DANCEFLOORS GUIDE to the DJ

By absolute beginners guide, I retract and reiterate this is information, designed to help you understand whats actually going on, in the booth you always see, but may seldom get to look inside.
The DJ as you will no doubt already know has an important part in your night out. He plays music. Standing in a silent bar would not be likely. More likely you would be walking out the door. And lets face it, at most clubs yelling at the person next to you is part and parcel of having a good time. Normally this yelling is better when you are actually in the club and the music is loud but sometimes its just cool to yell. Lets leave that side of things for another day and really sort out whats going on in the DJ booth while you buy drinks, dance and yell.
The DJ will have a collection of music, quite often even these days, still on vinyl records. He will be "mixing" one record into another so that the beat from one song flows seamlessly into the next song, creating a continuous flow of music all night long. This helps to keep the party moving. You will have heard from time to time a failure to do this, and its amazing how loud the level of the music is when it goes from dead silence back to full roar. (This is sometimes used to great effect if it is the desired one) Why vinyl? There's just no denying the warmth in a vinyl record. A CD recording can (generalized) play back say 4 instruments at the same time. A vinyl recording can play back the entire orchestra simultaneously. Now admitting not many of us youngsters are going to go to a dance club to hear a symphony, but there's a heck of a lot of individual sounds going on in modern music too. And having the format that reproduces that music perfectly (bar a few nice pops and scratches) gives you the chance to appreciate it in full. The DJ is offering you as his listener the best product he has too offer. Please do not confuse this with a DJ who chooses to utilise CD or other digital format's; He also will be trying his up-most to maximise the other benefits that modern technology brings. Another reason the DJ will utillise records is the ability to touch the record. This gives him a unique hands on approach that helps him to move the record physically around on the turntable, literally a "hands on " approach. One thing all new DJ's need to learn is to get cosy with their records. This helps to achieve a very intimate link to the music. Its a link that the crowd and yourself, will appreciate. As the DJ connects with his records, he will naturally connect with you. This is the most important part, you as a listener, needs/wants to be involved with the music. Thats what the DJ is trying to achieve for you.
The tool he plays the records on is the Turntable. (or CDJ- CD player) This has speed controls (pitch slider) that will speed up or slow down the record. He will have two of these in most instances, with a box between them, called a mixer.
The mixer has just like your stereo at home, volume, bass and treble controls(low and high sounds) He might start a song off sounding very high pitch, this might mean he has the bass turned down. Then at the right moment , he will turn the bass control up and the room goes nuts! This is all done on the mixer.
Now the first song is running out. He will need to bring in the next song with the beats in perfect time and the bass turned down. But these are two completely different songs that are two completely different speeds. Whist everyone was dancing and yelling and buying drinks, the DJ was listening through one side of his headphones, head tilted to the side. You know, the DJ style. What he was doing that whole time was "cueing" the next track. He listened to the next track through his headphones, whilst listening to the first track playing live through the speakers.(multitasking...hmm) Using the pitch slider on the turntable to match the speeds of the records, and then bringing the the needle back to the very start of the second record, and 1,2,3,GO! let the next record start playing (at the perfect time). Bringing the next in slowly with the volume faders on his mixer. (or crossfader) This is the part where you just cant help but move, you feel the music, you look up and see the DJ smile down. Everyone around you is pumping. The next song is taking over the last and the bass from the old song is thrown in place of the new bass for the new song. He fades the old song away.
The CDJ works just like the turntable, in where the CD is able to manually moved so that you can obtain perfect timing, e.g. speed the CD up or slow it down by rotating CD enclosure.
There are all types of music , and like wise all types of styles to the basic principle, but this is largely the beginnings of whats going on in the 'booth'. The DJ is most likely to 'beat-match' to try and accommodate your wishes of a great night out full of dancing drinking AND LOTSA YELLING!

Common terms,
WHEELS OF STEEL: The turntable the DJ uses to mix records.
TECHNICS: Industry standard brand of turntable manufacturers
DROP DA BASS: Terms like this are often used to imply or describe turning the bass up to full volume.
CROSSFADER: A feature on most mixers which allows the DJ to seamlessly fade between two tracks running on different turntables or devices.
HI LO MID: The most common options for equalisation on a mixer. High pitches, low pitches and middle frequencies.
LEVELS: The volume of any sound produced is called a level. Hence the term levels applies to any device that controls it.
12 INCH: The diameter of a popular record size used by DJ's.
VINYLS: Records are made of wax = vinyl.

I hope this helps you to feel a bit more relaxed and in the know of whats going on up there in the god box. I meet so many people who are absolutely amazed when they see how much work is actually involved with the DJ process, that I thought I'd write an example. Please feel free to let me know if you need more "know"

DJ ePAULePC