This is the music-related blog for Jonathan (Scooter) Clark, also known in the electronica world as DJ Bolivia, a producer and DJ from Atlantic Canada. I listen to (and produce) a lot of folk, indie, rock, and hip hop music too!
I also run a company (Replant.ca Environmental) through which you can sponsor the planting of trees to build forest reserves and community forests, which are protected from commercial logging. Please visit: www.replant.ca/environmental
Many of us have seen a lot of changes in the past year which relate to AI, or Artifical Intelligence. It's an industry which is bringing seismic changes to a large number of other industries and processes. I've been paying a lot of attention to the potential of this technology. On one side, I'm using AI to speed up my workflow in my reforestation and other work, using it to help me with everything from educating me with broad overviews of topics that I'm unfamiliar with, to coding tips, to helping me with website updating, to analyzing spreadsheet more quickly. It's probably doubled my work capacity as a whole over the past three months, because the AI has been able to quickly accomplish a lot of tasks that I would have needed hours to do on my own, which allows me to move onto my next task more quickly. AI has been a huge help in letting me "catch up" on a lot of my very extensive to-do lists over the past three months. I've even tackled a few projects that I had original put on my to-do lists as long as 8-10 years ago.
But what about DJ'ing and music production? Well, AI can produce "original" music? Perhaps my music production skills will become less valuable in the future? Well, I'm not worried about that. I haven't used AI to produce music because the enjoyment of music production is the journey of creation, not the end result. However, I have used AI's to generate background imagery for several music videos that I've posted on YouTube over the past year. And the quality of those videos is going to become exponentially better over the next twelve months, thanks to Sora, a technology from OpenAI.
Here's an article that I just watched from CNN. It's brings things to a new level, using an AI Avatar for DJ'ing (click on the image or the URL below the image to go to the article page, and watch the video):
I think this kind of technology is great. Like any tool, it can be used poorly in a way that does not necessarily benefit people, but when it is used properly, it can bring a lot of benefits. But there will be detractors. What are some of the ethnical considerations for this sort of use??
Intellectual Property Rights: Restricting the AI to operate within the bounds of copyright law, and to respects creators' rights, will be crucial to avoid legal issues and maintain fairness in the music industry.
Authenticity and Transparency: The use of AI in performances raises questions about authenticity. When an AI avatar performs, the line between human creativity and machine-generated content blurs. It's essential to maintain transparency about the use of AI, so the audience knows whether they are experiencing a human DJ's artistry or an AI's output. This transparency helps in setting the right expectations and maintains the integrity of the performance. Right now, there's absolutely no question when watching a performance, because the technology is quite young. But what will things look like in three years? The technology will probably have improved so much that viewers won't be able to tell the difference between an avatar and a real human.
Cultural Appropriation: An AI-powered DJ might inadvertently engage in cultural appropriation by mixing elements from different music genres or cultural backgrounds without understanding their significance or context. And of course, the appearance of the avatar will be important. Would I want to play a show for an indigenous community while appearing as an indigenous avatar? Absolutely not. It's vital to ensure that the the AI avatar is created and displayed in a way that respects cultural heritage and avoids misrepresentation or trivialization of cultural elements.
Job Displacement: The rise of AI in the entertainment industry could lead to job displacement for human DJs and musicians. While AI can enhance performances, it shouldn't replace human artists entirely. In the article that I linked, there's a real DJ (or even a full team) in the background, controlling the show. Balancing the use of AI to support rather than substitute human performers will mitigate worries from performers who are concerned about losing their jobs. And many DJ's already struggle to find gigs.
Bias and Fairness: AI systems can inherit biases from their training data, leading to unbalanced music selections that might favour certain genres, artists, or cultures. Ensuring that AI DJ'ing avatars are trained on diverse and inclusive data sets is necessary to prevent biased outcomes and promote a fair representation of different music forms. This is why it helps to have a human behind the avatar. An experience human DJ can read a dance floor and respond to the crowd better than an avatar can.
Balanced against these ethical considerations are the benefits. With AI DJ'ing avatars, music and performances can become more
accessible to a wider audience. People from different parts of the world
can experience performances virtually, without the need for physical
presence. This inclusivity will allow more people to enjoy performances regardless of
their location or physical abilities. I've always had a huge online presence with a global audience, and this sort of capability could help reinforce that global reach without contributing to a large carbon footprint that would go along with flying all over the world to play at shows in person. True, it's not as fun, but it's more efficient.
Obviously, the use of an avatar to play a set is very different than the real thing, and I certainly don't think it will be an effective for a real DJ in a lot of situations. But in some cases, this new technology could prove to be pretty useful.
It's a technology worth watching, because it's not going to disappear ...
I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia. Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing (as a real human) and music production? If so, visit:
I'm frequently asked why I'm referred to as "DJ Bolivia." After all, I'm from Canada, not from Bolivia. Here's the full story, for those who are curious.
It all began in approximately 2001. It's hard to figure out exact dates, because most of the websites that I use now didn't exist at the time. Back then, even sites that we now think of as the OG's of the internet just didn't exist. In 2001, the internet was still a pretty wild place, without a lot of robust infrastructure. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter hadn't been invented yet. The only major sites that I can remember from back then were MySpace, AOL, eBay, and PayPal. Amazon existed, but for most of us, the thought of buying something on the internet was revolutionary (and dangerous). The popular apps that I can remember from back then were things like Usenet, ICQ, mIRC, WinAmp, and Napster.
