DJ and Producer

Hi,

first off for the people who don't know me, I'm Ivan from Belgium, 34 and been making trance, electro , techno and hiphop since I was 17

I had a few rough startups bringing me back to zero a few times.

Just to get You going I can help You a little on my site (http://djandproducer.com)

I've been around and taken some blows. All of which wouldn't have been necessary if I'd known then what I know now: You need the right equipment, the right mindset and the right attitude.

+The latter two are best left to more psychologically trained persons that is if You don't own these skills yet
;) (but then You wouldn't be here!)

For materials: You need both dj gear and studio gear working flawlessly together and You need both good ears and good monitors. Those monitors are speakers. Don't go Ultra high end in the beginning and try to get flat response monitors. The Yamaha NS-10 used to be the standard, but don't let others tell You, try them.

Dj Gear:
Try to get at least two cdj1000 or cdj-2000 and a djm-800 or djm-2000. You'll see that it'll be one of the best investments You've ever made. If You don't have enough money go with Denon. They also make nice stuff. If You're into vinyl try to go Stanton all the way.
You WILL want to use traktor pro or serato scratch or something close.
Outdoors a Tonium pacemaker will not only make You look cool but will let You work on your mixes while on bus or train.

Studio gear:
First off: You NEED a good sound card. Sure the specs on low end cards nowadays look good on paper, but please thrust your ears. That said I still have to find the reason people buy multithousand dollar DA and AD while not investing in acoustic threatment for their room.

Second You do need some synthesizer or some keys + a controller. Of course if You have the cash Moog and Access virus ti but if You don't You can have great value for money from vst and vsti inside let's say FL Studio or Ableton Live. If You prefer oldskool sequencing then Cakewalk Sonar or Cubase Studio or Logic Po might be just the thing for You.

A word clock to sync everything is nice too if You can afford it but DAW and sequencers start to have better control over midi nowadays making that one less pertinent not stating it's obsolete though.

You will want a core i7 with 8gb or as much RAM You can afford since everything is moving 64 bit.
A year ago I'd have said go with Win XP or MAC OS but today I'd say go for Win 7 64 and bugfix it a little. most important: make your system optimized for background services and try to minimize network transfer and graphic interference while inside the DAW.

So focus on a fast cpu with lots of vst plugins. Make sure everything You buy fits as a glove to the rest of the system through midi and or usb and of course also ASIO.

Now don't forget: You'll need lots of courage. I salute You and hope for a website visit which also might be entertaining and You might learn some things..