DJ Turntable Controls & Features

Series Summary

Have you ever found yourself in the club—moving to the music, making eye contact with other young, hip people around you—and wondered how the DJ does it night after night? Entertaining a crowd of music-conscious party animals is not an easy thing to do; just a few false moves and you’re out of favor…and out of a job. A DJ’s job is to keep that beat seamless and uninterrupted all night long. You can tell a master turntable artist not by his highly technical scratching skills, but rather by how well he mixes beats and songs together, creating the perfect playlist for a night out on the town. In order to keep the party going, you have to keep the music flowing. A big part of being a DJ is playing records. And in order to play records--whether you are spinning songs on the radio or scratching beats at a club--you must know how to use the controls of a turntable. In this free series on getting to know your stereo equipment, you will learn how to use the stop-start button and pitch shifter of the Technics 1200s Mark 2 turntable. Our expert will also tell you how to use a slip mat and adjust the speed of your turntable.

Video Transcript

"Hey, this is Studebaker Hawk, and I'm here for Expert Village to talk to you about turntables. I'm going to talk to you about each of the parts of the turntable and how to use them. We're going to talk about the on and off button, the switch here, the start and stop button, the 33 and the 45's to change your speed, the slip mat. We're going to talk about the 7" adapter for when you're playing 45's. We're going to talk about the arm, the weight on the arm, the head which holds the cartridge. We're going to talk about the pitch shifter, changing the speed of your record, the light so you can see what you're doing. We'll be talking about the levels, in case your turntable is not level compared to whatever room you're in, the grounds which you hook into your mixer to make sure that you don't get any static or distortion, the RCA cables to hook into your mixer so your turntable can talk to the mixer. And this may look like a lot of parts, but once you watch these videos a few times you're not going to have any trouble and you're going to be doing fine."