The humble headphones are perhaps the DJs most vital tool. Every DJ owns some, and whether they’re closed back or lollipop, ‘on-ear’ or ‘over-ear’, a DJ without headphones is like a carpenter without a hammer or a President without an executive order.
As with many things in our DJing community, we all share a common experience of our culture, and headphones are included in this too – sooner or later, if you DJ for long enough, you will experience at least one of the following headphone mishaps:
Perhaps the most prosaic headphone related mistake is when you get to your gig only to realise that you forgot to bring them. This generally results in one of two scenarios. Either, you have to borrow someone else’s cans, which is usually fine – except that if you borrow headphones from the DJ who was on before you, you’re very likely to end up with a thin film of their ear-sweat coating your own ears.
Or you have option B, which is that you have to borrow a non-DJs headphones and you end up playing a four-hour set with a pair of ear buds. It’s not easy, but not impossible and anyway, these kinds of scenarios can be the makings of you as a DJ: if you can still rock a room when there’s a technical problem, then you’re probably going to be alright as a DJ. Just don’t make a habit of DJing on earbuds, for the sake of your hearing.
Another common headphone misadventure is this: you get to the gig, you’re all hyped up and ready to take over from the other DJ. You’ve got your USB drive ready to plug in and your headphones around your neck. So that you don’t trip over, you put the headphone jack in your pocket. Then you get on the decks, you plug your drive in, scroll through some tunes, try to cue something up. You can see on the mixer that there’s a signal, but you can’t hear anything through your headphones. The other DJ’s tune is about to run out any second but you can’t work out why you can’t hear your tune. Waves of panic begin to build, as you realise you’re about to completely blow the atmosphere that the last guy has spent two hours building – at which point you remember your headphone jack is still in your pocket and you’ve not plugged it in yet. Sweet relief, a hurried mix and you’re back in the game!
You can see on the mixer that there’s a signal, but you can’t hear anything through your headphones. The other DJ’s tune is about to run out any second but you can’t work out why you can’t hear your tune. Waves of panic begin to build, as you realise you’re about to completely blow the atmosphere that the last guy has spent two hours building – at which point you remember your headphone jack is still in your pocket and you’ve not plugged it in yet. Sweet relief, a hurried mix and you’re back in the game!
The converse of this scenario is when you’re feeling totally confident, you’ve having a great night, all the tunes are going down really well, and you step away from the decks to chat to someone, completely forgetting that your headphones are still plugged into the mixer. If you’re lucky, you might get away with a bent headphone jack and a jolt as your headphones ping off your head; worst case scenario, you take the mixer with you and you manage to pull it off the table, dislodging the power cable causing an instant, terrible, silence.
If you’re very lucky, there might be another DJ hanging about in the booth with you – if so, you have to sacrifice them: scowl at them and gesticulate as though it was their fault. The crowd will be happy to join you in chasing them out of the club angry mob style while you sort your life out.
Finally, we would have to say that if you’re starting out in your DJing career, spend a bit of time researching which headphones are available, and then spend a bit of money on a decent pair of cans. Headphones are an essential tool of your chosen trade, and your hearing is precious – choose wisely!
