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Vinyl mode and the centre LED on a CD deck

Lesson Beginner Stage 1: Your First Setup November 2010

On YouTube this video is called Vinyl mode, Centre led on Pioneer CDJ-900 in relation to a 12" single

What this lesson teaches

A short lesson that draws a line between two things that look unrelated, and the connection is worth making.

The sticker on the record

Look at a scratch DJ's vinyl and you will often find stickers on the label, or a line drawn outward from the centre with a marker.

Each one marks a position. At the point where that sticker passes the stylus, something begins - the start of a sample, a break, a particular beat. The DJ found it by ear once, and then marked it so they never have to find it by ear again.

That is all it is: a visual index to something audible.

The ring of lights

The row of LEDs around the platter of a CD player does the same job.

It shows where you are in relation to the cue point, continuously, as the track plays. Glance at it and you know how far you have to go - exactly as you would glance at a sticker approaching the stylus.

His point is that the two are equivalent. A 12-inch with a marker on it and a player with a position display are solving one problem in two eras.

Why this is worth noticing

Because it corrects an assumption beginners make: that cueing is purely a listening skill, and that watching the equipment is somehow cheating.

It is not. DJs who are fast at finding their place are using their eyes as well as their ears - the label coming round, the lit segment, the waveform on a screen. The ear decides what is right; the eye is how you get back to it quickly, under pressure, without having to listen through twenty seconds of track to find a point you already know.

So mark your records, set your cue points, and look at the lights. All three are the same habit.

Contents of the video

Right guys, now in this video I want to show you the similarity between a 12 inch single and this guy here. Now this is the 900 and that is a 12 inch single. Now first of all you'll notice a black line there. Now let's imagine that this particular piece of vinyl was used for scratching purposes. Why will they put stickers there, there and there? Well in essence what's happening is where the sticker is at that precise point just above the sticker, that will be the area where you've got say the beginning of a sample or a scratch or a funky break or a beat or something that makes them think yeah I want to use that precise sound full stop. Alternatively quite often you'll see a line like so. Just rubbed it out right. Okay now the reason for that is quite often at the beginning of the track

The DJ tutorial by Ellaskins, The DJ is bringing it back that way. So in other words, that is almost a way for the DJ to know where the sound starts. Now if we have a look at this guy here. Think about it now. That's where the sound starts but if I press play, by the way the track I'm using is Al Nafish, a track entitled The Soul. Press play. So it's exactly the same. So what we need to look at here is the fact that not only are we listening, what we need to be doing is we need to be looking at this. So we have the sound and we also have a visual representation of where the track is in relation to the beginning of the actual sound. So let's say you're a scratch turntablist and you're using these guys. Of course logically then, think about it.

So basically, that there is exactly the same as that there. Practice and enjoy.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.

This video is part of

The stages are the way through

Below this line is the back catalogue, newest first. Useful for browsing, but it is not a course - the videos are in the order they were filmed, not the order to learn them in. Work the stages instead: each one assumes the one before it.

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