Steventon - DJing For Dummies

DJing For Dummies, 2nd Edition

by John Steventon

DJing For Dummies, 2nd Edition

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-0-470-66372-1

ISBN: 978-0-470-97074-4 (ebk), ISBN 978-0-470-66404-9 (ebk), ISBN 978-0-470-66405-6 (ebk)

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell and Bain Ltd, Glasgow.

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About the Author

John Steventon, also known as Recess, was transformed from clubber to wannabe DJ by BBC Radio 1s 1996 Ibiza Essential Mix. Fascinated by what he heard, he bought a second-hand pair of turntables, his best friends record collection, and started to follow the dream of becoming his newest hero, Sasha.

With no other resource available when he first started DJing, John would take notes, writing articles to refer to if ever he felt like he needed help. Joining the Internet revolution meant 15 megabytes of free Web space, and as hed already written these notes about learning how to DJ, John thought it would be good to share that information with the rest of the world wide web. He created the Recess persona, and expanded the site as his knowledge grew. Originally a small, basic Web site, www.recess.co.uk has grown over the years both in size and reputation, to become one of the foremost online resources for learning how to DJ the place where newbie DJs turn to.

Having developed a career as a TV editor at the same time, now heading up post-production at a TV production company, he has scaled down the time spent DJing in clubs, but Recess is always online to help the new DJ overcome those first few hurdles, and offer advice to those who need that extra bit of reassurance.

John is 31, plays way too much squash and poker, is married to Julie, and they both live together with their daughter, cats and a smile on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my Dad, Richard Steventon, who Im sure would have got a kick out of seeing his son write a book.

To Julie: my best friend, my wife, my smile; without whom Id be half a person. You are my lobster. And for this second edition, a new addition; to Jaime Steventon, I still cant believe we made a person. I cant wait to know you.

Authors Acknowledgements

My list of acknowledgments is surprisingly long, but these are the people without whom this book would not have been inspired, created, or nearly as long as it ended up!

Thanks to Graham Joyce, who sold me his record collection and started me on this journey, who got me my first break in a roundabout way, and took me to the place that I eventually met my wonderful wife. My sister, Pamela Tucker, who claims if it wasnt for her, I wouldnt have made friends with Graham and is therefore responsible for everything good in my life! My mum, Mary Steventon for being my Mum and for helping with the text accuracy in this book (even if she had NO idea what it all meant). My uncle, David Steventon, for sowing the seed that maybe people would find my writing interesting; my lovely in-laws, Jim (sorry, Sir), Margaret (the lasagne queen), and Vicki Fleming for entertaining Julie while I spent months writing this book; Carol Wilson for making sure I wasnt signing away the rest of my life; and Lucky, Ziggy, and Ozzy for being my writing companions.

Ian, Jason, Nichol, Al, Gus, Jonny, Dave, Gary, Tony, Iain, and the other poker people for letting me blow off steam until 7 in the morning trying to take their money. All the staff and DJs at what used to be Caf Cini in Glasgow where I got my break as a DJ. Paul Crabb for inspiration and distraction (I know, I still cant believe I wrote a book before you!) and Flora Munro for work deflection and a hell of a cup of coffee.

This book wouldnt have had half the info in it if it wasnt for the following people helping me out and kindly granting me permission to reuse images of their gear: David Cross at Ableton, Adam Peck at Gemini, Stephanie Lambley for Vestax images, Sarah Lombard at Stanton, Tara Callahan at Roland, Mike Lohman at Shure, Sarah OBrien at PPLUK, Carole Love at Pioneer, Grover Knight at Numark, David Haughton at Allen & Heath, Wilfrid at Ortofon, Justin Nelson at NGWave, Ryan Sherr at PCDJ, Laura Johnston at Panasonic, Jeroen Backx at Freefloat, all at Etymotic, NoiseBrakers, Sony, and Denon, Mark Davis from Harmonic-mixing.com, Yakov V at Mixedinkey.com for his help with the Harmonic Mixing info, everybody on all DJing Internet forums for letting me bug them for the past eight months, all the visitors to my Recess Web site, and everyone else who has touched this book in any way I cant mention everyone, but thank you all.