History Of DJ Equipment

Introduction: 
Dj'ing has been around for a long time, many years back Dj'ing was created and from that day to today Dj'ing developed hugely, it developed with techniques, equipment, style, performance skills, software, music etc. The first few years when Dj'ing was created Dj's used equipment like vinyls to play the songs, they would have gaps between songs which was so different from how Dj'ing is performed in the modern days, in the modern days vinyl is hardly used and is not so simple to get and use, the modern Dj's use much more advanced decks that have mini vinyls on them and they have all sorts of specific software's on their laptops that helps them mix the songs into one another smoothly. In the olden days they would have two vinyl decks so if they would change songs they had to change the vinyl disk so it was much more manual in those days, now in the modern generation they have all the songs on the software and all they have to do is drag the songs into the right place and use the deck to mix the songs together smoothly.

Dj'ing also requires the right audience, because the audience need to enjoy the music the DJ is playing so a DJ could play for people that like house music or to other people that like pop/hip-hop music. Even though in most events or parties dj's tend to mix the genres to give dynamic to the set.

Start Of DJ:
In the year 1857 Leon Scott created a device called the Phonoautograph which was the first device to be able to record sound. After this a device called the Phonogaphic Cylinder was able to playback recorded sounds, this device was made by Thomas Edison. After this in 1906 there was a audio radio broadcast. At the year 1910 radio broadcasting was a normal part of life. In 1943 the first DJ party was thrown by Jimmy Savile, in this DJ party Jimmy Savile played jazz record for the guests. A few years after this DJ party happened Savile started using turntables so the music would play continuously, savile was the first man in DJ history to use turntables. So around this time this is where discoteque started happening and the first discoteque was opened in Paris in 1947.

1950's - 1960's:
In the 1950's in Kingston, Jamaica, promoters that called themselves DJ''s threw dance parties that were huge and these parties were in the streets, and the DJ''s would use huge PA systems to blast their tunes. Throughout the united states and Europe, discoteques were viral and were a big deal and everyone would get involved in one. The market got a new equipment which was known as the mixer and this mixer allowed DJ's to control their tunes. In 1969 Francis Grasso popularised beat matching and he would mix his songs so the dancing would never stop.

1970's - 1980's:
In 1973 DJ Kool Herc named himself the father of hip-hop and he would play jams at the huge block parties. DJ kool herc was the one that mixed two identical tracks together and at the same time, the technique was called 'break'. Around this time turntablism really grew in the DJ business and instead of DJ's picking songs and playing them they became artist's and musicians. They got influenced by other songs to create their own beats so people would enjoy. The disco era that came in 1970's was brought by hip-hop and electronic music being blended together. In 1975 the scratching technique was accidentally discovered by DJ Grand Wizard Theodore. Scratching is when the DJ moves the record up and down on the needle so it allows the sound to be warped.

House music was created in the 1980's at the warehouse club which was based in Chicago, house music was created by DJ's creating their own sound and experimenting. House music was disco inspired and also inspired by heavy electronic music. House music is a simple 4/4 beat which involves drum machines, samplers and a heavy bass line being used. Then a pure electronic noise known as techno was created by detroit. In 1985 theres was a huge event called the Winter Music Conference which involved all sorts of DJ's with all different styles coming together and comparing their techniques. From this event till now there is weekly ongoing parties which is known as the two day Ultra Music Festival which is held in miami.

1990's:
The scene in the early 1990's was raving and the choice of dance music was acid house. The popularity of these raves made DJ's famous and DJ's became well-known so they would have to perform/work in loads of different raves because raves became such a big deal and is now still an ongoing deal. At this time the equipment became more modern and digital so DJ's started using CD's and CD's became really popular and useful in the 1990's. The CD's helped with the creation of the MP3 format, another thing that developed was that electronic music transformed into other genres and new genres that were being made. Because of the huge development of equipment in time a new program was released this program was called Final Scrath this program allowed DJ's to use MP3 files on their turntables using special and more digital form of vinyl.

