how to be a DJ
a friend wrote me this weekend:
> man, long time no talk! What is up my brotha? How's the oaktown
> treating you? and your lady? I hope things are going well out there.
> Listen, i have a random question. i've got a friend who's got a bug to
> learn how to dj but has NOOO idea how to start. What wisdom can you
> impart? What are the basics? What kinda gear does she need? How much of
> an initial investment. etc etc... i know it's a fairly broad question,
> but you're the man to ask!!!
boy did he write the right person! here's what I wrote back to him:
oaktown is great. all the cool kids are moving over here. I think the
shrivers will be part of the 'clan of the "O"' pretty soon, too.
I just got back from burning man, so my mind is a bit dusty. but lemme try
to answer your question.
DJ: it really depends. what kind of DJ does she want to be? a jack of all
trades? there are so many different types these days:
radio DJ
independent radio station DJ
dance club DJ
house party DJ
etc., etc.
I'm going to assume, for the moment, that she wants to be a "traditional"
DJ, as least as far as the the modern version goes. that means someone who
plays at bigger parties and clubs. dance music. stuff that is
beat-matched, and seamlessly mixed for 1-2 hour sets, with lots of kids
dancing their ass off.
well then, the next question is what type of music does she like, or want
to spin? there are a lot of different sub-genres, and each have their
associated equipment.
for example:
--house: almost all 12" vinyl
--popular trance: varies, about half CD, half vinyl
--underground/psychedelic trance: almost exclusively CD, sometimes downloaded and
burned
--drum and bass: vinyl
--breaks: mixed, depending on the micro-genre
so, depending on what she wants to spin, it could influence how she wants
to start. OR -- if she was like me, and just sort of liked dance music,
but had no idea how to just "be" a DJ -- my advice would be start with
house.
here's how I would tell her to start. this is the traditional route, which
is still very, very valid for most DJ situations.
1) go out and find a pair of direct-drive turntables. technics SL-1200s
are the standard going back 30+ years. new ones are expensive -- $600
each. but you can find used ones for $2-300 each. she will also need to
get some needles. I recommend Stanton's or Ortofon's. These have to be
bought new -- but they will last a while for a new DJ. A good basic
needle/cart is the Stanton Discmaster II:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=dj/search/detail/base_pid/800593/she'll need two of these.
2) go out and buy a DJ mixer. I really suggest starting with a new one,
because there are a lot of bunk mixers out there used at the low-end. be
sure to get something with EQ on each channel. something really basic,
like this one, is a great way to start:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=dj/search/detail/base_pid/637002/This is getting expensive, huh? :) Tell her that if she really wants to be
a DJ, she's gonna have to spend $$$$$ to get started. and then if she's
serious about playing out several times a month, she'll need to spend
$100-150 a month a new records. no joke! very expensive hobby. let me tell
you.
3) buy some music! find a local DJ store. this is not the virgin megastore,
or tower records. this is a store that is dedicated to DJs only. it's usually
almost exclusively vinyl, and they almost always have listening stations
set up. basically, you go in, tell the dude what kind of music you are
looking for, and they'll direct you to the right section, or if they are
nice, even the right records. then you grab a stack, and go over to the
listening station and try 'em out until you find something you like. if
she's never used professional record players before, she might want to get
a primer from a friend or from her own gear before going into a DJ store
-- it can be an intimidating experience.
another way to do this (and one that helps avoid the intimidation factor)
is to buy online. there are many, many, many online DJ stores. one of my
favorite is right here in SF. they are fast, reasonably priced, and have
long, high-quality samples of all their music online:
http://www.tweekin.com/4) Learn your records! Listen to them 4-5 times each, at minimum. get to
know them really well. count them out -- listen where the breaks are,
where the bass drum kicks in, how long the end fade-out is, etc. if your
friend doesn't have a musical background, a basic music theory book or
class would be extremely helpful here.
5) Learn how to beatmatch. this is a long and painful process. there is
really no easy way to describe how to do it, but here's a pretty good
description laura wrote about it (11 years ago, yikes!):
http://www.lagassa.com/djguide.htmlhere's a tool you can use to find the bpm of your records:
http://www.b-boys.com/beatcounter.html6) make some mixtapes. the really easy way to do this is to plug the
output of your mixer into your home tape deck and just record your
efforts. then go listen to it in your car and note areas where you need to
improve. where you let the beat matching slip, where the energy didn't
transfer properly between tracks, etc. the better way to do this is to feed
it into your computer using an audio card (or built-in, if it's good
enough quality), and then you can burn CDs to listen to (or give to
friends or promoters, when you are ready).
that's about it on the "traditional" route!
another way to approach this would be to go all CD, or all digital. CD
decks are popular with some music styles, and learning how to mix on them
is an advantage. I'm still not very good with CDs, I'm a vinyl guy through
and through. but if your friend is interested in one of those styles,
she'll probably have to learn how to mix on CD decks. one warning: they
are very expensive. about $8-900 a piece new. not many used around that
are worth a damn (I've been burned before).
the all digital route takes two interesting turns. one of them is a
product called "final scratch" (
http://www.djmart.com/fiscve15.html) which
lets you control your mp3s via vinyl. it's kind of hard to explain, but
it works. really, really well. but if your friend has no existing vinyl
experience, this might be a bit silly.
another route is to just use a laptop to mix mp3s using something like
traktor (
http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?traktor_us). this is
becoming more popular, but it's really kind of frowned upon in the DJ
world. and it's not that entertaining to watch a DJ staring at a screen
for an hour. they could be checking their email for all the dancers know.
there are other all-digital things out there that look interesting, but I
don't know much about them.
my advice to your friend is, unless she wants to be a psy trance DJ, go
with the traditional vinyl route. there will always be a pair of record
players at a club, but it's hard to find a club that always has CD decks.
and the digital route is interesting, but still experiencing some growing
pains.
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