What’s in your DJ Bag? – MSTRKRFT
Here is the first in a new series of videos we are doing called “What’s in your DJ bag?” where we stop guys on the road and find out the different pieces of gear they rely on night after night. Watch the first episode featuring MSTRKRFT and read on for more details about the gear.
IN THEIR BAG
We found everything a rockstar DJ needs…
* Serato box (Version 1) 
* Pioneer Magnesium headphones
* Custom molded ear plugs (neon yellow)
* 13-inch Macbook Pro (with solid state hard drive)
* Car visor booklet with Serato and white noise CDs
* $1,000 in cash
* American work permits
* Large Gold watch
* Bottle of Crown Royal
* A seriously awesome mustache
October 21st, 2009 at 1:26 am Quote
first :D really awesome moustache :D hell yes!
October 21st, 2009 at 1:50 am Quote
Niice) Let’s see what’s in Obama’s bag!
October 21st, 2009 at 2:51 am Quote
where could i get a pair of those noise cancelling earplugs?
October 21st, 2009 at 2:58 am Quote
I assume thats a 15″ Mbp :)
October 21st, 2009 at 3:09 am Quote
That’s def not a 15″.
What brand are those ear plugs? I think I need some of those before I go def…
October 21st, 2009 at 3:31 am Quote
Love that new feature. And you even started it with one of my favorite artists! Who did the intro animation? It’s awesome.
October 21st, 2009 at 3:32 am Quote
Those are attenuators rather than earplugs. Earplugs absorb the frequencies before they reach your ear drum. Attenuators will allow the frequencies to pass but will limit the amount of dB getting in so you can hear everything correctly, but just ‘turned down’
You can get them at any audiologists, the dudes that make hearing aids as Jesse says.
October 21st, 2009 at 3:35 am Quote
I dont get this
Car visor booklet with Serato and white noise cds
what is this for?
October 21st, 2009 at 4:34 am Quote
What’s a mustache doing in his bag any way?
October 21st, 2009 at 4:44 am Quote
very nice and entertaining article! hope to see more of those.
October 21st, 2009 at 5:38 am Quote
earplugs for sure anybody knows where i can get good ones?
October 21st, 2009 at 5:39 am Quote
Ah man, love MSTRKRFT. Seen them twice at a small venue in my home town. Was like 5 ft away from the DJ booth both times :D
The first time i saw them they had a laptop with a customised keyboard for DJ’ing. Was very cool. Not sure if they had it the second time. There was so much smoke in the club you couldnt see people 10 inches in front of you.
Great video too, i look forward to more world class DJ’s revealing all.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:04 am Quote
Nice ear plugs! Custom made? I WANT! I have a massive trouble with ear plugs fitting into my ears just right… maybe do a feature on how to obtain generic comfortable and well performing plugs for your ears vs custom made?
October 21st, 2009 at 6:31 am Quote
You can even get those earplugs from some of the pro audio warehouses besides any audiologist every touring roadie and tech uses them. I love mine they are worth every penny.
The ones from the audiologist that cost around 200.00 bucks are custom molded to the shape of your ear canals, perfect fit very comfortable for long wearing.
Love the Crown royal… I always have a bottle of Yeager and some red bull on ice in my bag
October 21st, 2009 at 6:55 am Quote
I think I will grow out a mustache like that.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:35 am Quote
Ean
I think a great article would some information on ear plugs. I my self lost hearing from my right ear mixing with headphone. For the past 2 years I’ve been letting traktor sync my tracks so I could save my hearing for the sweet nothing the lady whisper in my ear. “Aye Papi!”
October 21st, 2009 at 7:55 am Quote
f ‘in great article! LOVE MSTRKRFT! I’ve seen them (him) like maybe 4 times already in Puerto Rico and it was awesome :D. That bag needs a guardian dog or something since it even has $1000 dollars cash in it kinda like prize money or something :O
And yeah Jesse’s stache is epic but I’ve seen Ean’s stache getting that epic too. Italian Spiderman Epic!
October 21st, 2009 at 7:56 am Quote
nice! hope to see more of those!!!
October 21st, 2009 at 8:04 am Quote
Awwww No Traktor?? I own both but i really much prefer using traktor these days
October 21st, 2009 at 9:50 am Quote
what is a solid state hard drive?
October 21st, 2009 at 9:54 am Quote
A hard drive that has no moving parts, therefore is smaller, wont break after 2 years of use and is alot faster to load files.