One night, I was in my studio, having drinks with two of my good friends: Drew Dudley and Marc Carnes. We were listening to music, probably trying to sort out things that needed to be done for Conduct Becoming, and having some Jack Daniels & Corona on the side.
That particular night, we were talking about some potential upcoming shows for Marc. Marc was a well-known DJ in the Maritimes at that point, and had played at a number of parties in Halifax, Moncton, and Saint John. We were discussing how to get Marc booked at more shows, because it was very difficult at the time to get booked as a DJ. Marc was working full-time and was quite busy, so he wasn't sure that he had much of a future in DJ'ing. Trying to self-promote or stand out from the crowd was very challenging and time-consuming. He was a great DJ, but the promotional side of the equation was the problem. My suggestion was to build an online presence.
The next three hours turned into a free-wheeling discussion about how that could be done: The pros and cons of setting up a website, the technical challenges involved, and how to promote. I was saying it would be easy, Drew was looking at me with a raised eyebrow wondering exactly how I would go about everything, and Marc was playing the Devil's Advocate.
At some point in the argument, I said something along the lines of, "I bet that if you gave me five years, I could turn ANYONE with some basic talent into a world-famous international DJ and recognized name brand." This, of course, was a bold statement. Drew agreed to take on my bet, and we decided that it would basically be a gentleman's wager, but we'd put a bottle of Jack Daniels on the line for the winner.
Marc wasn't convinced that he wanted to be a guinea pig for this project, so I said that I would be the subject of the bet. I had already been DJ'ing for a number of years, but mostly at small parties around the university campus, or at the local campus Pub. I was able to beat-mix vinyl records, although my skills were only at a hobby level at that point. However, I had the equipment and records, and I knew how to hand-code websites in HTML. My tree planting website, Replant.ca, had already been online for a couple years at that point, so I was pretty confident that what I didn't know, I could figure out. I was the manager of the local campus nightclub at this point, and I also did all the updates and coding maintenance on that website.
Once the bet had been established, my first challenge was what to use as a stage name. I didn't want to use my own name. I'm not sure why. I think it was because I didn't want my name associated with this endeavour, in case it turned out to be a complete disaster. In retrospect, this was a terrible decision. I should have used my own name. Incidentally, I've considered changing my stage name to my real name at several points in the last few years, but it would be difficult to do that, since my web presence and online real estate is already so well established.
So I needed a stage name, and the bourbon & beer helped inspire me to take the process very seriously. When I had named my dog (Dakota) several years before, I had gone through the same sort of challenge. With Dakota, I had gone through several sets of lists, coming up with different ideas. For instance, I went through a number of international cities. Baghad was a strong choice for a while (thinking back to the Gulf War) but then I decided that it sounded too similar to "Bad Dog" and the dog might develop an inferiority complex. With Dakota, I eventually moved from city names to US states, and when I got to North Dakota, I realized that Dakota was a great name.
Using the same concept that I had taken to figure out the dog's name, we eventually started going through countries in South America. When we got to Bolivia, we thought, "Hey, this might work."
Before we had started considering various names, we had come up with a short list of qualifications. This was that list:
1. It had to be a name/word that was fairly well known to English speakers.
2. It should also be a name/word that would be recognizable to Spanish speakers, if possible, since I spoke basic Spanish. This requirement was designed to increase global marketability.
3. The stage name had to be a single word, not a pair or words or phrase. The logic behind this rule was that a lot of famous musicians were known by a single name: Prince, Madonna, Bono, Cher, Sting, etc.
4. The name had to roll off the tongue, and sound easy to produce. It had to sound relatively cool.
5. A good domain name had to be available, not a URL that was already taken.
6. Most importantly, it had to be a stage name that did not appear to be in use yet. I didn't want to be confused with an existing performer, nor to have an existing performer serve me a cease-and-desist order to stop using the name. I had to make sure that I'd be able to put enough information on the internet to establish a "first use" precedent, to protect my stage name.
We ran "Bolivia" through that list of six rules, and it seemed to fit perfectly. I ran into some minor problems when I tried to check for domain availability. It's not possible to register any country's name as a domain name, so "bolivia.com" was not available. The builders of the internet were smart like that, thinking about preventing domain-squatting. After some discussion, we decided that "djbolivia.com" was adequate, because at least it clarified the purpose of the site.
Most importantly, at that time, there wasn't anybody using "DJ Bolivia" that I could find when I did searches on Google or Yahoo. Incidentally, a year or so later, I discovered a "DJ Bolivia" from California who had an account on MySpace before I did, but my main website was established before his MySpace account, so I didn't worry about this "imposter."
We tried to think of any other reason why Bolivia wouldn't be a good stage name. I realized that Bolivia was a country that I really wanted to visit, and that I probably wouldn't find a better choice. That decided it. I said, "It's official. I have five years, and I'm going to win this bet."
So basically, that's the entire story of where "DJ Bolivia" came from. I started working on a website almost immediately. I also started practicing more diligently, with at least 2-3 hours on the decks several nights each week. And I tried to figure out ways to distinguish myself from other DJ's.
My online presence really made a difference. All of this happened at a perfect time. The internet was just starting to explode in growth. I decided to record some demo mixes and try to share them online. At the time, there were literally NO websites or services that allowed a person to do this. I did some research about the legality of it all, and discovered that under Canadian law, it seemed to be legal to share mixes if three conditions were met:
1. The mix had to be free, non-commercial, and not creating any monetary gain for myself.
2. There could be no full and complete isolated commercial songs in the download. By mixing at least 60 seconds at the beginning or end of each song with another song, I was able to meet that rule.
