The types of DJ equipment you would find are digital and analog. Analog DJ equipment would use turntables, vinyl records, frequency and gain knobs, headphones and a mixer. The way a vinyl record would work is the DJ would place it onto the turntable platter, place the needle onto the grooves of the record, press play and the platter will rotate and the grooves will make the music travel through the needle and into the speakers via electrical signals. An analog turntable has a pitch fader, speed buttons, on/off switch, play/stop button and a tone-arm.
The mixer is used to control the gain, lo-mid, hi-mid and mid frequencies. Digital DJ equipment would use decks, CDJs, laptop, serato, vinyl controller, frequency and gain knobs, effects, headphones and a mixer. A DJ can have a USB stick with music on it, he/she plug it into his/her laptop and he can drag the song onto a turntable of his/her choice or he/she can have a burnt CD with music on it and put it in the CDJ. When a DJ uses digital equipment it makes it easier to find his/her cue points on the record he/she is about to play or mix in. Here are some examples of some analog and digital DJ equipment:
The traktor s4 controller is a piece of digital DJ equipment and the vinyl records, the numark M101 mixer and the technics vinyl turntable are pieces of analog DJ equipment. The difference between the these pieces of equipment is analog equipment doesn't show bpm, it doesn't have any effects, sync buttons, loop buttons an it doesn't show where your cue points are. This made DJ'ing much more harder for DJs back then. In today's world digital DJ equipment is the most popular equipment used by very famous DJs.
The mixer is used to control the gain, lo-mid, hi-mid and mid frequencies. Digital DJ equipment would use decks, CDJs, laptop, serato, vinyl controller, frequency and gain knobs, effects, headphones and a mixer. A DJ can have a USB stick with music on it, he/she plug it into his/her laptop and he can drag the song onto a turntable of his/her choice or he/she can have a burnt CD with music on it and put it in the CDJ. When a DJ uses digital equipment it makes it easier to find his/her cue points on the record he/she is about to play or mix in. Here are some examples of some analog and digital DJ equipment:
The traktor s4 controller is a piece of digital DJ equipment and the vinyl records, the numark M101 mixer and the technics vinyl turntable are pieces of analog DJ equipment. The difference between the these pieces of equipment is analog equipment doesn't show bpm, it doesn't have any effects, sync buttons, loop buttons an it doesn't show where your cue points are. This made DJ'ing much more harder for DJs back then. In today's world digital DJ equipment is the most popular equipment used by very famous DJs.
Grand Wizard Theodore was the first DJ ever to have invented scratching. When he was a boy he went home from school and he practice his DJ'ing. He remembered his mum coming into his room telling him to keep the music down or otherwise she would cut it off. He was moving the record back and forth as his mum was warning him to keep the music down. As her mum he felt that moving the record back and forth was a new skill to practice. So what he did was he practiced for a few weeks with different kinds of records. After he got the hang of scratching on the decks he hosted a party and that is when he introduced scratching to the scene. Scratching with vinyl records can sometimes damaged the grooves in the vinyl and the needle on the arm of the turntable. I learned this from watching the film 'Scratch' in my DJ classes.
Cue points is another good technique a DJ can use when he/she is mixing. On analog DJ equipment it would be hard to find your cue points. DJ Craze would use sticky tape to mark his cue making it easier for him to mix. Digital DJ equipment is much easier and much faster to create your own cue points. The record shows the whole waveform and you can easily put a certain amount of cue points on the record. On the traktor software you can 1-5 cue points on the left deck and 6-0 cue points on the right deck.
The mixer is used to create tension, build up and awe for the audience. There are three frequencies on the mixer and they are called HI, MID and LOW. The LOW frequency cuts the bass off. The bass is what makes the audience dance, feel energetic and go insane. This frequency can be used to take the bass out of one track and when the timing is right the DJ can drop the bass from the second track. This is what keeps the audience going. The MID frequency filters most of the instruments and vocals but you the audience will still hear the bass pumping through the speakers. This frequency can be used to filter another track in while the other track is about to come to an end. This creates more of an atmosphere and awe for the audience. The HI frequency is similar to the MID frequency. It filters the instruments but not as much as the MID frequency does. The audience will still be able to hear some of the instruments (Including the bass) and vocals. This is another way a DJ can drop tracks in and out and also getting the audience going.
