I'm secretary to a sales director but my hobby is DJ-ing for friends. My boss knew I threw parties where I live and around my friends circuit. When one day he asked me to DJ for a corporate function I was thrilled as it showed he knew I was a person not just an appendage to his role in the company and it definitely broadened my horizons. Up until this upturn in my life events I'd used other people's DJ equipment, but I had built up a really wide selection of material all set out on my itunes playlists ready for action. Obviously my answer to boss was fast - yes! And when I explained I wouldn't like to borrow other people's gear if they weren't there and suggested the company might like to invest in some DJ equipment for beginners which could be used repeatedly and he said yes I was in my element!

I was given time to research the best controller for the job. Someone else in the company worked on the speakers and we collaborated on this so everything would go well. I thoughts we'd end up with a Gemini, but I discovered that for not much more money we could get the Pioneer DDJ-SR Serato DJ Controller which was bundled with a stand and headphones so all together it was definitely the best contender. With approval granted by the accounts manager the Pioneer equipment arrived and I was given just one afternoon to prepare before the first event lined up which was to be held in the board room.

For a beginner on this piece of equipment I can't praise the Pioneer set up enough but that being said, I'd rather forget how the gig went down because though I prided myself on m playlists I hadn't bargained on people asking for different tunes than the ones I was playing. In my friends circuit I just play and everyone gets down with it, but people were coming up asking for country, 80s pop and loads of stuff I didn't have. Next step was to work on these unfamiliar genres and it's been a great experience - I love DJing to all audiences now! Big thanks to Headphones Hound for their awesome guide on DJ equipment for every beginners in 2017.