They’re more expensive and usually have less capacity but are far far far far far far far more superior to regular hard drives.
October 21st, 2009 at 10:15 am Quote
Anyways as for solid state disks aka SSD. There is quite a huge gap in performance. The “cheap” (still way more expensive than classic hard disks) ones are not really “fast” in many cases compared to a traditional hard disks. They do however all deal much better with bring thrown around. At this point they are very highly priced options even on luxury laptops not only because they offer less size for a much higher price. I expect that towards the end of next year luxury laptops will increasingly start shipping with SSD’s by default, especially in the compact segment where the lower power consumption of the top models also make a difference.
Another thing to note is that both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard supposedly have some internal changes inside to makwe them more efficient with SSDs. Remember that OS’s in the past did a lot of work to reduce random access to hard drives. This is no longer necessary with SSD’s .. actually SSD’s work hard to fragment data as much as possible when writing in order to not “ware out” so quickly. I am sure further tweaks will make SSDs even better in the future.
More details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive
October 21st, 2009 at 11:37 am Quote
Want earplugs? Go visit an Audiologist. Apart from fitting Granny with an aid, their other major task is to hook up musicians with all kinds of hearing devices. To a DJ or anyone working at a club or venue, the Audiologist is your friend. Drop the $200 and do it.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:02 pm Quote
If you’re interested in solid-state hard drives, they are currently available in smaller sizes and for a much higher price per GB. For example, if you get a new MacBook Pro from the Apple Store, you can have it built with a 128 GB or 256 GB SSD hard drive for an extra $200-400 for the 128 or for $650-850 for the 256 GB. The add-on prices go slightly down if you’re buying a higher-end MBP.
Here’s a link to some internal and external SSDs:
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/SSD
And if you want to buy some professional musician’s earplugs, it’s something you need to get fitted for, so this link can help you find a place to go almost anywhere you are in the world:
http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/erme-wtb.aspx
October 21st, 2009 at 12:16 pm Quote
What bag is he using?
October 21st, 2009 at 12:21 pm Quote
100% agree with Jesse on that. Your ears are your #1 tool friends; protect them.
Ean, I love the idea behind this article. What about a companion segment talking about their customized gear / mappings / effects? I would definitely be interested in learning more about how touring DJs are reacting / adapting to the emergence of controllerism. Regardless, great article idea and I can’t wait to read more!
-djeklypse
October 21st, 2009 at 12:24 pm Quote
Thanks for the link Markkus
http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/erme-wtb.aspx
October 21st, 2009 at 12:24 pm Quote
A great alternative to the $200 ear thingy is this http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er20.aspx
the only problem is you can’t wear them while dj’ing cause they stick out of your ear a little but do a decent job of reducing the volume evenly… & for only $20.
Hope this helps.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:32 pm Quote
hey guys.
can anyone tell me the name of the first song (kind of: one two three four five…stuff)
thx
October 21st, 2009 at 1:14 pm Quote
Daniel, that’s D.A.N.C.E. by Justice, i’m guessing the MSTRKFT remix. surprised if that’s the first you’ve heard it, heh.
October 21st, 2009 at 1:20 pm Quote
earplugs
I have MusicSafe Pro Natural Sound Ear Plugs. Not bad and cheeeeap.
http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/nasopl.html
October 21st, 2009 at 1:29 pm Quote
Ean, great piece here! Hopefully we’ll see inside more DJ bags in future!
Glad to see others here find ear protection a priority. For now, I just keep a bulk box from Home Depot near my kit at home and toss a couple of new pairs in my kit when I go out. Nice and cheap, but I’d prefer a clear pair to the fluorescent colours. I like to keep an extra pair handy to pass along if someone asks about mine (and I’ve had several beers bought for me that way!)
October 21st, 2009 at 1:35 pm Quote
Ean, that was an awesome piece. Except now you just left us hungry for more. You should do a piece on your DJ bag.
Also, what was the thousand dollars for?
October 21st, 2009 at 1:47 pm Quote
D.A.N.C.E. from Justice.Think it´s a remix?Eans remix?
October 21st, 2009 at 4:18 pm Quote
Two things
1) earplugs are great.
2) got to love the return of the brazilian girls going on in the background!
October 21st, 2009 at 4:48 pm Quote
diggin the dj interviews on techtools, nice one!
October 21st, 2009 at 5:01 pm Quote
Brazillian Girls killed it, along with MSTRKRFT, Dan Deacon, and MGMT. But, Brazilian Girls where by far my favorite performance of the event.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:01 pm Quote
IDK if the earplugs would do the trick… “It’s All Gone Pete Tong!”
