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A lot of people think that some of the toys are necessities, the truth is, you'll live a long and propsperous life even if you never encounter things like BPM counters, samplers, digital effects etc. The reason for all these things is to aid your creativity ONCE you managed to get all the other parts of Dj'ing sorted. Beware of the money burning holes in your pocket. Buying too much gear when you're beginning can be extremely counter-productive. The first time I played live, I couldn't get to grips with the difference between my crap little Soundlabs and the incredible Technics I was using. The pitch adjust is a different % on both makes, making it all a bit strange. I didn't know until then how much I relied on just knowing where to put the pitch control, and when I moved to the Technics, the pitch control didn't need to be moved quite as much as the Soundlabs.
This really threw me at first. So I managed to get my hands on a beat counter a bit like one of these guys.  The BPM counter helped tremendously. Because I was beginning to get lost while matching the beats, through nervousness, and unfamiliarity with the equipment, having a beat counter helped out a lot. This one works through the headphone output, calculating the BPM of whatever you are monitoring at the time. It can go a bit wonky on you if the level is too strong, or the beat too complicated, but all in all they are a godsend. The built in Amp and Equaliser for the headphones helps a lot too. By boosting and selecting the frequency, a clearer signal can be monitored. Click on image to go straight to their home page.
Red now do a BPM sync, for midi purposes and a stand-alone amp and eq for the headphones - click on the picture above to see them all.
 My old counter sitting next to my old mixer
If you want to know more about my opinions on beat counters, click HERE to jump to that answer in my FAQ page.
Red don't just do small add - ons.  They also have a comprehensive list of remix effect units and aids. All working in real time (Meaning you can do it all live) the effects and generators on these things are far too numerous to get into, so click on one of them, and it'll take you straight to the Red Sound Home page, where you can learn about them. 
There are so many other remix/effects units out there, I'll run out of space and only have half of them documented, Yamaha do them, Boss do them, Roland do them, just check out their pages, or some of the on-line warehouses, and you'll find them all.
There's a company called "Vinyl Touch" which produces a great service for Technics decks. The first of these is a cosmetic thing, where they change the strobe light, and the target light from the normal Red to a bright, neon Blue. Purely for those who like a little bit of change, and like to be different, but it does stand out. The other thing they do, is this:-  This box is a fantastic gain for all the professionals who like to make all their tunes match. What it does, is equalise the pitch of the tune, so you can raise/lower the tempo without raising/lowering the pitch - meaning you can speed up a tune by 12% but it won't end up chipmunking on you, or lower it by that much and it wont make Dina Carroll sound like Barry White!! It also accounts for the times when you're slightly out of time, and you quickly speed up or slow down the deck to fix it - meaning the crowd don't hear the sudden pitch increase. Because it works through the speed of the deck, and not my centering on the signal itself, it's also safe to use this system while scratching. Click on this title image to visit  "Mixmachines", the people who distribute (and make) the system. It might also be a good idea to invest in proper DJ boxes. I still can't be bothered getting round to it, I'd rather spend my money on records, but all my record bags are getting a bit cumbersome, and I think it's about time I considered getting a sturdy box, if only to protect them all. 
The list goes on and on for all of the add-ons and accessories you can buy nowadays. Frankly, I think I'll go as far as a sampler, and some effects, but you can get them on the some mixers anyway, which in the long run, could save you a lot of money.
As for making your own tunes, the industry standard used to be a package called Cubase, which ran off the Atari 1200ST. Utilising MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) Cubase would work in conjunction with the instrument you were using (Keyboards mostly) recording not the actual music, but the events. It would know to trigger a C# on program number 40, with a snare drum off pattern 22, and the horn on prog. 59, but wouldn't physically record the music. This meant that interchanging keyboards could screw things up, but it didn't matter, coz it worked great.
Now, with computer sequencers, everything can go into the computer, via whatever route you wish, be stored on a Jazz drive or something, taken to a studio, then manipulated there. And with computer programs like Music Maker, Mixman, and Cubase VST, it's becoming more and more accessible to people like you and me, that dance music has now taken over.
A lot of people say that this may be a bad thing, and at times, when you here some of the badly made dross that comes out, I tend to agree with them, but all in all, it allows people to make great, cheap tunes, that make us all party through the night. If you're still a bit stuck , and would like some other opionions, try the lot below, click the image. It's a site where people go on, and write their opinions on things, from Dj equipment, to films, to magazines, on and on. It's really worth a read - and joining it so you can have your two-pence worth. It works so it's like a frame inside my site, so you'll never leave my navigation thing at the top. (it's in a table by the way, not a frame) This page is sponsored by the Dance Villiage dj equipment store:-
This page is sponsored by
 Sapphires Why? Because they've been nice to me recently, that's all it takes! Click the banner above to go visit their store.
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