Tag Archives: DJ

Weekend of Holiday Horror Fun

Events, ,

It was a very busy time last week prepping for the Holiday of Horror show at the Portage Theater here in Chicago–the last Horror Society blowout for 2009. Thanks to all who came out, it was a fantastic time! Turntabling debuted scary tees from StrangerTees.com, and sold plenty of Goblin albums and other fun stuff.

The updates start rolling around here as per usual now that we’re no longer scrambling to get things prepped for the show. There’s a whole new year of craziness coming, and Turntabling is ready. Brace yourself! We’ve got new titles rolling onto the site this week, and we’ll have a few other fun announcements too.

How To Start a Mobile DJ Business

Media, ,

The Mobile DJ handbook how to start and run a profitable mobile DJ business

Has anyone read this? It seems like the sort of thing we should be selling or at least discussing here on Turntabling, since the turntable is still a big part of DJing even if you’re running time code vinyl. Truth be told, I’ve never read The Mobile DJ Handbook, and would be very interested to know what experienced pros think of it before I took the leap. Sure, I could buy a copy and read for myself, but I know SOMEBODY out there has to have picked this up at some point.

What I CAN do is to dispense a bit of advice from my own experiences as a DJ–mobile and otherwise. Thinking about taking the plunge? Read on. Continue reading How To Start a Mobile DJ Business →

How to DJ Advice

Blogs, editorial, , ,

technics-sl-dz1200-digital-turntable

Turntabling (the blog) is all about vinyl–everything connected to the collecting, playing, archiving and culture associated with vinyl.

I know the drive-in culture thing I am so obsessed with in these pages seems a bit of a stretch, but since I cut my teeth with vinyl when these things were growing up right alongside in 70s and 80s culture, it seems a natural to me.

But some days, it’s all about the act of mixing together the tunes and keeping people interested in your mix. The DJ aspect doesn’t get nearly as much face time here, but I do like to dispense a bit of my insider knowledge from time to time.

Today I stumbled across another one of those How To DJ sites, but this one actually had some decent information. Sound advice there, especially when it comes to trying to feel out an audience and know what works and what doesn’t.

My main gripe with how-to-DJ advice is that you can’t really learn how to spin music without DOING it. And then there’s only so far you can go before you need to have an actual audience. Want to see how fast you can clear a dance floor? How about how long it takes to bring those feet back onto that floor? You have to learn by doing. Continue reading How to DJ Advice →

DJ Skills: Mixing and Scratching

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dj-skills-mixing-and-scratching-book

As much as I believe you can’t really impart what it takes to be a good DJ from a book, there are some people who insist that books like DJ Skils: Mixing and Scratching are helpful and useful to beginners. So while I can recommend a book like this to newcomers, I do so with the caveat that you really need to get some time behind the decks to learn the basics in practice, not just theory.

With that in mind, this book IS getting rave reviews. You have to recognize the ambition of a book that starts off discussing the earliest record player including the 1857 French invention of the phonoautograph and Edison’s 1877 invention of the wax cylinder phonograph.
Continue reading DJ Skills: Mixing and Scratching →