I’ve been a DJ for so long that I feel like I was born with a mixer in my lap. But even I started out with little knowledge about my gear and how to produce the best sound from it. To this day, I am surprised when I see DJs who don’t know how to properly sound check their equipment, or who sloppily rush through the steps.
You can play the best music in the world, but if you miss a critical step in your sound check, you will sound like trash. Below are my 19 steps to a perfect DJ sound check. I’ve even created a free printable checklist to take to each of your DJ events. Scroll to the bottom to download it.
1. Plug Everything In
This seems pretty obvious, but it’s really important. You have to have all of your gear connected and ready to play before you start your sound check. I’ve been in situations where we were racing the clock to get set up and I just wanted to jam something on to test the sound. Resist that urge!
What good is sound checking half of your equipment? The moment you need a mic or a backup source that you didn’t check in advance, you’ll be sweating bullets that it’s going to come in too loud or too soft. Take the time to plug in everything you are going to use for the night in advance. Then, you will be confident that it all works.
2. Turn All Levels Down
Before you power up your gear, turn all of your levels down to zero. For me, this includes my mixer channel levels, microphone level, mixer master output and powered speaker output. You may also have an amplifier if you are using passive speakers.
Setting everything to zero will prevent any spikes or pops as you power up your equipment. This is critical not only for your own gear, but especially if you are plugging into sound equipment at a venue. If you blow up their speakers or amp with your sound check, you’re probably not getting paid. Just sayin’…
3. Power Everything On
With everything safely turned down, now is the time to start turning all of your equipment on. And, I do mean everything. In addition to the sound check, you are running a power check at the same time. Once you get playing, you can see if you trip any circuit breakers. You will also want to have everything ready to play for your sound check.
Critical note here: Your speakers or amplifier should be the last thing you turn on, and the first thing you turn off. We don’t want any pops or power spikes that could potentially damage your speakers. Once you have everything else powered on, you can safely turn on your speakers.
The only exception is my wireless microphone. The Shure wireless transmitter I use has a frequency-scanning feature to select the best channel for that room. Shure recommends that you have all of your equipment running before scanning frequencies, so I leave my mic powered down until later.
4. Start Playing a Song In Your Headphones
I will now start playing a song on my primary music source, before I raise the output volume. This is testing that my laptop and DJ controller is working correctly, and I am able to cue and play a track. I should get visual confirmation that the track is playing, and I should be able to hear the track in my headphones.
By the way, if you want some unbelievable DJ headphones for less than $20, check out my review of the Monoprice DJ Headphones. They sound amazing and the price is so low that I don’t ever have to worry about losing them!
5. Test Your Controller
I’ve been having some glitches between my DJ software and DJ controller based on which I launch first. I try to remember to test the major features of my controller while I have a song playing in my headphones. Things like gain, EQ, crossfader, headphone mix, play/pause/cue, looping and jogwheels.
I’m using Virtual DJ and a Denon MC3000 controller. I’ve learned that if I don’t power up the controller before I launch the software, my crossfader won’t work. The only way to fix this is to exit the software and relaunch it. Most of the time this isn’t a big deal, unless I’ve already started playing my set! I forgot to do this before a gig once and was totally stuck for the rest of the night.
6. Raise Mixer Volume
With your test song playing, raise your channel volume to your proper max level. Your level meter should be hitting just below the red. That’s the maximum volume you want to run. Keeping your levels out of the red will prevent clipping, distortion and potential damage to your speakers. You may not be able to see channel levels before you raise the master output. If that’s the case on your mixer, just aim for about 80% of the maximum setting.
You should also have all of your gains and EQ set to the 12 o’clock position for sound check. You want to hear the sound output in its default settings before you make any adjustments.
7. Raise Master Output
You can now bring up the master output to a reasonable level. Again, you want to raise your master output to where your levels are just touching the red line. You don’t want the levels to be consistently in the red. The levels should be bouncing just up to the red indicator. So if you have a 3-tiered meter that goes green, yellow, and red, you want the levels to be going in and out of the yellow. An occasional red is okay, but they should not be solid yellow.
8. Raise Powered Speaker or Amplifier Volume
As you slowly turn up the output on your speakers or amplifier, you will now get the first sound out in the venue. Again, do this step cautiously, especially if you are not familiar with the speakers you are using. My powered JBL EON 515s max out at 600 watts per speaker. They produce an incredible amount of sound. I set them to 3 out of 10 on their master output for indoor events and 5 for outdoor events. The latest EONs go up to 1000 watts. I can’t even imagine how loud those can get!
9. Set Comfortable Levels
Go back and forth between your mixer and your amplifier/speakers to get a good volume level set. This is easiest to do while you are near the mixer. This is very much like using your phone with the AUX cable in a car. Your mixer output needs to be high enough to send clear signal to the speakers without distortion. But the majority of your loudness is going to come from the amplifier.
This is also a good time to double check the volume of your headphones. My Denon MC3000 controller puts out a huge amount of signal to the headphone output, and that signal depends on the master output in the Virtual DJ software. I find that I have to significantly turn down the master output in Virtual DJ to not destroy my eardrums with my headphones.
10. Test Other Music Sources
Now that you have a baseline set for your primary source, start some music on your other music sources. Test and adjust the gain while you are back at the mixer. Go back and forth from your primary and secondary sources to make sure the levels are similar.
I use an iPad to play additional music from Spotify Premium. My iPad typically needs to be boosted to near full volume to compete with music playing from Virtual DJ. Spotify is an incredible music resource for mobile DJs who don’t want to own every single request their clients can think of. To see how I have access to nearly every song ever created for about $20 per month, check out where I get my DJ music here.
