DJ Equipment
DJ Equipment
Hardware and Software Utilities for The DJ
The History of Decks
It is often considered as the 60's decade that spawned what we might relate to as the current definition of performing DJ. Developments in technology drive forward the tools and tricks available to each generation but the principle is fundamentally the same.
In order to entertain a crowd and keep the momentum of an event flowing it is necessary for the music to be continuous throughout the duration. To necessitate this the DJ must have to available platforms for playing music. The devices need to be linked into a hub which controls the output signal of each device; this is most commonly referred to as a mixer. Vinyl has been the most widely used medium since club and mobile DJaying started and so turntable manufacturers looked to provide more elite and user friendly variations; advanced hi-fidelity models in comparison to their home user counterparts.
Mixers
Two sound sources require a mixer in order for there to be continous flow of music during a DJ event. Most mixers these days feature 3 stereo channels or more. Whilst two input sources are fine, DJ's often like to connect in other equipment such as samplers and if they are musically talented, synths.
CD players
The CD player has been in general circulation since the early 80's. The medium provided a convenient way for high quality recordings to be collected by DJ's and of course the size of the disc is much smaller than the infamous 12" vinyl. Most if not all DJ's will agree that CD music is more clinical than the vinyl sound, this is certainly true as digital recordings short cut frequency level changes, diminishing the extra data that the human ear cannot hear. Analogue captures almost infinitesimally small changes in pitch and amplitude where as digital has to save space by stepping through these changes with less resolution.
DJ CD players feature many functions which allow the DJ to manipulate the pitch (speed) of the track and process the signal such as sampling, scratching and filtering.
Tape Machines
For many years during the 70's and 80's it was not uncommon to see cassette deck or even a reel to reel tape machine behind the DJ booth. Reel to reels could yield high quality sound and were a great tool in passing around pre-pressed tunes amongst fellow DJ's. With contemporary technology mixes can be shared by home made CD, or sent as compressed files via email, or even downloaded from the web.
Digital Music
There was until recently a strong objection to digital file based music being used by DJ's. The objection is similar to the early dismissal of the CD player by vinylist die hards. I personally grew up with vinyl and still use it; I also embraced CD and the now current mp3 format. My opinion is that if the opinions of others matter that much, just learn to master them all and remain versatile so that you outclass the nay sayers.
Digital music formats are quite varied, the most common is the mp3, currently this format is still under a licencsing association with the Frauenhofer developers. We thank the open source community for developing OggVorbis or ogg format which has no such restrictions. On a side note I also advocate the ogg vorbis compression algorhythms over the mp3 format; they are better.
