- Used a plastic grocery bag as a slipmat?

- Used little pieces of paper to get rid of that "gap" in a Vestax Fader?

- Thought that those old Karaoke Laser Disks (12 inches back then with side a and side b) would work on your turntable? (Yes I gave it a try. lol)

- Recorded a song off the radio on a casette just to DJ with it at a party (Casette Cued up with the record and play button pushed with the pause button depressed waiting for the DJ to shut up and play the song)

- DJ with Cassettes only?

- Clean your LPs in the sink?

- Flatten your LPs in the oven?

- Had your LPs warp cuzz you left them in your Pepsi Crate which is in the car sitting in 100 degree weather?

- Had an idiot approach you while your DJ and attempt to "scratch" and scratched the deck that was playing and them throw the Jesus pose like they did something amazing?

- Used a watch to count the BPM of a song

- drove over an hour to go to a record store (usually weekly)

- had to physically get your music from the record pool. When you arrived you HAD TO return your top 40 charts and feedback forms for the records you received the previous week.

- bought a double or triple of a record just to have an extra copy of it

- had to use 4 rolls of packing tape wrapped in elastic bands under the turntable feet to stop bass rumble

got bloody cuticles from digging

If that aint the truth......putting that one in the top 10 for sure.

- attached your headphones to the mic input
- used map points to find your gig
-tried messing with the house amp / EQ (and the soundman caught you)

What you talking bout....I did that a couple weeks ago..LOL. I could not find my mic cord to call "last call".

Exactly :)

Can i get a witness.

Used paper towels for slip mats. (this still works in a pinch)

cut out slipmats from the see through plastic 12inch inserts

...ended up with more Records than sleeves/jackets at the end of the night because you NEVER put them back right after you play them....

Use those old crunchy sounding 8bit sound effects that came on some Gemini mixers.
Ufo, machine gun (never understood that one), emergency, siren, gas, tron blast.

Bought every copy of a tune in your city so that you were the only one who had it

Bought a record without hearing it just cause the cover looked cool

Never new the name of one of your favourite heaters and when asked, you just knew it as "the song with the red label"

Covered up the label on your tunes do no one else knew what you were playing

gettin a hard on from seeing your first ever clear vinyl.masta ace jeep ass nigga clear vinyl did it for me!

Used a piece of tape or paper to fix the gap between a record and spindle

Used a mixer that didn't have a crossfader or used a mixer with a rotary crossfader.
Made your own Speaker cabinets.

wd40ing your gemini fader 1 time then gettin the smell of wd40 on your fingers for weeks after that

you first learned to scratch with the volume nob of ya home stereo.
your first techs were driven by rubber bands........word

the old funky smell of your parents vinyl collection, shot u cant even smell thT today ;(

Had to dj with a Technics SL-1510....gregory.webng.com

In 1995, I had DJ P (when he lived in Tulsa) come out for a new years eve party. We had last minute issues with one of our 1200's so I pulled out the old Techics SL-1510. P still rocked the show with this novice direct drive turntable. I remember it skipped a few times and it the platter took longer to slow down if you sped it up. If you can dj with that, you can dj on anything.

Mistakenly put the wrong password in yourncore midi device and couldnt get your tablet to connect yo your software.....lol

Your core**

you owned the light green tommy boy labeled planet rock instead of the blue

I think mines was Orange maybe - and trying to remember if I had a pool copy with a white label???

(still) own the original orange label planet rock?


scratched with a reel to reel?

crossed out the name of a record with a marker to thwart biters?

had a party end with someone throwing the amp out a 3rd story window because it kept blowing fuses?

"feild" repair a woofer with candle wax?


still do

WTF??? That's a new one....

Brought your own portable record player and your headphones to your local or non-local record store to hear what you were buying because you had to. Either they didn't have a record player on hand or you didn't want to wait in line to listen to those gems you found.

How about becoming well known enough or spending enough money thru the years to listen to your records over the store's House system??

