Power Conditioner
Proper protection is essential for costly equipment, even more so if it is frequently moved from location to location. Professional grade power conditioners protect your equipment from electrical surges and spikes, offer additional power receptacles, and some even have retractable task lighting for your rack. When choosing the right power conditioner you will want to focus on how many watts or amps your gear will draw from an outlet. Many power conditioners are rated at 15 amps or more. So when selecting your conditioner be sure it can handle the load you are seeking to connect to it. Typically, wireless mics, mixers, and signal processing equipment won’t draw much current. However, amplifiers, lighting effects, fog machines and other gear and will!
Amplifier
Your amplifier is one of the most important components of your entire sound system. Without it there would be no sound amplified at all. It’s important to select an amp that has more power than your speakers can handle. The logic is that you want your amplifier to run as cool as possible and run the system with the least amount of stress as possible. By selecting an amplifier that doesn’t have to work at top rated (full blast) specifications all the time you will prevent distortion. Distortion is one of the frequent reasons for poor sound quality and destroying speakers.
Speakers
Are responsible for delivering the sound to your audience. There are several different types of loudspeakers to choose from. Some common choices are two way and three way speakers, built in protection modules and actually powered speakers (built in amplifiers). When deciding which to choose, one should think about the primary use first. Ask yourself whether the speakers are going to be transported regularly or permanently installed. If you’re transporting the speakers regularly you may want to select a speaker that is lighter in weight and offers a more compact design. If it’s for a permanent use you will want to be sure the speakers are “flyable” and have the ability to be mounted from a ceiling for instance.
Cases & Racks
Protecting your investment makes good sense. Any time you are planning on transporting your gear you will want to be sure of properly mounting it in a reliable road case. Additionally, you won’t need to constantly setup and connect all of your components before each use as the road case will allow you to connect most of your components once.
Selecting the right one is an important decision. Before selecting a road case you must have an inventory of the gear you will want to mount inside the case. Typically most professional products are 19” rack mountable, simply put this means your gear has “ears” on the sides, which enables you to mount your gear right into a rack with a rack screw.
Cases are sized in "RACK SPACES". One space equals 1 ¾"
Simply calculate how tall all of your equipment is and divide by 1.75 and you will determine how many rack spaces you will need for your gear. Next, you will want to check the depth of your gear as some products like amplifiers may be extra deep and require a deep style rack.
Finally, you may want to add casters or a dolly for ease in transportation. Some casters even offer locking wheels for keeping the rack stable while operating.
CD Players
CD Players connect directly into a mixing console. They connect easily with two RCA style plugs. There are many models available to suit almost everyone’s needs. Single CD Players, dual CD Players, which are two decks in one, front load, top load, and more.
When choosing the right CD Player ask yourself what you want to use it for most. Many DJ’s and hobbyists like dual CD Players so they can easily mix from one to the next mix on the same unit. Base models are available at a low cost. But if you invest a small amount more you can get popular options like pitch control – which allows you to speed up or slow down a track, jog wheel track search – which allows you to quickly find a cue point, and other effects like turntable braking and reverse play – which offer exciting opportunities to enhance your performance.
Some players offer digital sampling, echo, turntable scratching and many others. So look for the features that will work best for you.
Mixers
Mixing console, also known as a pre-amplifier. Your mixer is at the heart of your sound system. It is like a funnel where all of the components in your system are connected. There are many styles available ranging from 2 channel – 12 channel and more.
For the Hip Hop or Scratch DJ - Scratch style mixers typically 10” wide and offer heavy duty cross-faders (which allow you to mix from one source to another), cut or kill switches which allow you to remove the bass sounds from a track quickly at the flick of a switch, to controlling the sound levels of the mixes.
For Mobile DJ or Club DJ use – these mixers are built with sound quality and ease of functionality.
