Customer Reviews

Turntable Technique: The Art of the Dj

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book is an awesome reference for the new DJ. It comes with 2 albums that are exactly the same, so as you can learn to beat-match and scratch properly. It has alot of good tips and pointers, and really is a great help. My only criticism is that the info on beatmatching is a bit limited, as this book is for the budding scratcher, and it has heaps of info on scratching. Maybe in the next publication Stephen Webber will remeber to put down that the easiest way to get the beats together is to listen to the bass drum. Other than that, this book is great, and I think Stevie boy has done a good job. DJ Zanshin (Australia)

Turntable Technique is the answer to most beginners who are shy, and don't know who to go to for help, and also, is just a good textbook for any beginning DJ or Turntablist. It has interviews with several Turntablist gurus including Mixmaster Mike. It provides good insight on how to start out, and will allow many spinners (DJs) to progress from there. There really is no equvalent to this that I have seen, and I think this is a really great product. WAY TO GO!

I began scratching two years ago using this book, and progressed faster through the basics than any of my friends who started at about the same time. Now I use this book to teach others. It breaks things down into easy to follow and clear descriptions, something that no video I own bothers to do.

The interviews are also dope; QBert, Swamp, Mixmaster Mike, Craze, Atrac, and Kuttin Kandi all have interesting stories to tell.

There is also a short history of the hip-hop DJ, which is stuff everyone should know if you're going to DJ.

The two pieces of vinyl that come with the book have some great samples for scratching and two cuts for beatmatching.

I especially enjoy teaching with this book, it makes it easy for my students to make progress between lessons. It also includes some traditional music notation, which gives me a clear vocabulary to talk to my students with.

If you're starting out this book is excellent.

It works!

I have probably all of the books on DJing that are out there, and this is my favorite. It comes with two 12" records that contain a wide band of white noise (like a continuous "Ahhhhh" sample) that really help you ease into skratching. I've been DJing for years now, and I still use that track.

There is also a very cool acid jazz track which has a Miles Davis muted trumpet vibe going which you can beat match with an R&B style track---I never could get the hang of beat matching until I bought this book/record set. This really made it easy.

The other technique this book helped me with better than any other source I could find is the crab scratch. The exercises break it down into very easy to follow steps, and by practicing slowly and speeding it up a little at a time, my crabs are now even and clean.

I think maybe this book throws off some people who are expecting it to read like a copy of Source magazine---it's refreshingly free of trendy lingo and the silly posturing that often accompanies the DJ scene. It also treats the turntable as a musical instrument, which some DJs still have a problem with. It helped me a lot, and like I said, I still use the records--there are a lot of good synth and spoken word samples on them as well!

I've been a club and mobile DJ for over 12 years, but I've never gotten into scratching, even though I love the way it sounds. This book made it easy, and gave me some background on where the artform came from. The records gives you useful samples, in fact I use them every night in my mobile and club sets to sprinkle in some cuts and stabs. This goes over huge, especially at my high school and college gigs.

Highly recommended, will get you started in no time.

I received a pair of turntables and a mixer for Christmas last year, and this book got me off my rear end and got me practicing. I mastered beat matching in one night.

The book is very easy to follow. The records that come along with it are great, too.

I heard the author on NPR and he was cutting Richard Nixon saying "I am not a crook," which is right off of the records that come with this book!

I also learned about Grandmaster Flash, Qbert and Craze from the interviews and history section.

Well worth the price!

Turntable technique is invaluable to any aspiring DJ! You can learn all the scratching techniques like crabs, flares, transformers etc. in amazing detail! I absolutely love it and use it to refine my skillz. The vinyl provided also has some sick white noise and samples to scratch with! Also check out his other book DJ Skills, where you get even more in depth with the art of Djing and its history!

The records and book are designed for absolute beginners to DJ'ing. If you don't know anything at all about turntables, this is the book set for you. Otherwise, just go ahead and buy normal battle records and watch battle videos.

Personally, I was not new to DJ'ing, but started using turntables only recently. However, I grew out of this book and the included records pretty quickly, so it wasn't worth the money for me to buy this.

I found this book totally useless. It's thin, pretty much only talks about scratching, and the little information it contains anyone who is even thinking of learning how to DJ already knows.

There is nothing in here to help someone become a DJ. It's pretty much all focussed on scratching and even then misses the mark.

If you want to scratch *maybe* this book as something for you (I doubt it). If you want to be any other kind of DJ, don't even think this book will help.

The things that this should but does not include:

- A detailed section on beat matching. I think the book spends a whole paragraph on it.
- How to use a mixer. There is absolutely *nothing* in this book about equalizing.
- The various ways of mixing one song into another.

I could go on and on ...

Stay away from this book. It look like it was written for pre-schoolers and even the way the author writes mkes it seems like he's tryig to teach six year old kids ...

What a waste ...

This looks like a really cool product. I grew up playing drums, and I think learning the turntable as an instrument rather than spending hours playing around until I find something that "sounds right" is a great idea.

Unfortunately, Amazon could not deliver this product to me in good shape. I tried 2 times, and both times the records were warped. I'm going to try to purchase it from Berklee press directly - perhaps they will know how to wrap and send records.