There are tons of reasons to need to change out a DJ mixer during a set or club night – but that doesn’t mean you have to turn off the music and unplug everything. In today’s Throwback Thursday video from Ean, he shows how a simple stereo cable swap out allows DJs to keep some of the music going while changing DJ mixers. Watch how it works inside:
Swapping DJ Mixers
A few things to keep in mind when swapping out DJ mixers in this way:
- You might get a few pops or clicks when you’re unplugging/replugging in RCA cables. This is ok – a good way to minimize this is to make sure that you turn down a mixer before plugging it in. It’s not going to eliminate everything but it will allow you to fade the music in and out without sudden jumps.
- Make sure you know what the master outputs really are – for instance, in this video, you’ll note Ean swapped to Session out on the second mixer – because that was the output to the “master” output (aka the recorder we used to record the audio for this video). If you have a non-traditional master output, know what it is before you start changing things around
- Have people to help you out! To swap a DJ mixer out, especially one that doesn’t have room for a second mixer next to it, you’ll need people to lift up the mixers and physically change them out. You’ll also want someone watching at ALL times to make sure that no cables get too taut – this is how you accidentally unplug the power to your audio source and defeat the whole point of swapping out the mixer. Having someone “spot” the process prevents this.
Do you have any stories of having to swap out DJ gear on the fly during a gig? Let us know your experiences in the comments below!
