Hailing from the city of angels, DJ Evan Sugarpill joined ITM to take us through his top-ten gear for those looking to get in on the action and create their own fully baked beats.

Pad MIDI Controllers

1. Akai MPD24 $289.00
2. M-Audio Trigger Finger $279.00

ES: “These two pieces of gear have become fairly standard for a lot of DJs. The first difference you would notice is that the Akai has continuous knobs and fatter faders. However, the biggest difference is the pad’s ability to support toggle vs. momentary control of your program. The Trigger finger supports momentary control natively while the MPDs do not support true momentary control for CC values.”

Ableton Specific Controllers

3. Akai APC20 $379.00
4. Akai APC40 $599.00

ES: “For beginners who want full control of the Ableton interface these are kind of hard to beat. In my experience these become a little more difficult to use when getting into serious customization. Things can be done, but I find generic midi controllers easier to use for some applications.”

5. Novation Launchpad $245.00

ES: “I have one, and love that thing. I don’t really use it in a traditional sense, but I think that its construction is fine and the pads are way more playable than the Akai APC series pads.”

Soundcards

ES: “Mostly I can recommend not using certain sound cards, so many of them have just given me problems. You definitely need an external sound card for DJing because it takes the stress of processing all of the audio off of your main CPU. Translation: no sputtery sounds and faster response times with controllers.”

6. Echo AudioFire 4 $539.00

ES: “I have heard great things about the Echo AudioFire 4, but I do not have one personally, so I can’t speak from first-hand experience.”

7. Native Instruments Audio 2 DJ $99.00

ES: “I have used and would recommend the Native Instruments Audio 2 DJ, I know a lot of people who use and like it as well.”

Headphones

8. Sony MDR-V700 $149.99

ES: “These are not the best but they are the standard. I’m on pair number three. Definitely go try some headphones out before you buy them.”

Accessories

9. Backpack

ES: “A backpack with lots of padding that doesn’t crush your gear is crucial. Remember knobs fall off and faders get bent if you jam them in the Jansport you had in high school.”

10. Computer stand and Midi Controller stand

ES: “Go to your local office supply store or online DJ store and get something to set your laptop on or your back will hurt after a 45 minute session. Equally important is the Midi Controller stand, as an Ableton DJ it is really important that people can see what you are doing on the pads. It drives me crazy when someone sets their trigger finger up behind their raised computer and the extent of their stage show is something that looks like occasionally checking your email and then dancing around about what you’ve seen on it.”