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Learn to DJ


gmanz73

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if your going to go to school for it....your waisting your time IMO....

buy yourself a decent mixer with a 3band eq, 2 tables or 2 cd players (whichever u decide u want to use, or get 2 or each and a 4 channel mixer) and just start practicing.....u can teach yourself the best....you wont be spending money on something that u can teach yourself better than anyone else...

buy 2 of the same song and learn how to switch back and fourth from each record seamlessly....then u can being doing it with 2 diff. songs

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Excellent idea from Deep.. That's how I got started. Teach yourself go to a Sam Ash store or an equivalent they have videos you can buy that will help. I've never heard of anyone except the Rza offer schooling for it, and I think he wanted some crazy dough to tutor under him......

He taught himself......

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All of the points that have been stated are good. The only thing I can add is to figure out what style of music you want to spinn and learn everything you can about the music. Your knowlege of music is going to be what makes the difference between a so so DJ and a great DJ. The more you know about music in general will help you to decide what track will match seemlessly with what. Spend the money at first you will not regret it. 1200's are industry standard for a reason, and Pioneer CDJ's are now industry standard for CD Decks. Spend the money and get good equipment it will make your learning curve a lot easier. The last suggestion I have is hook up with someone that has already been spinning for a while and learn little tricks and things from them, but be your own DJ with your own style. Besides what you might think, a few people on this board are not Dicks and will help you with some good advice.

Good Luck

Madness

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I agree with the comments posted above. Know your music, be realistic and realize that it takes time to develop the skill, and keep practicing.

As for places that teach you how to DJ, the only place i know is in NYC and its called scratch academy. I believe its mostly geared toward hip hop djing but dont quote me on that. I would buy some equip. and practice on my own and then maybe try and hookup with someone with more experience to show you the ropes and things you might be missing or having trouble with. Good luck.

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i noe but the the equipment is really expensive.!

can someone post one of their mixes so i can see if its worth buying?

If your a begineer just go with Gemini, its for you to practice on, granted it wont sound as great as Pioneer but you need to learn how to use the stuff and so forth. Also you have to figure out not only what music you want to play but how you like to transition from one song to another. Some use the x-fader and some use volume control, just to add what they were saying. I just started so they can probably help you out more, but the hardest thing i find to do is when switching from one Genre to another becuase the beats are diffrent. OHH so with that learn how to count BPM (beats per min), it will help you out further on blending songs so the drum beat is continuous.

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i noe but the the equipment is really expensive.!

can someone post one of their mixes so i can see if its worth buying?

dont be cheap with your Tables dood.....BUY TECHNICS 1200'S.....they will last you forever....

check out my mixes....i use 2 technics 1200 mk5's a rane mp2016 witht he xp extention and i have a pioneer cdj-1000

mind you i spent ALOT of money on my stuff....havent been able to really splurge on anything else in a while....but trust me its worth it in the long run if your going to take this seriously..plus i love mixing.....u ahve to practice on club quality stuff if you plan on playing in clubs....if u dont plan on it....u can get a cheaper mixer but DONT SKIMP ON YOUR TABLES!!!!

http://www.musicv2.com/artist/deepspell

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dont be cheap with your Tables dood.....BUY TECHNICS 1200'S.....they will last you forever....

check out my mixes....i use 2 technics 1200 mk5's a rane mp2016 witht he xp extention and i have a pioneer cdj-1000

mind you i spent ALOT of money on my stuff....havent been able to really splurge on anything else in a while....but trust me its worth it in the long run if your going to take this seriously..plus i love mixing.....u ahve to practice on club quality stuff if you plan on playing in clubs....if u dont plan on it....u can get a cheaper mixer but DONT SKIMP ON YOUR TABLES!!!!

http://www.musicv2.com/artist/deepspell

From what i read on diffrent sites one was djforum or something to that effect was that you dont want to get noobs confused with everything that some of these things come with. They have to get accostumed BPM, Cueing, diffrent types of cueing, faderscuts, blends, so to spend 500+ on a cd deck i think is a little to much. Like i said I am a noob myself and still learning but the more that is infront of me makes me want to try but i need to stick to the basics and master that 1st. So sound quality shouldnt be a 100% priority right now..when he actually DJ's thats diffrent. If he wants i hear the Pioneer 100s is a greta bang for the buck

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DO NOT SKIMP ON THE TABLES!!!!!!!!!!

When I started I thought the mixer was the most important thing so I bought some cheesey Numark tables and within 6 months they started fucking up. Yeah I learned but in the end it was a waste of loot....They couldn't even hold tempo......Garbage

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I just turntables and was wondering where can i get records in the jersey area for cheap price. I checked ebay but they are all old.

VIP Records

Location:

22-24 West Main Street

Freehold, NJ 07728

Phone: 732-866-9984

Fax: 732-866-9942

Store Hours:

Monday - Saturday: 12 p.m. until 9 p.m.

Sunday: 1 p.m. until 7 p.m.

My man always has the hot stuff, and prominent dj's are known to frequent his shop in search of tunes....

If your looking for older stuff, which I'm sure you will be, then your best bet is probably www.satellitrecords.com they uaually have alot od stuff in stock....

Hope that helps....

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Are you talking about Vintage Vinyl? I never knew there was anything else around there...I'm curious...

I belive thats it...sounds right i will be down by that area t/m. If i dont take the turnpike ill check it out. I was there 2 times, but i use CD's so i dont go there anymore. I did back in the day.

