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Finding Software

Phones/Smartphones can do if you would like to start on. there are many apps you can try such as

Finding Hardware

There are different things there is the DJ Controllers, & DJ Systems. I would recommend a DJ Controller as DJ Systems are very expensive.

DJ Controllers

DJ Controllers are a device that you connect to your Computer, Phone, or Tablet and you use software like rekordbox or serato with them. Pioneer DJ's DDJ line of product is a good example of this category.

DJ Systems

DJ Systems are very expensive but work independently and load music from different sources such as a CD, USB, or SD Card but some can connect to a computer and act as a Controller Pioneer DJ's DJM/CDJ/XDJ line are a good example. DJ systems can be seperated into 3 standalones parts of Equipment such as 2 players and a mixer or be all in one such as the Pioneer DJ's XDJ-XZ or XDJ-RX3. The common player you would find in venues is usually a CDJ-2000Mk2 or more recently the CDJ-3000 made by Pioneer DJ. there are many brands in this market thought but it is dominated by Pioneer some other brands include Numark, Denon, RANE, Technics, & Native Instruments. You may have seen in movies lots of people using turntables with vinyl. these used to be common but as formats such as the CD/USBs came along most switched to that. however you can still use vinyl and there is even vinyl control discs that can control software like serato and rekordbox. Vinyl is still used in DJ Scratch Compitions/Weddings but are hardly used in venues such as clubs and festivals.

Picking a controller

There are many different controllers. I would recommend looking at Pioneer DJ controllers as i find Serato Lite quite difficult to use compared to rekordbox. I use the Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX4 but my first controller was the DDJ-200. I found the DDJ-200 a bit difficult as a lot of options you will need to move back to a Keyboard + Mouse as it is missing a lot of features when compared to other controllers. so if you do think your going to get into it. I would recommend the Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX4 which supports Rekordbox, Mixxx, Serato, & Djay and has a dedicated audio input which might be quite useful if your a mobile DJ and use a Phone as most Phones/Tablets have gotten rid of the Headphone jack since around 2018 and the build quality is good.

Parts of DJ Equipment

Jogwheel

You will have a Jogwheel usually which lets you scratch if touched from the top or if touched from the side it will let you move the song a little forward or a little back. You can also go through the song very fast by moving the jogwheel and holding the shift button.

Play/Cue Buttons

Usually on a DJ Controller/DJ System there will be a play button in the bottom left and above will be a cue button which will let you play only if your holding it from where you place the cue point which is a little orange triangle on the bottom of the waveform.

Hotcues

Hotcues work similarly but can be usually will just play from that marker instead of holding it but you can set it up in software to act like the cue buttons

EQ

there will be three knobs for the mixer section being labeled High, Mid, & Low. High's are instruments like High hats are. Mid's are where the vocals and things like guitars are. Low's is where the bass is of a song.
there will also usually be a knob called trim which is basically controlling the track volume but you should not need to touch this much unless a song is quite. you will also have a level indicator you should avoid getting into the reds this can be done by turning down the trim knob

FX Section

On most controllers/mixers there will be different types of effects such as Release FX, & Colour FX. Release FX sections usually reside on the right of the mixer section. this will consist of something to select an effect and knob for level and button to toggle it the button is usually a orange button that flashes when enabled and a solid orange when disabled
There will also be colour effect usually bellow the EQ section on the mixer. which usually lets you put a Dub echo and filter the song or crush the sound. some Controllers/Mixers will have physical buttons to change Color FXs but some you will need to go into a menu on the screen to change.

Volume/Crossfader

there will be a crossfader and volume faders which the volume controls the volume of the track. and the crossfader you can push to the left or right to push it to the sound coming from the left or right deck. if totally on one side will play sound from that deck only

In/Out/Exit Buttons

there is usally two buttons labeled In/Out on each deck. if you press In it will start marking an area to loop and when you press Out it will enable a loop for that area since when you pressed the In Button. You can press exit to exit the loop or you can press it to make a 4 beat loop. You can press the In to start from the front or Out to start from the end and use the jogwheel to make the loop shorter or longer. you can also use the two arrow buttons to half the length of the loop or double the length of the loop.

Beat Sync

This button will make it sync the beat but this is not avaliable in all situations so it is better to learn how to beat match as well.

Shift button

You can use this with the jogwheel to shift throught the song. you can also use it to use a alternative function of a button. for example if you see a button with text under it you can hold shift while pressing it to use that option. for example on the DDJ-FLX4 you can hold the shift button and press beat jump to go into the autobeat loop mode. or you can hold one of them and go up in the FX list.

Proformance Pads

These can contain your Hotcues. but usually have buttons above them to change the functions some examples is Beat Jump, Beat Loop, Pad FX, sampler, etc.

Beat Jump

This will let you go forward and backwards for a certain amount of beats selected

Beat Loop

This is somewhat similar to the In/Out/Exit buttons except each button will do a preset loop for example

Pad FX

Pad FX usually let you add things like echo, roll (somewhat like a loop), reverb, Echo Out, Vinyl Break.

Sampler

This will let you assign samples (a short sound) and play it when the button is pressed.

Stems seperation

Stems allow you to mute parts of a song say for example you would like an instrumental of a song or an acapella.