11. Walk The Venue and Adjust Music Volumes as Needed
Go back to playing a song on your primary source and walk around the venue. Use your ears and just listen. Is the music loud enough? Is there any distortion? Anything sound muffled or strange? There’s no real magic here, just whatever sounds good to you.
Don’t get hung up on making it sound perfect. The layout and the materials in the room are going to have much more impact that anything you could tweak on your mixer. It will sound quite different once the room starts filling up with bodies. Right now, you are just going for proper volume.
Repeat this for each of your music sources. Now that you have good settings for your primary source, try to adjust the levels on the individual sources to make any tweaks.
12. Scan Wireless Mics
I will now scan the frequencies for my wireless microphone receiver with all of the other electronics up and running. This creates as much potential interference as possible and will help my receiver find the clearest channel.
Don’t forget that you typically need to manually set the frequency on the handheld microphone after the receiver finishes scanning. I forgot to do this when I first bought my mic, and I can tell you from experience that it causes completely avoidable panic attacks. Make sure your frequencies match before you freak out.
Now, turn down the music and turn up the level on your microphone. Test the mic before you walk away from the mixer. You should NEVER tap on a microphone to check that it is on. Tapping creates a loud noise, which can damage your equipment and startle your guests. Just talk into the mic normally. You are going to be speaking on the mic throughout the event, so start now.
13. Test Wireless Mics While Walking the Venue
Continue talking and start moving around the venue. Move to the far side away from your receiver and test your range. Move to areas where people are likely to use the mic and listen to the sound quality. Move close to the speakers and listen for slight feedback.
As you are walking, make mental notes of the range and volume. Move the mic closer and farther from your mouth as well. Many speakers don’t understand how close to hold a microphone, so it is good to test all of these conditions. That way, you will be prepared to adjust.
Bonus tip for microphones: I always try to tell people how to hold the microphone as I hand it to them. There’s nothing worse than a best man holding the mic at his belly button and wondering why no one can hear him. As I hand over the mic, I say, “It’s ready to go. Hold it right in front of your mouth and I will adjust the volume for you.” It takes about five seconds and keeps everything running smoothly.
14. Test Wired Mics
I never run a wireless mic without having a wired mic ready to go as a backup. As amazing as my Shure wireless is, just about a million things can go wrong while someone is talking.
Test your levels and practice your hot swap all at once during your sound check! Turn the mic level to zero, unplug the wireless mic, plug in the wired mic, and turn it back up to check the level. Once you are satisfied, reverse the process. Don’t forget to do a quick check of your wireless mic again just to be sure.
15. Make Notes of all Levels
Eyeball your current settings and make a note of where everything sounds best. You can either remember this in your head, or jot it down on the printable checklist I created at the end of this post. For me, this is about 80% on the channel levels, 50% on the mic, 80% on the Line In for my iPad, with the iPad set to one notch below full volume.
This seems like a lot to remember, but once you’ve set everything up a few times, you will have a good sense of where all of your levels should be. At this point, I could set all of my levels in advance if I needed to, and just slowly bring up the master output on my speakers. I still work through the process methodically just in case I forgot to turn something down. I can just work through it all very quickly now.
16. Bring Down Channel Faders Only
Once all the levels are set and ready, turn down the levels on the individual channels until you are ready to play. Your mixer master output and your speaker/amplifier master output are set and ready to go. There should be no need to touch them for the rest of the event. Unless…
17. Need More Volume Later? Boost Speaker/Amp Level Only
If you find that you need more volume once people have started filling up the venue, turn up your sound using the master output on your speakers or amplifier. This will keep all of your other levels properly adjusted relative to each other, and add more volume to the overall sound.
If you start messing with the levels on all of your individual channels, you will screw up all of the work you put into the sound check. Pushing levels up too far can also cause clipping and distortion. If you want louder, it comes from your speakers, not your mixer.
18. Check Your Sound Throughout the Event
Walk around the venue every 30 to 60 minutes to make sure everything is still sounding good. Restroom breaks and drink runs are great for this. Make sure you are getting out to talk to the crowd as well. When you say hi and check in with your guests and clients, you will get a better sense if your music is set at the right volume for the event. If you are at a wedding, you want the dinner music to allow for conversation, but dancing can be a little bit louder. If you’re in a club, it’s perfectly acceptable to have to talk loudly over the music, but people should still be able to communicate with each other.
19. Problems? Don’t Panic!
Keep your cool throughout your sound check and your event. There is no problem that you can’t solve with a little legwork and a calm demeanor. Panicking helps no one.
If anything is not working right at any point, just go back to the last thing that worked and walk through the steps again. If something fails while you are playing, get something playing right away, even if it’s from a backup source. This keeps the party going while you troubleshoot. Walk through your setup step-by-step, starting with the most obvious thing. For me, this usually goes:
- Does it have power?
- Is the music actually playing on the source?
- Is the source connected to the mixer?
- Is the music getting to the master output?
- Is the mixer connected to the speaker?
- Is the speaker getting signal?
- Is the speaker turned up?
Your issue will be somewhere in this chain. Stay calm, find it, fix it, and get back to the party!
If you want to be ultra-prepared for anything and everything that could go wrong, check out my Ultimate DJ Survival Guide. It also has a printable troubleshooting checklist that will get you back up and running in minutes. Go print it now and put it in your DJ bag!
In Summary…
An extensive sound check may seem like overkill, but it is a critical step to playing your best. You will save yourself a lot of heartburn and embarrassment by thoroughly checking your gear in advance. With a little practice, a solid sound check should take you less than 5 minutes. You can be confident that your DJ set sounds great because you took the time to sound check properly.
As promised, here is a printable list of all of the sound check steps. Print a copy to take with you for each gig and you won’t miss anything!