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Hey guys i would like to learn how to become a DJ.

Do you know any good places where i could learn?

Plz no wise comments!

I started 16 years ago as an apprentice/roadie.

meaning I'd help out and stay side by side the "master" for nights on end.

Altho you probably want to be a club DJ, I would suggest checking out "the other side" which is mobile to observe the differences bewteen the two and get a better response to the way people react to music.

ie: YMCA can be a failure at the "wrong time" of any private event.

Such with playing a "peak hour" track in the beginning of the night at a club.

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Dj Thy

08-07-2000 01:45 AM

Certainly...

There are different ways to beatmatch, one more difficult (but better) than another...

So here we go :

First you have to know the structure of the songs. House tunes (term in general so : techno, trance, ...) have a very typical structure : they are composed each time of 8 beats on the bar, and 4 times a bar (32) is called a phrase. In normal words this means that generally every 32 beats a new instrument begins or stops playing.

For beatmatching this means you'll have to throw in the new record on a 32nd or 64th beat (or in a lesser way on an 8th or 16th). This sounds difficult when I explain it that way, but just listen to the music and you'll know what I mean...

Now the actual beatmatching...

The simple and most used method : you have one record plying in the room and one playing in your phones (cueing). Well, you try to find the first beat of the cueing record and when you found it you keep the record on that beat with your hand. Then you release the record on a beat (it can help to move the cueing record back and forth on the rythm of the beats, that's easier to find out when to release the record) of the record playing in the room (so the first couple of beats should be in sync). Now listen carefully to the beats in your phones. Do they move faster or slower than the beats in the room???

If they move slower, increase the pitch and give the record or the platter a push with your hand (or turn the centre spindle clockwise), until the beats are in fase again.

If they move faster, decrease the pitch, and slow down the record/platter(or turn the centre spindle counterclockwise), until the beats are in fase.

Do this until the beats are perfectly in fase for a reasonably long time (your aim will be that you should do no or very minor adjustments for about 30 seconds, that's pretty good beatmatched then). Once the beats are in sync, find the point on the cueing record you'll want to drop in (this will mainly be the first beat). And now wait till you reach the point on the "room playing" record where you're going to release the cueing record (like I said a 32nd or 64th beat), preferably a little before the break of the playing record, the moment there are no beats. This way the record you just threw in has already built a little up and you keep the ennergy flowing.

Once you released the record, it's up to the volume faders and equalisers (at least if you beatmatched good enough, adjust as fast as you can if you hear they're going to be out of sync). Bring the new record slowly in by increasing the volume with the channel fader. But go maximum to 80% loudness. Once you reached that point, gently decrease the volume of the old record, while gently increasing the volume of the new one (try to directly go to 100% and hear the difference, the bass will become very loud, cuz you got resonance, and you don't want that to happen). Keep decreasing the old record's volume till it's completely gone. BUT... to make it more difficult yet, it's not enough. While working with the volume you'll have to adjust the equalisers, at the same time. It's best to decrease the bass of the incoming record and when you are at the 80% volume slowly increase it while decreasing the bass of the old record's one (for the same resonance problem). The aim of the equalising is that the mix should be as inaudible as possible, in other words the people should hear the least possible sound difference between the two songs. There I really can't help you, cuz it's different for each mix.

But when you start out dj'ing, master the actual beatmixing first, get the beats in fase. I you master this perfectly, you can start thinking of messing with the volume and EQ's.

I said there were more difficult but better ways to beatmix. Well there is, and most big name dj's use this method. They hardly touch the platter while beatmatching. They just use the pitch slider. They begin by throwing in the record, then they increase the pitch a big way (say 8 percent), when the hear the beats are too slow. Then they hear the beats or catching in way fast, and at the moment the beats are back in fase for a brief moment, they decrease the pitch to ... let us say 4%. When they hear the beats are moving to slow again, they know that the good speed is between 4% and 8%. So they restart the same procedure, but the pitch difference always decreases (5%-6%, etc.), until they found the exact spot.

When mastered perfectly, this can be a fast method to beatmatch.

But it's best to use both methods...

When you are cueing up the new record (so it's in your phones only), it's faster to use the first method. But once the new record is playing in the room too, the second method is way better, because it has a big advantage : when you pitchbend (pushing or slowing down the record to get the beats in sync) with your hands, you will hear a brief tone difference while you push/slow down the records (with voices you get a chipmunk effect, but with trance tones, it's very annoying). You don't have that when you only use the pitch slider. If you should hear the beats from the record are moving to slow, increase the pitch a little bit to much, and let the beats catch up again, and once they are in fase, you decrease the pitch to a point a little higher than the position it was before (cuz, the beats were going to slow on that position, remember). Do the opposite when they were moving to fast, of course. With this method if you adjust on time, people won't notice you are adjusting it at all, and all will go nice and smooth.

Phew, the explanation is done, now it's up to you. I know it sounds difficult explained this way, but there's one word that always returns in the dj world : PRACTICE!

Practice, practice and yet more practice, that's the only way you'll learn it.

Don't think you'll be able to mix like the masters in a couple of weeks. But if you believe in what you do and you practice a lot, you'll get it, I promise.

You can also visit my site (with beatmatching tutorials) at http://users.skynet.be/ambivision/

Peace

Dj Thy

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