How To Be A DJ? The Turntable

In this post I’m going to walk you through the functionality of a turntable. This is the Technics 1200 Turntable which was the standard in the industry for many years. Many of the night clubs have replaced these with CD Turntable players.

Power On/Off – This switch applies power to the turntable.

Motor Start/Stop – This switch makes the Turntable platter spin or stop.

33/45 RPM – These buttons select the speed of the platter.

45 RPM Adaptor – This adaptor is placed in the center and helps keeps the 7 inch records centered while playing.

Pitch Control – This slider can be adjusted to change the playback speed and is used for beat matching. I will get into beat matching later.

Tone Arm, Cartridge, and Needle – This should be self explanatory, but I will comment anyway. The tone arm with cartridge and needle is placed at the beginning of the record for the audio to play back.

Not pictured is the 120V cable that plugs into the wall outlet. There is also Red and White RCA output cable that plug into the Mixer input. Most turntables also have a ground cable that should be connected to the mixer chassis.

This my friends is the basic functionality of a turntable. Most turntables have similar features. However, these Technics 1200 turntables are built like tanks and can last well over twenty years without being serviced provided they are well taken care.

How To Be A DJ? Vinyl Vs. CD Vs. Mp3

Media

I am often asked about the mixing with vinyl vs. mixing with CDs or mp3 files. I will always show favoritism toward vinyl only because that is what I was using when I started. However, this is simply some nerdy DJ talk.

8 Track tape, vinyl, CD, DAT, Reel tape, mp3 on hard drive are all forms of media that hold the music. The last time I was at a HOT party, the woman were more interested in dancing their asses off than being concerned if the DJ was rocking vinyl or “Traktor”. In the big picture, good music is good music regardless of the media type it is played from.

I was a die hard vinyl purist at one point or another. Perhaps I might even admit now that I was afraid of the technology. I remember when I worked at the China Club with Mike “Hitman” Wilson, his producer friends would bring him unreleased music that was recorded that night in a studio down the street. Mike would not hesitate to cue up the song regardless if it was on vinyl, CD, or tape. At the end of the day, people either danced or sat down because of the quality of the song and not because it was playing from a CD. Again, this brings be back to my original point, good music is good music.

If you, your son, daughter, cousin, niece, friend or whatever wanted to start being a DJ today, I wouldn’t expect them to buy turntables or look for records which are NOT manufactured to begin with today. I would judge them on their music selection, presentation, and their ability to move the crowd.

Having the proper equipment goes a long way in aiding your presentation. You need to have the right tools for the right job. Ever try making a cake, needed a mixer, but had a blender?

How To Be A DJ? Passion

Hello All:


I have been collecting records since the early age of 10 years old. Back in the day, every day people like my sister Georgina and brother Frank purchased records socially. To that point, my dad was a record collector of Spanish music as well.

We lived in the Uptown/Edgewater neighborhood on Berwyn & Winthrop. Across the street from the apartment building were we lived was a Drug Store that sold 45’s. A 45 rpm record is 7 inch vinyl record with limited space as compared to the 12 inch vinyl that was later used to accommodate the extended disco versions used by DJs.

Our whole record buying addiction started by buying these 45s records. The 45s were packaged in paper sleeves. To protect the sleeves and records, we bought a case to carry and store our records. Just for clarity, these records were mainly owned by my brother Frank, but somewhere along the way I too got old enough to buy records and we became “Cano Bros”. The carrying case for the 45s became useful as I somehow managed to sneak the records out of my house and convince my 4th/5th grade teacher to allow me to play records during our in class parties.

The building where we lived on Berwyn & Winthrop was a corner building. We lived on the first floor. The older kids from the neighborhood liked to sit in the front stairs. My older brother’s bed room window was located right above these front stairs. I was so passionate about music I would play music on my brothers stereo just loud enough for the neighbor kids to listen. Other times, they would simply just bring their own giant boom box also known as ghetto blaster.

Keep in mind that in the case of playing records at my grammar school and playing records for the neighborhood kids standing outside on the stairs, I wasn’t mixing at this point. I was just playing good music. I will come back to this point in the future.

Lot’s of kids today get into DJ because they want to be popular, they think they will get girls, or they think it’s an easy way to make money. What these kids don’t realize is that they are putting themselves out to be criticized if their mixing isn’t on par with those we see and hear on the radio/television. Being a DJ takes lots of time and practice to be good, leaving very little time for girls. Being a DJ is a very expensive hobby. Paying gigs are hard to find and any money made is poured right back into the hobby in form of equipment and music purchases.

The good thing for kids today is that technology has helped to make being a DJ more convenient and in-expensive with the advancement in laptop DJ tools and mp3s. Keep in mind that the burden of big ticket items to properly play at an event like an amplifier, speakers, monitors, mixer or sound card, and lights still exist today.

The moral of this story is that in order to be a DJ you have to have passion for music. Make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. Otherwise, at the end of the day you will end up spending lots of money on equipment and music which will go un-used and result of loss of time and money.