Happened to me on a few (very] slow days - lol

Used a thread spool to elevate your record then install the cartridge upside down, just so you can play your track backwards.

- break a beer bottle on a dude"s head for passing through my booth and doing the "wiki-wiki" on a playing song when im not looking , while forgot to mix coz busy beating the crap out of him

- having panicly resetting serato coz the song travels in a super high speed only to realize that i put Traktor's timecode by mistakes

- Having a crate stolen coz passed out after set

- forgot my laptop charger,somewhere in another city that takes 3 hours flight

- Forgot my Sl3 soundcard in a club once again coz too drunk

buying a 6 pack of 100 minute maxells

hahaha!!!! Memories!!!!!

No advertising

Watchwww.youtube.com

Buying a 100 pack of aftermarket POLY record jacket sleeves.

I missed the days that I would walk into my regular vinyl spot and the owner or clerk would immediately hand me 20 records he knew that I'd love to listen to before I even got down to digging through the crates...

Thats a good one. Eventually i bought that lil blue metronome box.

yup

I still have an old click clack metronome, and it still comes in handy believe it or not...

used to pop out the ball bearing in the crossfader to get rid of the "click" in the middle of the fader so it would be smoother.

soaked the labels off your records and put them in different sleeves so other DJ's wouldn't find out what you were playing.

Amen to this thread




But seriously, I've tried this, and well, let's just say I haven't done it in a while. Has this ever worked for anyone? What's the trick? Back in the day I would take record pool garbage, warp it, and then try to flatten it to figure out how to flatten my good records, but no luck

I have a good story along those lines... Back in the day when I was a regular at my local record shop, I had an accident and was in hospital/bed ridden at home for months. I didnt want to miss out on any new tunes, so one of my mates would go into the record shop for me, the guy that owned it was a fellow DJ and when he heard I was laid up he used to send all the latest tunes home with my mate and I would just pick out the tunes I wanted, give my mate the money for them and he would go into the shop, pay for the records I kept and return any I didnt like. Now that is customer service for you!

Back in the mid 90's, I dont know where I got em, but I had these removable static cling labels to cover your record labels to ward off the biters. We thought about making some of those...maby we will.

Drive 6 hours to Miami to get unique tracks bi-weekly.
Mixed Video on 3/4" Sony Decks
Created remixes on a reel-to-reel player
Owned TTs, Cassette players, Minidisc & CD players with pitch control at the same time
Mixed on both Urei and Bozak mixers
Not blinking at spending $400-600 a month in music

- Air scratched when you first learned to transform or flare.
- Spent your portion of the rent money buying vinyl.
- Hidden those hard-to-find record gems from the vultures in the Engelbert Humperdinck section because you ran out of loot.
- Ever so gently replaced a $8.99 price tag with a $2.99 price tag on some choice vinyls.
- Served as lookout while your boy got serviced behind the DJ booth. (nh/nm)
- Bought those cheap Radio Shack Stanton-680 clone needles.
- Thought the Gemini 2200 mixer was the best thing since sliced bread.
- Pre-written down your mixes on a sheet of paper when you 1st started doing parties.
- Stuffed cotton or tissue paper in the needle housing of an M44-7 needle to keep it from skipping.
- Mounted George Washington on top of your headshell to prevent skipping (nh/nm)
- Went into ToTaL disbelief when you learned Bobby Caldwell was a white man!
- Regretted to this day that you loaned doubles of your "Wild Style" instrumental albums to a DJ buddy and haven't seen them since.

Great thread.

How about timing your records store shopping trips to when they get a new shipment.

Or walking into a record store and having them pull out a stack of records already selected for you.