3. Any online distribution was not allowed to have a negative impact upon the distribution or sale of the original work. This is a complicated one, but essentially, nobody was going to refrain from buying a vinyl copy of any of the individual tracks on my demo mixes simply because they had a digital copy of my mix available. Remember, at the time, it was pretty much impossible to even buy digital copies of music. The only service that I think was trying to go into legitimate digital music for online sales was MP3.com - which went bankrupt. They were ahead of their time, unfortunately.
Putting demo mixes on my site was a game-changer. At the time, almost nobody had "fast" internet. I had just gotten one of the very first ADSL lines in New Brunswick a couple years before that. Cable and ADSL were really only being introduced to a wider public in Atlantic Canada right around that time, and throughout the early years of my website, the vast majority of Canadians went online using dialup, if they were able to go online at all. To download one of my earlier mixes, encoded as an MP3 that was only about 56 megabytes in size (128 kbps bit rate) often took people an entire hour hour.
At that point, almost nobody in the world had a site where it was legally possible to download a DJ mix. My own site wasn't quite a pioneer in that respect, but it was definitely in the "very early adopter" category. I built an audience of fans from around the world, just because almost nobody else was doing what I was doing. Some of those early fans (people like Dan Fernandez at MicroSoft, tProphet from 2600/Defcon, and half a dozen others) are still friends today. They've all helped my hobby DJ'ing career in various and sometimes unintended ways.
So that's the full story about the origins of "DJ Bolivia" and of my website. Drew graciously conceded defeat in our gentleman's bet after some gigs that I played at the San Jose Game Developer's Conference and a couple venues in Japan, even though that was technically more like six years after I had built my website, not five.
I'll leave you with a graphic that shows what the main page of my website first looked like back in 2002. What's funny is that this is an image file that is just 70 kilobytes in size, but at the time, that took 15-20 seconds to display on a dialup connection!
I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia. Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production? If so, visit:
I originally wrote and published the information on my main website in 2001, but then moved it to this blog post in 2015 because my website wasn't mobile-friendly at the time. Now that my website has been modernized (starting in 2024), you can find this turntables information there too. If I make any future updates, I'll be doing it on my main site rather than within this blog post. The graphics in this blog post are also quite old (back when rudimentary digital cameras struggled to do much more than 450x300 resolution) but I was able to use an AI to upscale the old imagery, so the images look much better on my main site. Visit the turntable info on my website at this link:
In this section, we’re going to discuss what happens when
you open your new turntables, and how to put them together and get them up and
running. We’re going to use as our example the Technics T1200 series,
which have been widely acknowledged as being the world standard in turntables
for a couple decades running. The T1200’s, also known as the “Tech 12’s”
or “Tech 1200’s,” are known as direct drive turntables. That is because
the motor that spins the platter is directly connected (via magnet) to the
platter on the turntable that spins around. There are other types of
turntables available, known as belt-driven turntables. A belt-driven
turntable still has a motor, but there is a belt that connects the motor to the
platter to spin it around, much like a fan belt on a car engine is used to turn
around the fan behind the radiator. Direct drive turntables are generally
priced higher and are more desired, because their design is far more sturdy,
and gives the user a more constant speed of revolution for the platter.
The Technics series of turntables currently have three main
sub-types, known as Mark 2’s, Mark 3’s, and Mark 5’s. These are
designated as T1200 MK2’s, M3D’s, or MK5’s. The MK5 has a designated
model number of T1210 instead of 1200, presumably to indicate that significant
improvements were made. The differences in the three types are fairly
minor. For instance, MK2’s have a pitch control slider that has a “click
spot” in the middle, whereas M3D’s have a smooth slider as you move through the
middle. MK5’s have a smooth slider than can be set for two different
adjustment ranges. We’ll get into these differences in more detail, later
in the video. For now, let’s just get right into the basics of opening
the box on a new “deck” (slang for turntable), and getting set up.
Setting Up a
New Turntable
When you open up your box containing a brand new turntable,
the first thing you’ll discover is the clear plastic cover. This is the
dust cover. When you’re not using your turntables, you should always keep
the dust cover on the turntables. Dust can get into the inside of the
turntable casing, and collect on the magnet, slightly reducing its
effectiveness over time. The covers can break pretty easily, so be sure
to put them somewhere relatively safe when you are using the turntables.
The next thing that you will find is a set of three
different items which are about the size of a large record (a circle that is
twelve inches in diameter). The first of these is called the “slip
mat”. It is probably made of a black material like felt, and is fairly
thin and flexible. The purpose of the slip mat will be explained shortly
in greater detail. The second item will look like a clear plastic version
of the slip mat, made of a material sort of like waxed paper. This is
meant to perform a similar function to the slip mat, although there is far less
friction involved. Scratch DJ’s and turntablists would be most likely to
use this item. However, many other people simply throw it out, or lose it
eventually. The final item will be the rubber mat which again is the same
size as the slip mat. However, this rubber mat provides a lot of
friction. Many DJ’s also throw out their rubber mats. The mat is
more useful for someone who is not DJ’ing, and who is setting up their
turntable for home listening use.
How Does a
Record Work?
When a DJ is playing records, he or she will want to be able
to control where the song starts and stops, and rarely plays a song through
from the beginning to end. To understand this section better, you have to
understand how a record works. People commonly refer to a record as
having a lot of grooves on it that contain the music. This isn’t entirely
true – there is actually only one groove for each song. However, it is
very thin, and spirals around the record sometimes as many as a couple hundred
times through the length of a single song, giving it the false appearance of
having a whole series of circular grooves. The DJ will set the needle
down at the beginning of the record (on the outside quarter inch) and as the
record revolves on the platter, the needle will fall into the beginning of the
groove containing the music. As the record continues to spin, the needle continues
to sit in the groove, and the whole tone arm assembly that holds the needle
will slowly move in toward the center of the record as it continues to revolve.
