Renting a small DJ setup in NYC

January 18, 2007 8:38 AM

A friend wants to rent a small PA system, a pair of CDJs, and a mixer, for a party in NYC tomorrow night (Friday 1/19). I will be DJing, so I have an interest in making sure that the gear is good. The party is for an organization affiliated with NYU, and he can get some kind of gear from the university, but he's afraid it won't be very good. What are some good alternatives in the city?
posted by Artifice_Eternity to Technology (4 answers total)

I don't know any specific rental places in NYC, but I recommend going to a sound/ lighting rental store, and most music instrument stores have a DJ section which does rentals as well.

As for PA, I recommend renting two or four self-powered speakers. By getting self-powered speakers, it will remove a lot of the headache involving amps and wattages for you, because all you have to do is plug them into the preamp (mixer). It is also usually cheaper to get self powered speakers because you only need to rent the speakers, not amps. In terms of how many watts you need, know the approximate size and capacity of the venue and ask the guy at the counter approximately how much power you will need.

For the mixer and CDJs, almost any rental place will carry this recommended kit:

The mixer should be a Pioneer DJM500 or DJM600. This is the industry standard, has every feature you should be looking for, and is extremely easy to use if you know your way around a mixer:
http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/products/44/74/461/DJM-500/index.html

For the CD player, the Denon DN series is the industry standard. The DN 2000 is the standard mount in the majority of clubs and is carried by any rental place. It is two cd players built as one unit and is very straightforward to use:
http://www.denondj.com/prodview_item.asp?pid=55&cid=1
The one linked is a new version, but ANY place will have the DN 2000 which will suffice for most needs.

If you're looking for a fancier cd player, most places will carry the Pioneer CDJ2000. You can do a lot of turntablist tricks on this one, but you will need to rent two of them as they only play one cd at a time.
http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/products/archive/CDJ-1000%20MK2/index.html
posted by Count at 10:01 AM on January 18, 2007

I highly reccomend the Mackie 450 self-powered speakers. Great sound (particularly low-end), extremely easy setup electrically (self-powered...), and they fit on stands that make positioning them easy.

Find someone who can rent you those. Even my backwater university has a few, so I wouldn't discount NYU's resources so quickly.
posted by phrontist at 10:32 AM on January 18, 2007

Oh, and they are 400 watts a piece!
posted by phrontist at 10:35 AM on January 18, 2007

NYC Sound & Light
posted by lannanh at 7:51 PM on January 18, 2007