Setting up your turntables & mixer on a board or a door (or whatever you can find) held up by 2 public/park trash bins in a scoolyard with power off the Street light.
Bronx, NY Circa 1980-81
Remember jammin
Kurtis Blow - AJ
T-La Rock - Its Yours
Davy DMX - One For the treble
Fantasy 3 - Its Your Rock

Bought those first released Twist and Tangle scratch records with all those corny samples. "Can I get another BEEEEEEER".

www.discogs.com

Finally having a night off from DJaying so that you can go out clubbing with your friends, only to find yourself critiquing the DJ and thinking about what you would play in his shoes?

Also at the same time you are standing up, "Air Scratching" to his songs while your friends look at you like you have some sort of muscle spasm.

Holy Shit!

Walked around with a crossfader in your hand or on a keychain for practice

muffukka said bozak! wow!

LOL's.....now thats nerd status there....son.

As a kid before you had turntables or records but wanted to dj, used to pretend to "scratch" with paper plates.

Having your record-store buddies - the people who would shop the same day as you that you saw every week...

I had a buddy who glued an xfader to his stick shift so he could practice his fader movements at red lights.

smart

Stolen milk crates only to find out they are too small for records

Pronounced Technics "tek-niks" and be embarassed as hell

Told your lady to get a ride with someone else because your records were riding shotgun

Bought a crappy set of Vestax tables for $20 because they had a perfectly good set of Ortofon Nightclubs installed

Told an aspiring rapperslangin cd's outside of the record store your broke, and an hour later walk past him with $200+ of vinyl

Freaked out when you learned that Hot Topic sold vinyl

get punched in the face like kid capri and not shut the club down. i will quit djing

Had to piss in a beer glass or gatorade bottle because the bathroom line was WAY too long to get there and back in time

Cut off one cup of your headphones after the swivel broke so you could finish the night without having it dangle and get in your way

Remember scratching on a Rane MP24 mixer with the crossfader that seemed like it was 6" wide lol

On that note, remember mixing on the above mentioned mixer, and somehow pulling off good mixes WITHOUT individual channel EQs! :)

Ever used the ORIGINAL Technics 1200 CD players - the ones with the top load door and the lack of instant start

Used a Sony Discman or similar, a cassette player or any other type of non-professional DJ equipment to rock a party?

man I want one of those bad

I still have my Vestax one. :)

no advertising

whoa! that's some crazy shit...

Hilarious how the "no advertising" is such a JOKE now.

hahaha

All because of a misquote I did from memories to memorex :P

hahaha

how do you pronounce technics? i think in england everyone says tek-niks dont they?

They didnt spell it TECHNIQUES for a reason. I would guess "tek-niks" is the proper pronunciation but I say it as "techniques"...as most Americans do.

I've only ever heard americans calling them 'tek-niques' and UK cats calling them 'ten-niks'

Are you saying a one second start is not quick enough for you? I remember how cool they looked and thinking how awesome it was going to be - and then finding out mixing on them was nearly impossible. I also remember having a PC in my booth in 1993 to run lighting and endlessly type in song data into an Access database - so I could then print out endless reams of song lists - by title, artist, BPM. I kept thinking how cool it would be to be able to access all of the music from the computer....

^^^ lol quote fail but you get the point...

Still got the first one I made...lost my keys last week...having it made into a keychain right now! lol

- had your friends / family / or Girl complain about the constant clicking sound from the crossfader as you practice all night in the headphones!

+1

Hell yes! and also mixing at home when you think nobody is around and you get in the zone until someone comes in a taps you on the shoulder and scares the living hell outta ya!

- If up to this day you still don't know the titles of your white labels.
- Ever transformed using the Phono/Line switch
- Ever used an NumarkPPD Mixer

- Saved up your lunch money/allowance to buy records

-sent your girl back to the house to grab the new records that you forgot to throw in the crates on the way to the gig cause you were running late.

-copped a copy of the flash gordon soundtrack so you could transform it like Terminator X.

I got a better one...

- Ever got mad at your girl for leaving your records out in the sun!

guilty my wife hates how it sounds she rather me turn the volume up just a little. She rather hear the music playing low that me clicking the fader

Man this thread brings back memories!
-Sprayed WD-40 on your Gemini crossfader because the music was bleedin and cracklin through from to much scratching.

