Mr Fish talks TECH

 

Time for a Tech Talk

 

Well what a tech world we live in

There’s LOADS of gadgets and gizmos out there to fit everyone’s pocket and for me personally I’ve played on all types of spec’s from the old belt drive turntables where you had to take in consideration the ‘delayed’ start ,through to mixers with no bass eq, just mid n top. Back in the day when wax ran through my veins.

Now things have changed a bit, you can still get belt drives (but it is best to aim for the direct as they are chalk n cheese in comparison IMO) and mixers who now have 3 separate eq per channel, not to mention the added ‘gizmos’ from eq effects, samples, sounds…list goes on.

So here’s what most people will ask for on tech spec’s or will have already in clubs.

 

Vinyl Decks

 

Well since 1972 Technics released the SL 1200 which changed the DJ world overnight. Not only could house party DJ’s use this but the Scratch masters could alter the tone arm’s to accommodate for the fingerlicking tricks.

Now the Technics have (for some MAD CRAZY reason) stopped making the 1200 series but you can grad 1210’s on ‘respectable second hand online) companies and they are pretty BOMB proof. As a friend of a friend found out when he had a blow-out on the motorway, Flipped his car (wrote off)and most of his stuff got trashed, but the 1210’s survived and worked fine J

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mixers

 

Now I’m not going to get into any sound quality issues or which one has the best effects etc, but again 99.9% of the time you will be required to or play on a Pioneer mixer.

 

NOW here’s my dilemma for this area again. Pioneer have stopped making the DJM 600 and DJM 800 which you’ll find yourself coming into contact with at most venues and instead it looks like the are releasing a 850. But at least the 900 is still there plus it’s dad the 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From my DJ perspective I’ve liked the layouts of the 600,800 and the 900. The layout is similar, the main difference between the 600 and 800 is the addition of 4 independent channel effects. But with the 900 and the 2000 you also get to play with a touch screen pad which can be create amazing effects. But rule of thumb is 'Less is More', same rule for MC’s but they don’t listen to me : )

 

Now the 850 ‘looks’ like a 800 but with more effects and a added twist of the ability to link up cdj’s like to 900 and 2000 and if you are a ‘’large vehicle that farmers use’ pc/mac based dj program then you’ll love this cos all you need to do is plug n play baby x

Now for scratch DJ’s the one I see people asking for is the bad boy of mixers ..the RANE’s

 

Now these are TASTY, one of the best crossfades, if not THE best for the scrachmasters out there and no need for the additional box required by a certain ‘laptop based’ DJ tool J

 

The Rane 57LS, Sixty One and Sixty Two will let the interaction between choosing tunes and cue points a doddle but the Sixty Eight is a BEAST.. more flashing knobs than the average chrimbo tree.

 

These are a treat to use

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CDJ’s

 

Well the old vinyl v wax…now we’ll leave that for another day as there is a HUGE split out there with people.

 

Normally you’ll see the Pioneer (starting to see a pattern) CDJ 1000 mk3 or now the CDJ 2000. Both equal in playing ‘behavior’ but the 2000 has some nifty trick such as a 4 beat loop creator which again can build up a buildup to devastating effect at a touch of a button rather than crating the loop precisely with the trusted old magic finger (live mode) both models can have premade cue points pre-saved on a sd card and all that’s needed is the cd’s and the sd-card. If you using the 2000 I need to check to see if it saves on the usb stick if you using that as your music carrier.

 

 

 

 

 

Needles.

 

Now I tell DJ’s who play low mp3 quality tunes to STOP RIPPING TUNES as they sound C@%P on a good PA system.

The same can be said for vinyl needles. Quality DOES sound better than cheep knockoffs. Now I am but more was a Stanton boy and loved the 505 stylus through my wax addiction (which I have now recovered from but still am an avid tune hunter).

 

I have used other such as concords but for me the 505’s were the cream of the crop. Now personal pref will have you favoring different style’s but make sure the needle is always protected, get a case for them and make sure you change needles if you regular play out. Plus clean vinyl helps

 

 

 

So there you have it, what to expect if you turn up to a club nowadays but the biggest rule I can emphasis to all you DJ’s out there.

 

Never NEVER red line that mixer.

 

Yep you might think is sounds all right on your home sound system but there isn’t the same sub system as involved in most clubs so the distortion is emphasized in a nasty way. So PLEASE make life easy for the soundman/limiter and don’t do it.

 

Apart from that just enjoy the tech you have. I started on belt decks and personally if you can DJ on them then your on to a winner.

 

Happy Spinning and knob fiddling

 

Mr Fish

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