended up buying one for $1,000. So it's balling on a budget, yeah, but again, that's not a lot for a controller, but it's definitely not cheap.

Nino: 22:26

No, no, no, not cheap. But it wasn't your first controller, anyway it was your second controller.

Ilia: 22:30

Yeah, now you need a laptop and a machine chassis, a laptop stand Even if you're not gonna go to gigs yet, it's just to hover over the table or wherever you're doing it. You need a laptop.

Nino: 22:48

They're 30 bucks, you technically don't really need it right there if you're just doing it at home.

Ilia: 22:53

But yeah, put it on books if you want.

Nino: 22:55

Yeah, you can put it on books for now. That's when you're going out for gigs. You have to look proper, so you have to have a stand. Get a laptop stand.

Ilia: 23:03

Sure, okay, fine, it's cheap, man, okay, anyway, you don't have to do this, Move on.

Nino: 23:09

And then, if you're getting more parole, of course you have to have more space. So you want to get an external hard drive an SSD you have, like a Bentley laptop stand.

Ilia: 23:17

Yours is so expensive.

Nino: 23:19

Oh yeah, because it's a hub too right.

Ilia: 23:22

Oh my God, yours is like a few hundreds of dollars. It's 200 bucks, man, so don't get that. It's more than that. I looked it up.

Nino: 23:29

Now it is more expensive.

Ilia: 23:31

But yes, you were saying SSD, that's if you have gigs. If you have gigs or you don't have gigs but you take your music like from one friend to another and you're just kind of jamming together. It's really good to have your music with you or as a backup, because you have it on the computer, but then all of it is on the SSD. You only have what you need on your computer for the gig or what you usually use, but then everything else is on the SSD and usually in one more spot, you know, at home, somewhere else.

Nino: 24:02

Yeah, you can keep it on a USB If you have one of those big USB drives like 64 gig or 256 gigs, just for backup and then cables.

Ilia: 24:12

But when you just start out, it's just very cheap cables, not too many kinds, I mean.

Nino: 24:19

Once you start gigging, then lost A lot of the cables you will have at home, some of them like the RCA's to headphone jack. You'll have that. Most likely you want to. Plus, some people have them, some people, some don't.

Ilia: 24:33

If you're in production, you almost for sure have that. If you're doing something with music or video, you probably have that Last but not least, last thing you need is, of course, music. Music when do you get it? Now we're going to try to trade carefully here. All right, no, I'm not going to try. You can get whatever you want wherever you want, but we're not going to talk about that, OK you can say that, ok, I'm going to talk about it.

Ilia: 25:06

Let's talk about it, because when you're people are going to get their music on YouTube. Ok, people are going to do that, but we don't recommend it.

Nino: 25:13

No, but it is how you start, man. You have to, especially if you don't have money.

Ilia: 25:18

Are we recommending it or not? No, I'm not recommending it, but you are.

Nino: 25:22

No, we don't recommend it, especially if you go pro right, but just to practice at home you got to start somewhere.

Ilia: 25:28

Yes, you got to have a license. Like a lot of people don't understand, in order to play your music somewhere, you have to be licensed. Now, the chances you'll get caught are probably zero, zero. But the thing is, it's not just if you get caught, it's the integrity of the matter and you're an artist, they're an artist, you're in music, they're in music. It's just, it's the respect you have.

Nino: 25:53

I've heard that, though, like the very, very odd chance, like the person got caught, somebody got caught, like it was really hard, it was a hard slap. Yeah, they got find really hard, but it's very restrictions after. Yeah, it's very, very it's not going to barely going to happen anything.

Ilia: 26:14

But still so, if you want to get your, if you, if you want to get your music that way, just to practice, I mean sure you can even actually pay for a YouTube membership, like a premium account, and they actually allow you to download everything legally. So but again, use it only the way they would allow you to use it. Now you can actually get music for pretty cheap also on either streaming software or record pools and it depends. They all have different subscription.

Nino: 26:49

You can buy per download, like from iTunes. I know you can buy like music, certain songs yeah, there's different different platforms where you can.

Ilia: 26:58

Actually, we're going to list all of them on our website, but just just you know, just so you know, there's the free downloads that everyone goes for when they just start start out. I did not do that because I had this guy and we'll get into that in a second. Yeah, the streaming software. Again. Sometimes you don't have an internet connection, so I don't know if that's the best.

Nino: 27:19

Not very stable right now, but it's moving toward that in the next couple of years is going to be all streaming platforms, I think.

Ilia: 27:28

Yes, and we'll list all the streaming platforms, all the options you have. There are some that are very cheap. I think there's something that's actually free. I'll check that too.

Nino: 27:38

I'll add it to the list, like the best places to get music and for professionals, if you want to take it to that level, is record pools, the best you you can get quality DJ intros. Now, these are specifically for DJs in the industry, right, and it's easy to practice with. They give you acapellas, instrumentals, different edits, remix edits that work really well with certain crowds and it will just stamp your style if you want, right. So that's for more pros when you start getting into that realm. But it's the best way, especially the quality, right, the YouTube quality is already degraded by the time you it gets to you, right, because it's compressed when it's going to get, when it gets uploaded to YouTube.

Ilia: 28:25

But yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, and that's the thing I mean. If you can afford 15, 20, 30, 40 bucks a month and it's important to you, even if you want to do it for three to six months, collect all your music and then stop paying for the record pool, that's also a good way of collecting it you can also go. I believe SoundCloud has they. Actually, they have a unlicensed or they do like free versions. I saw something about that as well. So, yeah, if you have 15, 30, 40 bucks a month usually US dollars Sure, go for it. You can even get it. For what? Three to six months, even one month.

