quote:

Originally posted by Dirk W. Never stop the platter in order to cue up a record. The platter should always be spinning and the record should stop under your fingers if your slipmats are proper. If you stop the platter, you are fighting the turntable motor and will GREATLY decrease it's life.

I was always under the impression that because of the magnets on the platter and spindle that it wasn't really wearing the motor when you did (for those of you who don't know, the technics spin its platter with magnets on both the axel and belly of the platter that use their charges to move away from each other). Of course, I could be wrong.

___________________
NEW MIX [Feb/March 2008]

I think I'm understanding now. Yes, when you finally send your next record off, you want to keep the platter spinning, but when you are cue'ing up your next song, find the incomming point, then STOP the platter until you are ready to mix in. I don't know if other TA's do this, but when I'm trying to find the start point on a song, I plop the needle down a bit into the song, then backspin with the platter stopped until I hit the start point. Then I match beats up, stop the platter, backspin again to the start point and voila: Ready to mix in. When the time comes to drop the beat in, start the platter, grabbing the side of the vinyl with the platter spinning underneath, (Like has been said, good slipmats are a must.) Rock the beat back and forth and release when the time is right.

___________________
Blithe is a member of the Regressive Party.

Proud member of the Anti-Emo Adolescent White American Sulker Alliance... aka: "Quit crying f**ker and dance."

I think that most of these points are mentioned above, but I'll summarize anyway to clarify points.

First off, you NEVER want your platter to stop unless you are not actively Djing. The platters should never stop until the music stops--if not for the following reasions, then for what it means to be a DJ--never let the music stop.

Anyway, there are two main reasons that you don't want to stop the entire platter. First, I'll discuss this grinding sound. There are two types of turntables, direct drive and belt drive. To make a long story short, the grinding noise happens when you stop the platter on a belt-drive. This occurs because you are physically halting the motor and buring it out. With direct drive the magnetic field can "slip" so that the motor encounters resistance, but never does the motor actually STOP completely.

The other reason that you don't want to stop the physical platter is due to the startup delay. The platter can bring the record up to correct speed quicker by slipping above the moving platter until it's release, rather than the motor having to start the weight of the heavy platter and the record combined. You'll still need to push the record off a bit, but you just hold the vinyl over the first beat. You should be able to pull the beat back and forth under the needle so that you can count 1.2.1234 and release with a slight push to time the release so that it is phrasematched.


If you want to learn more about the specifics of beatmatching, here is a link if you want to read up. What I didn't mention (I'm second to last post) is that another reason that BD tables suck is due to belt wear, slippage and stretching etc.

___________________
When you dance, the DJ takes you on a journey, but he or she is usually not the focus of your experience at a club or festival or wherever you hear the music. Dancing is. Music is.

One thing i always heard whenever i was a Trainie on this board was use wax paper and i did and boom it really did help...Sometimes you have to get a little ghetto in the beginning

i like using waxpaper under my felt mats

___________________
Fortuna Favet Fortibus.