Have multiple copies of Ultimate Breaks and Beats Vol.3 cuz you scratched the shit out of them! (Thank God for Serato!)

1. Not have enough money to buy all the records in your stack so you HIDE them in some other category or in the back of the cabinet.

2. Purposely hide a record so your rival couldnt walk out the store with that same dope track.

3. Showed up to the store when the part-time guy was there and purposely bought some of the records out of somebodies special order?

guilty

guilty but I also worked at the store and ordered the records so I had a stash bin in the back. I'd find all kinds of hidden records when going through and cleaning up the bins at the end of the night. It's like why are these trance "new releases" sitting in the Renegade Hardware section of the jungle area?

massive lol thinking back to working at the record store.

You ever walked into a DJ record store and asked for a discount at the register because "I'm a DJ".............. no kidding, ya don't say ;)

I think the only time I asked for any discount was on imports. Now thinking about it, I should of been content with the asking price. This store thought Tulsa was important enough to pre-pay for these and bring them into town on faith someone would actually buy them.

Still carry that small key (the one you havent used in 6 years) that fits the lock on your flight case holding all your drum and bass records that you last purchased from DANCERECORDS.com.

I still keep a flight case of vinyl at the ready for impromptu full moon parties.

By accident or on purpose? Sometimes, the mic breaks (or in the case of wireless mics, batteries die).... I'm just sayin'... LoL!


Guilty - and why I never bought those damned Sony's ever again.

the ones that run off AA run pretty well...but the 9 volt ones are ridiculous!!!!

Ok back on topic...

Took advantage of a slow night, a dj booth that locked and a girl with "good knees".

Haha oh man...I used to do this so bad at my local!!! Strategically shuffle around records so other people wouldn't find em until I had the coin.

BTW HYDRO MATIC. PIMP LIFE> I have never done anything like that.

suprised nobody mentioned bribing the mailman for U.S. Post Office bins to hold vinyl...lol

www.presort.com

If you were adept enough to center a 45 Large Hole record on the platter without the adapter...

Because we were two busy getting milk crates from the dairy company when they delivered to schools :P

Gone on 1 a.m. "Milk Crate" runs at the Circle K/7-11 you drove by a day earlier and saw some!

Lost the original 45 adapter. I had to buy some cheap plastic ones form Radio Shack and hot glue a few ounces worth of BB's inside to add weight!

Placed a warped record between 2 sheets of glass and left in in the sun to flatten.

(for those in the United States):

Started out with a Realistic® mixer from Radio Shack™

ay
I try that but to no avail.
yep

*requires Florida sun.

ay
I'm in Texas but both times I tried it was not the best of days for sun.
yep

OR - used rolled up scotch tape to stick that 45 to a 12" so you could also scratch with it

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I think we have a winner....

hahaha. This

Makin two trips to a gigs...one for crates and yhe other for speakers n amps...lol

Had to have multiple fans on amps to keep them from overheating & owned an echo chamber as your only sound effect.

Yes.
Battery operated and no cross-fader

ay
trunk full of dj equipment, front passenger and back seats full of speakers in a 4 door car.
yep

Wait, this changed?

ay
got a truck now. Need a trailer though.
yep

Better than trying to fit it all in your hatchback and blowing out your rear window because you tried to close the hatch with a little too much force while your sub wasn't fully loaded. (NH/NM)

Pretty much the sole incident that led me to buying an SUV.

Never did that but had to leave the hatchback open/cracked and drive home because it wouldn't fit right after some drinks. Little did I know it sucked CO/gas fumes in the car and I end up falling asleep and glancing the center wall on the freeway and blowing a tire.

Unpacking in the middle of winter on the side of a freeway in Michigan to change a flat at 3am in the morning isn't very fun....

ay
wwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Friends... how many do us have them...
Seriously if you would have called me and we were in the same city I'd help you out. That is not a position to be in due to the dangers involved.
yep

Damn yeah, that sounds like a bad situation that could have been a lot worse.