The needle is effectively stationary this whole time (except
for the gradual movement of the tone arm toward the center of the record),
while the playing media, the record, is moving underneath it. As the
needle “moves” through the grove, it is jostled up and down, but always (we
hope) remains in the groove. The tiny jostling of the needle directly
correlates to the vibrations which are interpreted by the human ear as sound,
therefore, the bumps on the vinyl are interpreted by the needle and transmitted
by the turntable to a mixer, and this tiny signal is amplified by the system
and comes out as music.
To move to a different point in the record, all a person has
to do is lift the tone arm with the needle, move it in or out on the record,
and then set it down again to start listening at a different point.
However, since the section of the grove that represents one full revolution of
the record can hold as much as two seconds worth of music, this is not accurate
enough for most DJ’s. What if you picked one point on the record, and the
place that you want to start comes half a second later? If you move the
needle “over” by another grove, to the next adjacent part of the spiral, you
have gone too far by about a second. This may be unacceptable.
Therefore, the DJ needs to have the ability to find the exact spot on the
record that represents the spot he or she wants to start the music at. To
solve the problem, the DJ may need to spin the record around to a different
part of the groove.
The Purpose
of the Slip Mat
If the record were to be securely attached to the platter of
the turntable, then the DJ would have to be able to spin the platter around to
find that spot he is looking for. However, that would be hard on the
motor. A motor is designed to spin constantly at a set speed, and
physically forcing it to spin more quickly or less quickly, or to hold it in
one place while the motor is straining, will eventually damage the motor.
This is why the slip mat was invented . The record sits on the slip mat, and
then the slip mat sits on the platter. There is a great deal of friction between
the record and the felt of the slip mat, so when the record spins, so does the
mat. However, there is only a very small amount of friction between the
felt of the mat and the steel surface of the platter, therefore, the DJ can
spin the record (and slip mat) around as much as he or she wants, while the
platter just keeps revolving underneath. This way, there is very little
pressure on the motor at any time. The DJ can stop the record in place by
applying gentle pressure to the surface of the record, and the friction between
the DJ’s fingers and the record keeps it from continuing to move, despite the
fact that the platter underneath is still spinning.
For this very reason, when you learn to DJ, you should
eventually learn to speed up and slow down your records using either the pitch
control fader on the deck, or by using your hands to temporarily speed up or
slow down the record. Some DJ’s will try to speed up or especially slow
down the record by putting their hands on the outside of the platter and using
friction there. This is a habit that you should try hard not to get
into. It makes sense for someone to want to do this. By slowing
down the platter itself, you avoid putting your fingers on the records, and
this keeps them cleaner. If you have dirty or sticky fingers (which gets
worse when you start to sweat) then you may also have problems where the record
“grabs” faster than you would expect, and thus you feel like you cannot control
the record as much. However, by using the platter itself to slow the
record, you are working against the motor, which goes counter to the whole
point of using the slip mat in the first place. Also, it is harder on the
motor, so you may run the risk of having to get the motors “reconditioned”
(having the motors calibrated or replaced) more quickly.
There are different types of slip mats available.
Scratch DJ’s and turntablists place the highest demands on their slip mats,
because they do far more cueing (sliding the record forward and backward) than
a club DJ would. For this reason, slip mats designed for turntablism are
usually the thinnest, and have the least amount of friction. Slip mats
designed for less technical DJ’s will usually be thicker and have a little bit
more friction. A tiny amount of friction is needed, after all, so that
when you let go of the record and slip mat, it “grabs” the platter and begins
to revolve. If you have a slip mat with practically no friction at all,
the speed of revolution is slightly less consistent, therefore a slip mat with
a bit more friction will let you “hold” a mix at a steady speed for a longer
period of time.
The Platter
The next item that you will probably find in the box is the
platter. This is a large circular metal plate, with a very smooth surface
on the top. The platter probably has three holes in it – one in the
centre that guides the platter down over the nipple (the motor spindle of the
turntable), and two larger holes elsewhere that are simply for convenience in
placing your fingers into, when mounting or removing the platter. The
platter will probably have a label with a set of pointer attached to it.
Read these carefully. They talk about how to treat your platter
properly.
Miscellaneous
Parts
As you continue to remove items from the box, you will find
things like the “random piece of white plastic” that has no apparent purpose, a
head-shell assembly, a counter-weight for the tone arm, a centre-piece for
seven-inch (“forty-five” rpm) records, and a grounding post for your
mixer. The piece of white plastic does actually have a purpose – once
your headshell and cartridge have been assembled, the round end of the white
plastic piece can slip over the round base of the headshell, and then the long
white part of the plastic will be in the right position to cover the needle,
preventing it from damage. The other miscellaneous parts will be
discussed shortly.
The Base of
the Turntable
If you remove the main housing of the turntable from the
packing material, and turn it upside down, you will see some cords and wires
protruding from the casing. There should be three in total. The
first is a thin grounding wire. The second is a paired phono (RCA plug)
cable, with red and white plugs for the right and left channels
respectively. The last is the power cord for the turntable. The
power cord is for obvious purposes. Don’t plug in your deck yet, if you
are setting it up right now.