2000's:
In 2004 a program called serato was made and it hit the live stage. This program was made so DJ's could blend music together smoothly with MP3 formats. In 2006 the program had a mixer made for it so the process would be smoother. So now in the 2000's DJ's use MP3 formats on it's own and Djing is much more smoother with these programs and turntables, and vinyl disc became less used because of these programs being created to make the process for a DJ much easier. DJ's can still use Vinyls but it is expensive to get hold of them and harder then now in the 2000's.
In the new mixers created in the 2000's there is options to add effects and to change EQ'S which goes down to how the DJ want their set to sound like or how they want a specific song to sound like.

Here is an example of Old skills and how it used to sound like and the atmosphere of it. 

This is DJ craze in 1999 you can see in the atmosphere and quality of this video that is was in the olden times only about 13 years ago but from 13 years ago a lot has changed and developed. You can see he is using the old techniques of djing by using 2 vinyls and on the vinyls you can see he put white stickers on them for his Que points and in middle of both of the vinyls there is a EQ desk to control the sound and quality of it and adding effects to the sound. You can see in this video how he is changing loads of different vinyl records to change song or to a different sound and spoken word. And you can hear which vinyl is being played by the way he is mixing it and with his techniques you can hear when he stops one track and the other track from the other vinyl is being played. This technique of djing looks much more complicated because of all the changes of vinyl records being made and when he scratches is when its going back to certain Que points etc. This DJ set sounds more like DJ craze showing off his techniques from the start slowly bringing in the beat then 2:50 he brings the beat in and uses a lot of scratching skills to make the warped sound and to stop the beat and bring it back in. With the EQ mixer in the middle of both vinyls you can see and hear in this video that it controls the volume and that is how some of the techniques he is showing is able to be used.

Here is an example of a DJ set in the modern days. 

Here is the same DJ from the previous video DJ craze using traktor a program made for DJ's the difference from his other DJ performance is in this video you can see the mixer's are different, more digital and improved, there is a laptop where he has all the tracks loaded up and on the screen of the video you can see what is going on in the program, you can see he is using 2 of the same tracks but he set up the Que points in advance and set up the samples so he had an idea and a brief of what he wanted to achieve from the performance. He kept to his scratching but the scratching is not with vinyl is with the program tracktor which gives the same effect like vinyl. You can also see there are more buttons on the mixer on his right and our left and those buttons control the ques and overlaps the ques if set to either 1,2,4,6,8,16 or even to -1, -2 etc. When you set it to one of these settings of numbers it overlaps a certain point of the song your act and depending on the number you set it to it will overlap a short amount of the Que or a longer amount. In the middle there is the EQ mixer which did the same job like in the older performance but obviously more digital and easier to use.

There is one way to DJ but from the years it started with 2 vinyl records and a EQ mixer to a mixer with digital vinyls and EQ mixer and Que point mixer that comes with a program that is controlled with a laptop and on the laptop there is all your tracks. The difference between the two is with the vinyl techniques all the songs,samples, sounds were on separate vinyl records so the DJ's had to keep changing the records and put stickers on the records to know where their ques are. Now in the modern days through the years they created MP3 formats which could be transferred to a computer or laptop so now with a modern DJ they would load up all their tracks onto their laptop and they download a program then get a mixer that comes with the program so the mixer allows them to control their ques and EQ's, volume, effects, frequencies and had a digital version of vinyl so they could scratch and rewind and forward the tracks.

So if you would ask me i never experienced vinyl records but from learning from the 2 techniques i prefer the new modern DJ sets because it is more simple because of the tracks on the laptop all in one place safe and then using the mixer to change the EQ's and ques etc. So i would not want to use the vinyl technique because now a days it would be expensive to get all different songs on different vinyl records and having to change each record after another and finding the ques by putting stickers on the vinyl records to me that is too complicated. I strongly feel that Djing has become stronger and smoother because with the new programs and mixers the mixing through songs is smooth and controlled if known how to do it. But with the old techniques with vinyl's there would be a few stop and starts because of changing records all the time so it would not be as smooth. Also the quality would be better in the modern days because over the years equipment got stronger and better quality and the quality is still being improved now to this day. The life of a DJ is constantly improving and djing is well known and is very useful because of parties mostly but could be used for other events with music involved.

Bibliography:
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall09/bein_k/history.html
http://wkcphilrobinson.blogspot.co.uk/