Nino: 29:08

Yeah.

Ilia: 29:08

If you're dedicated, get your music, subscribe for you know. Sign up for DJ city for to create connect BPM supreme is tons of them out there and and again.

Ilia: 29:20

We'll list all that stuff later. But Get your music in one month and that's it. You got it legally. You got it At high quality. You got remixes, if you want. Every every Record pool has its own Kind of special thing about it. Some of them are more for remixes, some of them are more for something else, like some some them. You'll find more EDM, so find the one that the works for. Usually it'll be two or three of them. That's the go-to in my opinion.

Nino: 29:50

So there's a lot of record pools that have a good backlog of music. So if you don't have a lot of music, you can literally Download them all and just unlimited downloads to a lot of the, a lot of the record pools will have if you, if you sign up Right. So unlimited for a month Just go crazy.

Ilia: 30:07

Yeah, because if you just started out, but you need music from the 90s, from the 2000s, right, yeah, you definitely need to collect your music. That's gonna take some time, but it's fun. It's fun figuring out what you like. Now, couple more couple, more things. Physical records I, I Almost don't see that. I actually one of the first weddings that I came to with you. The other room there was another DJ. I wanted to. I wanted to check him out Mm-hmm he had. He was only using records, mm-hmm. Yeah. So some people still do, yeah some people still use CDs.

Nino: 30:41

Yeah, back in the day they haven't changed their ways right, they haven't went along with the technology, but it's just the way it is. It works for them. Yes, honorable mentions yeah, yeah, so you can that technically. If your parents have like Records, old records, you can technically transfer them over. I know it's expensive, though. Yeah the transfer music over digitally. You can have. You can do it with video as well, so you can do it that way with CDs as well. You can transfer it digitally.

Ilia: 31:12

But you likely won't do that. These are something, some things we have to mention now.

Nino: 31:17

The best one other DJs now tread carefully, because most DJs don't want to give you their music right, because it's there, it's kind of their thing. They're, they're being. It's the DJs collected that they collected it for for years and years and years, and then, all of a sudden, you're just gonna give it to them.

Ilia: 31:36

Yeah, and that's literally your Like your playlist. This is what you play wherever you go. This is your kind of stamp. Yeah, that's, that's, that's. Even though you change it from time to time and you don't always play the same thing, this is your music. Maybe somebody else doesn't have that same version, that same remix of that track? Right, you're one of the only people who, in this area, has it. Yeah, and I learned that. You know, with the time, this guy still won't give me a couple Hi.

Nino: 32:05

I'm not gonna give it to you, man, there's special tracks. Man I don't only play, it's my track.

Ilia: 32:10

But what did you say? You sometimes music swap.

Nino: 32:12

Oh well, with Professionals, with that are on your same level, right? We usually like to switch music, so give me some songs. Yo, you have some new songs, some bangers. I need some like Afro beats or something. So we'll switch and yeah, it's, it's worth it and it makes sense to just do Straight switches something for something, right, yes, so either that or maybe you.

Ilia: 32:36

You, you're a producer and you helped the DJ with something and you got. You got a. You got a.

Nino: 32:42

You got a pay for it in one way or another, yes, Sometimes even monetary, if the DJ will let you, if, if they will, but sometimes they won't or if somebody just gives you their entire hard drive. Yeah yeah, music, their music is priceless music. This is what we use to make people dance. So this is our livelihood.

Ilia: 33:00

So, yeah, we don't take it lightly yeah, so I I got, I got the music from you because you actually needed me to learn as Efficiency as possible and you wanted me to come and join your gigs, right. So, and, and you also, that was a hard drive you weren't using anymore, yeah, that wasn't the one directly from your computer, the one that you're using Now, yes, in your current gigs. So you're like, okay, that makes sense, I'll give it to him. But there there's like a hundred thousand songs on there so many songs I don't even.

Ilia: 33:31

I didn't even know they're on there and Just to touch on this and we touched on that before too you will learn that if you're just a beginner, you will learn that if you use someone else's music, someone else's library, you will end up Just scrapping it all because you don't get the logic you do, maybe you don't like the music and then you'll start over. So I start Selecting what I like and then getting my own stuff from record pools. But it was a great way to start right. It was a very good way to start. But just to sum up, really what you need is a controller, software, headphone speakers, a laptop. Now get a reliable laptop and you should be talking do as I say, not as I do, because I'm just I'm waiting to see if I want to go for a MacBook Pro or if I'm getting another Windows laptop.

Nino: 34:28

I'm still deciding right because this is a lot of money to drop.

Ilia: 34:31

Yeah, like, the one I want to get is like seven thousand dollars, right, and Canadian, I don't know how much it's in the US but do I want to do it? Don't want to go to payment plan, I'm not sure, right? So, whereas I can get a really nice one for two, three thousand dollars, which is a Windows PC or laptop. So I'm just trying to decide. Still, you know, maybe an external SSD if you're actually moving around with this, with the music cables, record pools, you know, subscribe to a couple of them, but really, that's, that's all you need.

Ilia: 35:01

Yeah, it is yeah. So, yeah, I think we covered Pretty much everything, pretty much, and if there's something we didn't cover, there's way more, way, many more episodes to come. Now we also are going to list Everything we speak about on each episode, anything that's worth mentioning On our blog, on our website. So if there's anything you want to learn about in more detail, definitely check our website out. Social media everything's in the description below. And, yeah, thank you very much for joining another episode of the clever DJ and and thank you very much for me, ilya and you know, all right till next time, guys.

Nino: 36:09

You.