How to Use a Turntable While DJing

Video Transcript

"Hey this is DJ Brady again on behalf of ExpertVillage.com. In this clip, I’m going to demonstrate the workings of a turntable. The turntable we’re using today is a club classic, it’s the Techniques SL1200. Turntables are pretty simple in function about the same as what I showed you on the cd players. When you’re connecting the turntable, you want to make sure you go to a funnel input on your mixer, the line levels are much different from phono input levels. You also want to make sure that you connect the ground strap that will be coming from turntable, they produce a lot of noise and you want to be able to get that grounding. Now, turning your turntable on, select the speed desired for the record and press start. This turntable also has a pitch function like the cd players. Go ahead and start the music. Slow it down and speed it up. As you can see, there are markings on the platter, these dots correlate with the pitch slider. These are an indication of pitch percentage up or down. Now for a demonstration, we’re going to turn off the lights. Now that the lights are off, you should be able to see this very clearly. When I start the platter, you can see that the zero dot, appears not to be moving, if I speed it up, I’m going to try to make the second row or 3.3 percent stop. Now I’m at 3.3 percent pitch increase, now I’m going to move up to 6 percent. Now you can see that the top row has nearly stopped moving, there you go. Now I’m going to slow it down to 3.3 negative pitch adjustment. Now the bottom row is nearly at a complete stop. DJs use this so that they can get an idea of how fast or how slow they’re adjusting their records. If you choose to dj with turntables, you should know that there are two types available. Belt drive and direct drive, djs prefer direct drive because the platter is connected directly to the motor. This allows for higher torque and lower start up time. Your other choice of turntables is a belt driven turntable, they cost a little less, but they have a low torque and higher start up time. "