DJ For Fun

Back in the day before the technology boom, recording my sets were done from my decks and mixer, straight through my home stereo system onto a cassette tape. This was how it was done and all in all served me very well, I could mix for an hour and a half, onto a tape and then take it out with me and listen to it in the car. But today it is so much easier to do, with the introduction of USB turntables and computer software, I can still play my trusty vinyl and record straight onto the hard drive on my laptop. I can even reduce the amount of background noise from my vinyl, as they have had a lot of use over the years and with wear and tear, some of my tunes do hiss a little. It really is amazing to think that a twelve inch single, that I have played maybe a thousand times or more, can sound just like a CD, with a little help from my laptop and because some of my vinyl is on white label, I can still listen to it with digital quality. Times have certainly changed and for the better, I often think about how things would have been if the technology available to us all, had not progressed as far as it has, I do not think that my vinyl would have lasted and all the many thousands of pounds I have spent over the years would have been wasted.

For many DJ’s nowadays playing a set in a club is relatively easy, when you think about years gone by and a DJ carrying a big bulky box full of vinyl and at the end of the set, carrying that box back to the car. Today things are very different, a DJ can literally walk into a club with a laptop and maybe a few CD’s, times have changed. I used to play very long sets years ago and at the end of the night, I really could not be bothered with all the lugging about, even though I still prefer to play vinyl, I am not getting any younger and vinyl is very heavy, especially if you are carrying a few hundred tunes. I am coming round to the technology available and it does make a lot of sense to move with the times, I have thousands of tracks stored on my hard drive and my trusty laptop is not as heavy as ten twelve inch singles. I have all that power at my fingertips and can literally mix the night away with total control. I suppose it is the old school veteran in me that sometimes wishes technology would slow down, but you can’t stop progress, I have to just go with the flow. I will admit that there are some fantastic pieces of DJ kit out there now and I have tried nearly all of them and I must say, they are not bad at all.