Getting started as a DJ is a lot like getting your feet wet as a musician; there's a gear list newbies are eager to develop, a learning curve with that gear, and plenty of "hidden" technical issues lying in wait to trip up the new DJ in those early sessions in front of a crowd. What's a newbie to do? We put that question to two people at Behringer; Kevin Mertens of the DJ Conceptual Design department, and Michael Maeurer of Behringer's Product Management Conceptual Design department.

Gearwire: For a newcomer to DJing, describe what a newbie should include in a basic setup?

Kevin Mertens: “The first question to answer would be which medium the aspiring DJ is planning to use. Is he going to be using “strictly vinyl”, CDs or digital files or possibly a combination of for example vinyl and mp3s? If it’s going to be only vinyl or only CDs a combination of 2 turntables or 2 tabletop CD players (alternatively a double CD player) and a mixer plus headphones will get you started.

Here you could choose upon a variety of our very competitively priced mixers, depending on how many channels you want. All our mixers have built in beat-counters to help the newcomer while learning proper beat-matching. Normally though to start off with, a 2 channel battle mixer will do the job, especially if you are planning to use it as a home setup. As a good beginner DJ headphone I would recommend our HPX2000 or for the more advanced our HPX4000 headphones.

If you are planning to play mp3s and other digital formats the setup will have to evolve around a desktop or laptop computer. You can either keep it very basic and just use a simple audio interface such as our FCA202 Firewire interface plus DJ software or go for a much more advanced and integrated solution such as our very popular and highly innovative BCD2000 DJ software controller. The BCD2000 even allows the connection of 2 turntables or a CD player and really gives you great flexibility.

You can control DJ software with real hands-on feel and mix your complete mp3 collection just as others mix their records. And if you want a combination of both you can switch over to analog inputs at any time and mix in a record or CD track. The BCD2000 in combination with any computer already performs as a powerful and complete setup to start off with and allows a beginner for example in a second step to ad a turntable or CD player to expand his setup. Or from a different perspective, someone who already has a classic 2 turntable + mixer setup and wants to integrate mp3 mixing into his setup could ad the BCD2000 and expand his creative possibilities immensely.”

What BEHRINGER gear would be especially helpful for an inexperienced DJ? a more advanced DJ?

Kevin Mertens: “The first thing a DJ needs to learn is how to beat-match. This means that you bring two tracks which normally have different speeds into sync so you let both records play at the same time without destroying the groove and smoothly blend from one track to the next. We offer tools like the BEAT800 which has two beat-counters inside and helps the beginner find the right tempo. All of our mixers have built in beat-counters and finally you have the possibility to use DJ software for example with our BCD2000 controller which has a very precise beat-counting function and even automatically syncs the tracks. This would enable the newcomer to focus more on track-selection and effects and other performance related functions such as looping.

When the DJ gets more advanced there are some other possibilities to make a more complex performance by adding such tools like the DFX69 Tweakalizer DJ FX unit or the FEX800 for studio-quality effects. Also the DJ can control and integrate other software with e.g. our UMX-series MIDI-keyboards which contain a version of Ableton Live Lite 4.

Our complete B-Control midi controller series can also be used to control software like Ableton which includes DJ functions and brings producing, live performance and DJing into sync. This is becoming ever more popular and you see many DJs nowadays combining their self-produced music with records or MP3s by other artists. The possibilities that modern DJ technology offers today gives you unlimited creative freedom.”

What do you think are the most important technical/gear related issues that face a newcomer to DJ work in a club setting or at a special event?

Kevin Mertens: “A newcomer will face the problem that unless he brings his own equipment, which is normally not standard procedure in clubs, he will face a huge amount of equipment he might have to work with, that he doesn’t know or has never used before. In order to become comfortable with DJ technology it is recommendable for a newcomer to try to get to know the different functions DJ mixers might have and what they are used for.

If he sort of “studies” the DJ mixer/equipment technology in general than it will be easier for him to quickly adapt to a new mixer that he has never worked with before, simply because he can understand which function does what. The rest is just gaining experience and becoming familiar with club surroundings. The worst thing that can still happen to a DJ is to come to a club and find out that there are no monitor speakers available for the DJ, in this case it is helpful if you know how to mix completely over headphones.”

How did Behringer address the iPod/mp3 issue when it started manufacturing for the DJ industry? Do you think that mp3s are surpassing high fidelity recordings?

Michael Maeurer: “MP3 nowadays is surely a big issue in the DJ world. Many mobile DJs tend to use MP3 because it allows you to carry along huge music libraries easily and eliminates the hassle of having to carry heavy CD or vinyl cases. It is already a huge and growing market but vinyl and CD will remain, especially due to the sound quality and feeling. We were among the first hardware manufacturing companies in the industry that addressed the MP3 issue with our BCD2000 DJ controller. . ."

How many sources should a newcomer have to play with? How many Cd players, how many mp3 playbacks, etc?

Kevin Mertens: “A very powerful setup giving you massive flexibility could consist of 2 turntables a tabletop CD player and our DJ controller BCD2000 plus laptop all connected to a 5 channel club mixer such as our VMX1000. This would give you the possibility to easily mix the different sources without having to switch back and forth. This of course represents a very complex and cost intense setup so the newcomer could start with any of the elements and slowly expand his setup. Someone just getting started might want to begin with a software + controller setup so he can mix his mp3 collection and see if he really wants to get into DJing. From there on the possibilities are endless…”

How can a DJ improve the technical quality of their presentations in terms of sound quality? What kinds of bass and other EQ modifications do you recommend?

Kevin Mertens: “This really depends on what DJ equipment you are using and what you want to do. One example could be for someone mixing only with MP3s and sending his soundcard signal to the PA. The user might want to consider putting a Tube Equalizer like our T1951 between the output of the soundcard and the PA amplifier in order to “pimp” the digital sound and give more analog warmth and deeper bass. An exciter could be used to increase the clarity of your mix."

What is do you think is Behringer's most important contribution to the DJ industry?

Michael Maeurer: “Definitely the BCD2000 and the DJX700. The BCD2000 with the B-DJ software was the first all-in-one solution where the digital world could be perfectly combined with the analog world. When the BCD was introduced we had the only software-hardware combination to implement and route turntable signals into the DJ software in real-time with very low latency. In our opinion this feature was missing on all the other solutions on the market. There was already DJ-software available, a few controllers which were directly made for software and multi-channel audio soundcards but no all-in-one solution straight out-of-the-box. So we developed one.

What's ahead for Behringer?

Kevin Mertens: “Well, I can promise that 2007 will be a very exciting year for us and we will be releasing quite a bit of new DJ gear. We have had a very successful entry into the digital DJ market with our BCD2000 controller and have confidence that this is a growing market and that this is the “next generation of DJing”, so expect more products in this direction."