The reason that your turntables have a grounding wire is
that an immense amount of static electricity is built up from the constantly
rotating wire. On top of this, the felt of your slip mat can build up
additional static electricity as it rotates in harmony with the platter, or as
it is cued back and forth. The ground wire coming from the turntable goes
to the mixer and allows for an exit for the static electricity, so it does not
remain built up in the turntable. This minimizes the crackle and popping
noises that you sometimes hear when playing a record (which are sometimes due
purely to static electricity buildup, and sometimes due to the surface
condition of the record). In addition, if the turntable is ungrounded,
the static electricity might exit through the phono signal cords into the
mixer, giving what is known as a ground “hum” that sounds very obvious,
especially during quiet parts of your records. This ground hum is often
reinforced when the bass of the record is heavy. As a side note, it IS
possible to “self-ground” your turntables so you don’t have to worry about that
annoying grounding wire, which incidentally can be ripped off quite easily if
you aren’t careful. That process is fairly easy if you are handy with
tools, and ends up having the same result as if your turntable was properly
grounded to the mixer. A video tutorial which shows you how to
self-ground your turntable can be seen at the bottom of this page.
When plugging the turntable into your mixer, make sure that
you plug it into a channel input that is labeled as “phono”. The reason
for this is simple … a turntable (originally known as a phonography, hence the
popularity of the term “phono”) puts out a different strength of signal than a
conventional piece of electronic equipment like a CD player. A turntable
derives its noise signal from the vibrations of the needle as it runs through
the groove on the record. That signal is much weaker than the signal that
comes out of a CD player or anything else. Therefore, the mixer knows
that it has to amplify any signal coming into the phono ports, by about thirty
decibels, to bring it up to the same strength as regular line or CD signals.
If you make the mistake of putting a phono signal into a line input, you will
probably hear almost nothing, because the signal is too weak. If you make
the mistake of putting a CD player into a phono input, you will get an
incredibly loud and distorted signal, because it is much more powerful than the
mixer expects.
The base of your turntable has four feet that the turntable
rests upon. You’ll notice that the feet on the Technics 1200’s have a
special mounting mechanism that allows them to swivel. In addition, they
have a screw that allows them to be raised or lowered as need be. You
should take advantage of this to ensure that the surface of the platter is as
level as possible. If the platter is tilted, even by a fairly small
amount, your needle is much more likely to skip out of the groove.
The Top of
the Turntable, and Orienting Your Turntable
There are lots of parts visible on the surface of your
turntable. When you first set it down, the writing should be easy to read
on things like the “start/stop” button. If the writing does not appear to
be in the correct orientation, you have the turntable facing in the “wrong”
direction. Technically, there is no such thing as the “wrong”
direction. You should orient the deck however you feel comfortable.
The orientation described above will be used as “standard” in this video.
However, if you are a turntablist, you will probably want to orient your decks
so they are placed in “battle” style rather than “standard” or “club”
style. Battle
style means that the left end of the deck is facing you, and the right end,
with the pitch fader, is away from you. The advantage of this layout is
that turntablists, who spend a lot of time cueing their records, do not have to
reach over the tone arm to do so, and thus are far less likely to hit the tone
arm and skip the needle inadvertently.
Anyway, let’s get back to standard orientation for the sake
of simplicity. You will find the on/off button on a raised cylinder on
the lower left corner of the deck. This button rotates and has two
settings, on and off. Usually, unless the LED indicator is burned out, a
little light will turn on to show that the deck has power. There are
slight differences between the MK2 and the M3D versions of the Tech 12, when it
comes to this on/off switch. The MK2 is unprotected at the top, so it is
fairly easy to accidentally hit the switch and turn the deck off,
unintentionally. That engineering issue has been resolved with the M3D,
where the cylinder is higher and surrounds the on/off switch. It is
fairly hard to turn the M3D off, unless you do it on purpose. Sometimes,
if a promoter is setting up for a party and is using MK2’s, he or she will turn
the decks on and then put a piece of electrical tape over it, so the DJ’s can’t
turn the decks off by mistake.
The start/stop button is located in front of the on/off
switch. This switch will start or stop the platter revolving, so it is
pretty basic. To the right of the start/stop are the buttons to switch
between 33rpm and 45rpm. RPM stands for revolutions per minute. If
the platter is going 33rpm, it spins about 33 times each minute, or once every
couple seconds. If the platter is going 45rpm, it spins 45 times each
minutes, or about once every 1.3 seconds. Most records have a marking on
them to indicate whether they should be played at 33 or 45. If you play a
33 record at 45rpms, it will sound very high-pitched and sped up, like an “Alvin and the Chipmunks”
song. If you play a 45 record at 33rpms, it will sound very slow and low
in pitch, and seem to drag.
You’ve probably heard the term “45” used before, which is
slang that refers to a certain size of record, namely one that is seven inches
in diameter. This isn’t exactly accurate all the time. It is
possible, although extremely rare, to get a 7” record that is supposed to be
played at 33rpm. Also, there are a lot of large single track 12” records
that are designed to be played at 45rpms. I would estimate that about
30-50% of all 12” records are meant to be played at 45rpms. Several
decades ago, when phonographs were first becoming common, there was a third
speed setting on most phonographs for 78rpms. Records that are meant to
be played at that speed are pretty rare nowadays.