The mixer is used to create tension, build up and awe for the audience. There are three frequencies on the mixer and they are called HI, MID and LOW. The LOW frequency cuts the bass off. The bass is what makes the audience dance, feel energetic and go insane. This frequency can be used to take the bass out of one track and when the timing is right the DJ can drop the bass from the second track. This is what keeps the audience going. The MID frequency filters most of the instruments and vocals but you the audience will still hear the bass pumping through the speakers. This frequency can be used to filter another track in while the other track is about to come to an end. This creates more of an atmosphere and awe for the audience. The HI frequency is similar to the MID frequency. It filters the instruments but not as much as the MID frequency does. The audience will still be able to hear some of the instruments (Including the bass) and vocals. This is another way a DJ can drop tracks in and out and also getting the audience going.
Beat matching is essential when mixing two records together. When a DJ is about to drop the next record in he/she would use the pitch fader to sync the bpm that is same with the record that is playing. After he/she has done that they would find the right time to drop the next track in. When analog DJ equipment was used DJ would use the pitch fader to find the exact or almost exact tempo of a song. This was a tricky thing to do because analog DJ equipment couldn't show the DJ the bpm of a song. The way beat matching would work on digital DJ equipment is the bpm will be displayed on the turntable or on the software. Sync buttons are used to sync the bpm of one song making the bpm the same on another. Sync buttons are much easier and faster to use whereas using the pitch fader could take more time.
In today's world DJs are now using digital DJ equipment rather than analog DJ equipment as this makes DJ'ing a lot easier for the DJ. DJ Craze is one of the DJs who went from using analog DJ equipment to using digital DJ equipment. Here is a video of him at the DMC finals in 1999:
As you can see here he using analog DJ equipment and is not using headphones which is what a professional DJ would do when he/she is mixing. He is then changing his records quite frequently, he also finds his Que points with the sticky tape he placed on the records. Also you can notice he is doing a lot of scratching, he is also using the cross fader as he is scratching. Maybe the reason why he is doing all of this is because he wants to keep the audience entertained rather then just show his skills off.
Here is a video of him using digital DJ equipment:
As you can see in this video he is using digital DJ equipment and is still not using headphones. This could mean that he knows what he is doing, where he's set his cue points what and tempos the songs are at. He is also using a effects machine to create additional effects to his mix. You can also notice he is using a laptop with traktor and vinyl controllers. In this video he uses the cross fade and volume fader more than in the other video plus he uses his hands at a very fast speed on the vinyl controllers. What you have seen in these two videos shows that DJ Craze has had a lot of DJ experience and is the most successful DJ ever.
In my opinion as a DJ I would use digital DJ equipment with headphones. The reason for this is because digital equipment is much easier plus headphones make twice as easy when mixing. Seeing as how I don't have much experience as a DJ it would not be a good idea to mix without headphones whereas this could lead to a disaster. Analog and digital DJ equipment are the best but most DJs around the globe are more into using digital DJ equipment rather analog DJ equipment but it wouldn't kill for me to have a go on analog DJ equipment as well.
Bibliography
Pray, D, 30th August 2002, Ridgeway Entertainment, Scratch (Hip-hop.documentary)
DJ, Craze, 1999, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nbJfSLxy1U
DJ, Craze, 19th Jan 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vchsYXCdHA
Vinyl records image: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Lifeandhealth/Pix/pictures/2010/1/25/1264438064596/Three-vinyl-records-one-b-001.jpg
Numark M101 mixer: http://images.thomann.de/pics/prod/262929.jpg