Funny enough my incident happened after a few drinks too. I should know better than to trust my depth perception at that point. Only reason I tried to close it was because I was going back inside to party with some friends. If I were leaving right after the gig I probably would have done the same thing as you.

Ended up hooking up with one of the girls there though so it was totally worth it.

I'm still in the 2 door hatchback club; I got into the habit of snapping a couple of phone pics of how I have everything packed in before I leave (I have a few different configurations that are all loaded equally tightly but with different arrangements).

ay
Tetris
yep

Reminds me of someone on here who had a Prius fully loaded with a mixer, two tt's, stands, a table, 15" tops, and more.

LMAO. This EXACT situation happened to me in a Mazda MX-3. Everything fit JUST right before the show, afterwards I must have had the tops sitting an inch farther back or something... cuz it certainly LOOKED the same lol. Shut the window and the whole thing spidered. Thank God for the tint that was on it and at least kept it mostly together while I got home.

Learned the hard way that back glass on an MX-3 is neither common nor cheap. Ended up swapping out the whole hatchback lid instead - but from then on I was rolling with a teal hatch on a red car. GHETTO.

I use a Volvo wagon or a Pathfinder for my shows now haha.

ay
smh maaan the dj struggle was/is real
yep

Haha, man I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who had this happen. And it's exactly like you said, before the gig everything fit just fine. The alcohol definitely didn't help with my Tetris-ing skills afterward though. It was a house party for some friends which is the only reason why I drank...don't drink during gigs anymore though, that's for sure.

Mine didn't spider, instead it just exploded into a million little shards everywhere. I remember walking back into the house and my friends were like "oh you packed up all your stuff" and I said "yup, everything's good!". They lived in a quiet neighborhood so I didn't think twice about leaving the gear exposed like that, but thinking back that was a real stupid move on my part. Again, alcohol influenced for sure. Rode home with a nice breeze on my neck the next morning though.

Thankfully I was able to tell the insurance company that some kids from the neighborhood were playing baseball in the lot across the street (I lived next to a school at the time) and a ball crashed through the window. They paid for 100% of the cost. Good thing too because it was one of those rear windows with the defrosters built right into it...not cheap either.

Glad to hear we both learned our lessons and got some proper vehicles. Haha.

ever recorded a new mix on a cassett tape then immediately loaded it into your boom box and strutted down the street for the homies to check it. (the mix, no homo)

LOL me too! Bought it from a dude in high school for $20.

I then proceeded to solder in an extra switch and RCA output to one of the channels to gain an extra input device... you know a SECOND tape deck!

Hell yeah did this one many times. You'd think I'd just remember to bring home my adaptors at the end of the previous night but.... well, a lot of the previous posts are about things going wrong due to alcohol as well!

insurancefraud.ytmnd.com

hahaha

bwahaha. That one's a classic.

-used a nickel or a dime on head shell to give it more weight
-jacked record from a radio station

Copied cassette tapes from the roller rink I worked at in high school.

penny.

"Borrowed" milk crates from a local grocery store for all of my records.

Pause tapes, stickers on your record...

Ha ha, this thread is classic. I had to laugh when I read the intro.

Haha. That's awesome. Poor Guile.

Went to the record store to buy a few records and ended up spending an entire paycheck...

^^ Make a nickel... spend a dime! ^^

I went ahead and got a 2nd job there for a while. Fueled my habit plus got wholesale pricing :).

Man, I remember one day, I walked into my local record store for a "quick" look, and noticed that someone from around the way, dropped off like 20 milk crates of classics....

I took the next day off of work and was there the next morning....for the entire day...the entire check....

Remember Upstairs Records bargains??

Hit play AND record on your portable cassette deck to record the hot songs off the radio you couldn't afford to buy (held up to your parents HIFI speakers).
I think I might have a "Cassingle" or two somewhere as well...