One of the miscellaneous piece of equipment that comes with
your turntable is a round aluminum disc, about an inch and a half in diameter,
that can be stored in a recessed hole in the top left of the turntable
housing. Most 12” records have a very small hold in the center, which is
about a third of an inch in diameter. This hold fits over the “nipple” in
the center of the platter, so that the record does not wiggle back and
forth. However, older 45’s had a much larger hole in the center of the
record, so they didn’t fit tightly over the nipple. The aluminum disc is
essentially an adapter, which fits properly in the hold in the center of a 45,
and allows it to be held securely in place by the small nipple on the
turntable.
Near the front and center of the turntable, there is a
pop-up LED light post. This light post can be pushed down into the table
when it is not in use. To release it, so that it pops up and the light
turns on, press the tiny button to the right of the post.
Installing
the Platter
The next thing that you need to know about is the platter,
and how it attaches to the rest of the deck. The turntable should never
be plugged in when the platter is not installed. The reason for this is
that plugging the turntable in will energize the motor, and the magnet can
start attracting tiny particles of dirt, especially those containing iron,
which will reduce the effectiveness of the motor. With enough dirt, it
can actually affect your speed of rotation.
The shaft of the turntable is another thing to be very
careful of. When the platter is not installed, the shaft can be bent
fairly easily if another solid object hits it. If you shaft ever gets
bent, you are going to be looking at major repairs.
The Tone Arm
Assembly
The next area that we will examine is a group of parts that
are collectively called the tone arm assembly, in the back right corner of the
deck.
The tone arm is the long arm which reaches out from the base
to extend over the record. The needle itself is attached to a headshell
or cartridge, which in turn twists into the end of the tone arm.
There is a pivot and swivel combination near the end of the
tone arm, although the tone-arm extends back behind this pivot, so that a
counter-weight can be attached. The counterweight can then be adjusted in
or out so that the whole tone arm mechanism balances fairly nicely. The
ultimate goal is to have the needle end of the tone arm to be the heavy end of
the “see-saw”, so that the needle rests on the record. You don’t want the
needle end to be too heavy, because it wears your record out more quickly, but
at the same time, you don’t want it to be too light, because then it skips more
easily. A moderate amount of downward pressure on the needle is the happy
medium that you have to find, and if you switch to a different type of needle
or cartridge, you will probably have to readjust your counterweight to find the
same overall balance for the tone arm and needle.
The whole swivel and pivot mechanism is mounted on a
base. This base has a round dial which can either raise or lower the
whole tone arm by a moderate amount, or about six millimetres. The point
of this is to change the angle at which the tone arm is being held compared to
the record. In general, you should raise or lower this base so that the
tone arm ends up being perpendicular to the surface of the record. There
is also an anti-skating dial on the base of the record, which adjusts the
likelihood that the needle can skip over the record. Higher settings
(numbers) on the anti-skating mechanism usually translate to a lower chance of
the needle skipping. You might think that you should automatically set
the anti-skating to the highest possible setting, to minimize skipping.
However, if you have a record wherein the centre hole is not punched in the
middle, the tone arm will tend to wobble back and forth quite a bit as the record
plays, and a lower anti-skating setting might be more appropriate. Most
DJ’s just set this in the middle and ignore it.
There is a “lift lever” near the anti-skating
mechanism. If that lever is fully depressed, the tone arm can drop down
low enough that the needle can make contact with the record. If the lever
is raised, it lifts the tone arm high enough that the needle cannot touch the
record. The lift level is hydraulically (liquid) based, so the power does
not have to be on for the lift lever to work. By the way, if your tone
arm ever doesn’t seem to have quite enough weight to keep the needle on the
record, and the counter-weight is at the closest setting, check your lift
lever: it may appear to be down, but if it is up even just a
couple millimeters from the down setting, it raises the tone arm just slightly
so the needle cannot make constant contact with the record.
There is also a tone-arm “lock clip” that can be flipped
over the tone arm when the arm is in the rest position, away from the record,
to keep the tone arm from swinging around when the turntable is moved. As
the end of the night, to properly protect your equipment, you should first move
the tone arm to the rest position, then raise the lift level to elevate the
tone arm, then lock the tone arm into place with the lock clip, then turn off
the power switch and replace the dust covers on the tables.
The needles are probably the easiest thing on the turntable
to damage quickly. Needles wear out on a regular basis over time, and
playing with them on a “heavy” setting on the record will wear them out more
quickly. Bumping the tone arm and having it scratch sideways across the
vinyl is also very hard on the needle.
In terms of major damage, the entire tone arm assembly is
your biggest worry. The vast majority of damaged decks have damaged tone
arms. Always lock it away into position when you aren’t actually playing
on the decks. More importantly, do not allow cords (ie. Microphone cords)
to rest on the platter or near the tone arm. It is very easy for someone
to quickly grab the microphone, not realize that a loop of the mic cable is
under the tone arm, and rip it up and bend it. If you want three
rules to protect the life of your turntable, they should be as follows:
1. Buy flight cases if you intend to move them around
much.
2. Always be aware of the tone arm, and don’t let
things catch in it and bend it.
3. If you aren’t storing the decks in flight cases, at
least keep the dust covers in good shape, and use them when the table is not
being used.
By the way, there is also a little hole in the top of the
turntable housing on M3D’s that a lot of DJ’s don’t pay attention to, because
they do not know what it is for. If you
are playing on someone else’s decks and you bring your own “needles”
(headshells/cartridges), it is common courtesy to treat the needles that come
off the deck with the utmost of care.
The M3D has a hole which allows you to temporarily store another
headshell out of harm’s way during your set.
The last important part of the turntable is the pitch
fader.