October 21st, 2009 at 6:59 pm Quote
opps my bad menat to put “Justice D.A.N.C.E. Mstrkrft Remix”
Video –> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36GoJluHXlY
October 21st, 2009 at 9:18 pm Quote
Love it.
Want more!
October 21st, 2009 at 9:25 pm Quote
Big ups to Markkus for completing the article by giving us access. I really appreciate his research. It’s one thing to put a dope vid out, but to follow through is even better.
Good job Markkus and Ean.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:54 am Quote
Yeah I’m wondering about the “white noise CDs” as wel… wtf?
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:35 am Quote
great feature. ask some more questions next time.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:25 pm Quote
Great segment! What I find really great about this segment was to see something I never thought of like the ear plugs. Maybe that would of solved some of the loss of hearing I have experience over the years. I too am curious about the white noise cd. I understand why one would carry a cd with a tone on it but white noise? Do you play that in the background of a track to dirty up the sound perhaps? My guess would be to give that digital sound a more vinyl like feel.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:45 pm Quote
+1 for identifying that gear bag please
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:58 pm Quote
Bump on more info about the ear plugs and white noise
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm Quote
The white noise CDs are to counteract the various listening devices international spies plant in DJ booths… MSTRKRFT has been passing military secrets on to a network of spies in between mixes. Where do you think he got the $1000 in cash?
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:56 pm Quote
another +1 for the earplugs and ssd.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:45 pm Quote
My guess is that the white noise is used to create sweeps.
I think I need to get some of those musicians’ earplugs myself, before my hearing really gets damaged. It’s probably already been hurt; I need to stop it before it gets any worse!
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:43 pm Quote
Great article/video. Can’t wait to see many more in the series. Who knows…just when you think you have thought of everything to bring to your sets, someone else has something new to throw in. Although I didn’t see anything new/different in this video, I hope future vids will have a surprise or three. Thanks Ean.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:48 pm Quote
really cool idea for videos. i can’t wait to see more
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:27 pm Quote
They use a lot of white noise in their mixes and songs. So it helps with transitions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkEP-TjmlpU
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:44 am Quote
This article is awesome.
Would like some more info on the white noise cds though too :D
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:47 am Quote
oh and also,
Metric are playing in the background – so good live.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 am Quote
Cool! I’d love to see more of this.
On the white noise thing, it could also be used for soundchecking / system calibration, but I doubt guys at their levels do that themselves.
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:39 pm Quote
I think the most important question is: What IS that DJ bag?
October 24th, 2009 at 11:24 am Quote
Likely for cabs, emergencies, etc.
October 26th, 2009 at 11:12 pm Quote
He just said, where you get hearing aids made. So any ear doctor, takes like 5 minutes to mold your ear then they ship the mold off them get them in like a week. Pretty pricey if you tend to lose things!
October 27th, 2009 at 3:50 pm Quote
Guy Looks like a young John Bonham!
October 28th, 2009 at 6:47 am Quote
Any one got any ideas on what bag that is???
October 30th, 2009 at 5:12 pm Quote
Headliner Backpack me thinks……
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:32 am Quote
Hey, I live in Germany. Mine are called “PARTY PLUGS” they’re really good and cost about 15 $.
They’re like these ones:
http://www.sonicshop.de/De/Plugs/MusicSafe-3.asp
November 4th, 2009 at 2:03 pm Quote
+1 to know the brand of the backpack…
November 11th, 2009 at 10:01 pm Quote
I think this is the backpack (or at least similar to it)
http://www.planetdj.com/i–STASHPACK
November 11th, 2009 at 10:03 pm Quote
nevermind, this is it
http://www.storedj.com.au/products/product.php?id=1151
November 30th, 2009 at 8:39 am Quote
…yeah!!! masterkraftz !!! he look like ledzeppelins drummer john bonham !!! awesome !!!
December 28th, 2009 at 10:29 am Quote
Hi Ean, totally off-topic, but which hand-held field recorder are you using? I’d like to get a good yet inexpensive one for found-sounds.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:07 am Quote
If you’re looking for “attenuators” check the links below.
1.crazy custom, free molding kit, no audiologist necessary – http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/er915and25pr.html
2. Generic filter plugs with different DB level drops.
http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/alnasoearpl.html
January 19th, 2010 at 7:29 am Quote
the bag is unavailable anymore..
where can i find it?