The tech 12’s come with a factory-installed fader that
allows you to speed the record up by 8%, or slow it down by 8%. Changing
the speed at which the record plays will also change the pitch of the
music. Playing faster makes the pitch higher, while playing slower makes
the pitch lower. Some beginners get confused by the numbers on the fader,
and think that they correspond to the beats per minute (bpm) on the BPM
counters. This is not the case: remember that this is a percentage
increase. Therefore, if your record plays at 132 BPM and you speed it up
by six percent, your speed will increase by eight BPM to 140 BPM. You can
also think of this in terms of RPM’s, although to be honest, it is kind of
useless. For instance, a record that normally goes round at 33
revolutions per minute, which is sped up by three percent, will then be going
34 revolutions per minute. The BPM and the RPM numbers do not have a
constant correlation across all records, as the BPM depends on how the song was
recorded. For instance, several 12” records that all are supposed to be
played back at 33 RPM may have arbitrary speeds of 120, 128, 134, and 145
BPM’s. It all depends on what the musicians produced. Of course,
speeding up any one of these records increases the RPM’s and BPM’s of that
particular record by the same percentage, as indicated on the pitch fader.
The only reason I mentioned the effects on the final RPM’s
was not because DJ’s ever consciously think about this, but to illustrate a
point which you will need to learn eventually when you are beat-matching.
There are some combinations of records that simply cannot work together.
For example, if you are trying to match a track that runs at 96 BPM’s with one
that runs at 120 BPM’s, you cannot make them go the same speed. You can
speed up the slow one by 8%, bringing it up from 96 to 103.7 BPM’s, and you can
slow down the fast one by 8% on your second turntable, bring it down from 120
to 110.4 BPM’s, but as you can see, the two speeds are still not close enough
to match. In more general terms, with speeds of 33 and 45 rpm’s on your
deck, and a +/- fader of 8%, you can play records at speeds varying from 30.36 RPM
to 35.64 RPM, and also from 41.4 RPM to 48.6 RPM. However, there is
always a gap between the most you can speed up a record playing at 33 RPM, and
the most you can slow down the same record playing at 45 RPM.
Some turntable manufacturers have addressed this “problem”
by using faders that range more than +/- 8%. For instance, any fader than
can range by more than =/-15.4% has enough range to “overlap” between 33 and 45
RPM’s, by using the edges of the ranges. However, most DJ’s don’t like
adjusting the speeds of their records by more than +/- 5%, because the changes
in pitch make the records sound too “pushed” and unnatural.
The pitch faders on the MK2’s have a “quartz lock” spot in
the middle. If the slider is in the exact middle, so the record is not
being sped up OR slowed down, then the LED indicator light comes on.
Also, there is a sort of click as the slider moves into that position.
This is useful to let the DJ who is moving a fader know when they’ve moved
through the middle without looking. However, it is very awkward when you
want to make a very tiny pitch adjustment for a record playing at 0%, because
it takes a fairly significant movement to get the slider out of the “click
spot.” To simplify, you might be able to say that it is easy to play at
0.0%, or at 0.2% and above, but that tiny bit around 0.1% is hard to achieve,
because it is like standing on the very edge of a slope. Your slider
almost wants to fall into the center. The M3D’s have addressed this issue
by removing the click spot. You can slide smoothly from the positive to
negative pitch adjustments. The one drawback to these new faders was that
it was difficult for the DJ to tell when the record was playing exactly without
any pitch adjustment, so a reset button was added to the M3D’s. Whenever
the reset button is pushed in, the LED comes on to indicate that the pitch
fader is completely disabled, and the record is playing as if it was at the
standard speed with 0.0% adjustment.
To make things even worse, the click spot has a feature
whereby the pitch fader is actually disabled at that point. However,
let’s assume that your fader had decayed in performance, so the entire thing
puts out a signal that is 0.2% faster than you expect. Therefore, at the
-0.2% position, you are really getting output for 0.0%. This is bad and
is another reason why it is often hard to match beats properly at the center of
the fader: you might actually have TWO places where the fader is outputting at
0.0% - the spot on the slider which gives 0.0%, and the click spot. In
theory, these two spots should be lined up with each other, but that is not
always the case on older decks!
The M3D faders have another advantage and that is in
longevity. Because the slider isn’t constantly moving through the center
click point, the pitch fader should be more accurate and should last a lot
longer. Quite often, DJ’s with MK2’s will take their faders out and
replace them with the newer smooth faders designed for the M3D’s.
Interestingly, however, the M3D is not superior in every respect. For
instance, the motors are slightly weaker, so many DJ’s will prefer, for a very
high end turntable, to get an MK2 and put an M3D fader into it. Of
course, this “fine tuning” isn’t necessary for beginning and intermediate DJ’s.
Final Set-Up
So now that you have your decks sitting and hooked up to
your mixer, you want to make sure they are completely ready to go. To do
this, make sure you’ve gone through the following basic set of steps:
1. Make sure the ground wire is grounded to the mixer.
2. Make sure the phono plugs go into phono (and not
line) inputs on the mixer.
3. Make sure your platter is attached.
4. Make sure your deck is plugged in (preferably to a
surge-protected power bar).
5. Make sure the tone arm counter-weight is attached.
6. Attach a cartridge and needle to the end of the
tone arm.
7. Check the balance of the tone arm by moving the
counter-weight. There should be a slight downward pressure on the needle
as it sits on the record.
8. Set the anti-skating somewhere around the middle,
and the height of the tone arm around the middle (unless you are an advanced DJ
who knows how to set these for personal preference).
9. Drop the lift lever, and undo the tone arm lock
clip.
10. Turn the turntable on, and you should be ready to
start using it.
It is always good to check the left/right balance on each
turntable, to ensure that both channels are coming through the mixer.
Sometimes you will find that only one is coming through. If that is the
case, check the cartridge first and make sure it is firmly attached, as that is
the usual culprit. If that doesn’t work, make sure that the phono leads
are plugged into both channels (red and white) on the back of the mixer.
Model
Numbers and Serial Numbers of the Technics SL-1200
There is a good discussion of the history of model numbers
and serial numbers of the Technics SL-1200 available online at Wikipedia, at
this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technics_SL-1200
Other Brands
Besides Technics
There are several other world-known turntable manufacturers,
including Stanton, Vestax, Gemini, and Numark.
Each of these manufacturers makes a variety of models, many of which are
decent direct-drive models. We recommend
that you stay away from belt-driven turntables at all costs. Technics has been the undisputed world leader
in turntables for decades. The Technics
1200 series is going to be the table of choice at well over ninety percent of
the clubs and parties that you might play at, anywhere in the world. However, that does not mean that they are the
only good model out there. The other
manufacturers have improved their models greatly over the past five years or
so, and to be honest, have a lot to recommend them to beginning DJ’s. Older DJ’s will often suggest that this
advice is somewhat scandalous, and will argue strongly against buying anything
but Technics. However, the truth is, the
Technics decks are only slightly better than the rest, but the competition has
much more attractive pricing. If you’re
getting into the industry and need to buy equipment, you’re looking at spending
a lot of money on decks, mixers, amps, speakers, headphone, needles, and
vinyl. Buying a mid-model turntable from
one of Technics’ competitors is a good way to save you some money at the
start. If it is any consolation, should
you decide to upgrade to Technics decks a year or so down the road, you can
always sell your low-end used decks to another beginning DJ. Of course, if you decide to splurge and buy
Technics decks right away, and then decide later that DJ’ing is not for you, at
least the Technics decks have very high resale value and are highly sought
after. It is not uncommon for year-old
decks in good shape to be resold for 60-70% of the original purchase price,
whereas you might only be able to get 40-50% of the original price for
competing brands.
Some competing models have some strange features compared to
the tech 12’s. Pitch faders are often
slightly different, with range from +/- 6% to +/- 50%. Sometimes, the faders work in reverse, with
“faster” being away from the DJ, and “slower” being toward the DJ. Some decks have a “reverse” button that
starts the platter spinning backwards (of limited use). Other decks have straight rather than curved
tone arms. The theory behind that is that
a straight tone arm is more useful for high-end turntablists due to the altered
tendency to limit skipping. Finally, the
strengths of the motors of different models (even within each company) can vary
widely, and in some cases, the stopping and starting power (the torque) can be
adjusted with a level on the side of the deck.
No two models of turntable are exactly the same, BUT if you become
familiar with the Technics 1200’s, the industry standard, you will quickly feel
comfortable playing on any other type of turntable with just a few hours
practice.
The following series of photographs (illustrating some of
the features on Numark and Vestax decks) will convince you that even though
there is a great deal of variety on the surface between different brands of
decks, they usually offer the same basic features, so you shouldn’t be too
disoriented when moving to a different brand than you are used to. The major differences (which are reflected in
price) will become evident in the long-run, in terms of how long your equipment
(motors, etc.) lasts.
This shows the speed
selectors and pitch fader on an entry-level (low price) Numark deck.
The tone-arm assembly
on this Numark deck is quite basic.
One feature of this
Numark deck that is NOT often found on more expensive models is dual start/stop
buttons.
Moving to a Vestax
model, the power switch (top left corner) is harder to hit accidentally.
The start/stop and
33/45 speed selector buttons on a Vestax model.
The base of the tone
arm assembly on the Vestax, again more simple than on a Technics.
The straight tone arm on this Vestax is now favored by some
turntablists and scratch DJ’s.
The Vestax features a
reverse button for the platter, ultra pitch adjustment, and motor braking
adjustments, none of which are available on the Technics 1200 series.
Another nice Vestax
feature is the detachable signal (phono) cords and grounding wire.
Back to the Technics
1200 series – this time the newer SL1210 MK5 model. Looks pretty.
Video Tutorials
I have a handful of video tutorials on YouTube that relate to various aspects of using turntables. Here are the links:
Learn to DJ - Setting Up Turntables (old):
Tutorial for Beat-Mixing on Vinyl Turntables:
How to Modify Pitch Faders on a Technics 1200:
Self-Grounding a Technics 1200 Turntable:
A Sample DJ Mix Recorded on Turntables:
Parting
Thoughts
That’s about all you need to know as far as the basics
go. To check up pricing on different turntables, look at a number of
online equipment stores. The price you
pay will usually reflect the quality of the gear. To sum up, Technics 1200’s are the industry
standard, and are built to last. If you
can afford them, they are recommended by the majority of DJ’s. They also have great resale value. If, on the other hand, you are just starting
out, don’t feel like you are committing a sin if you elect to buy a pair of
cheaper starter decks – you can always resell them and upgrade later if you
want. My only advice would be to stick
to lower-end decks if you’re trying to save money by getting a starter
deck. If you’re looking at buying a mid
to mid-upper range deck right now, but think you might upgrade to a Technics
deck later, then you’re probably better off spending the extra money right
at the start. After you’ve bought your
decks, and are putting the system together, get another experienced DJ to look
over your equipment after you’ve set it up if you still feel uncomfortable.
If he or she makes changes to what you’ve done, ask why. The best way to
learn is to experiment. Have fun!
I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia. Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production? If so, visit:
