Vinyl DJ's most fundamental skill (Cue & Start Tutorial)

How to get started with turntables as a DJ, a primer on Cueing and Starting with a bonus skill thrown in.

[@samuelgarrod8327]

Quality slipmats are essential. 👌

[@wmka]

Searched for "cue vinyl". This is first in the list. Thank you and have a good one.

[@DjPhaseFour]

Glad I could help, cheers.

[@nrscroller]

HI, I work parttime at an FM station and we have STanton turntables and I know how to cue, but I am going to do some dj shows for our senior center and am gonna use my old JVC table and also, if I am only hooked up to one of those pa amps I got off amazon. how can I hear my cueing up? We have a cue switch on the console so I can cue a record that way, just curious as to what to do.

[@DjPhaseFour]

You would need a small mixer with cueing, Gemini makes a few that are fairly small and not too expensive. Just make sure the mixer has phono input if your table requires it.

[@BunkerRoma156]

TOP

[@joaofezasvital8521]

hello mate, nice video. sometimes I see some people mixing and always gets me wonder. when you're cueing you only grab the record trought the slipmat, you never bring the whole motor with it right? is it ok to do so cause sometimes it looks like people bring the whole thing with them

[@joaofezasvital8521]

I hope you get what I'ms saying, sometimes it feels like the turntable is not spinning, that the person cueing brings the whole plat with the record instead of bringing only the record and slipmat back and forth

[@DjPhaseFour]

No, the platter is still spinning under the slipmat. You do not want to stop the platter with the motor on, though doing so briefly isn't really a big deal. Because of the strobe dots it can look sometimes like the platter stops briefly also.

[@joaofezasvital8521]

great answer, thank you very much

[@d.j.eighties7918]

Since Tech 12's are magnetic driven you can't hurt them

[@irinadumitru9088]

Hi,I started djing on cds a long time ago but I always wanted to be able to play on vynils...and it seemed difficult...I watched many tutorials but in this one you explained it so very well and simply...I got both techniques which it s awesome!

[@Fonkemman]

Does it "hurt" the motor/turntable? (I mean cueing/stopping it manually). Is it possible in a Technics SL-D2? Also, when do you switch the mixer to put your cue on this turntable or the other. 😅

[@DjPhaseFour]

The platter keeps right on going because the record is on a slip mat that is smooth on the bottom. You can do this with any turntable really though the torque of a direct drive makes it work better.

[@DjPhaseFour]

As for Cue, I use it sometimes on the incoming, sometimes on the outgoing. Sometimes on both, just depends on which record is louder and which record is more sensitive to being nudged. Songs with a lot of strings and high synths can give an audible blurp if you nudge or drag them so I would use the other record instead to get them matched back up.

[@Peter28399]

Does that damage the needle or refordv

[@DjPhaseFour]

The stylus is conical so it doesn't hurt to run it backwards, everything needs to be set up properly of course.

[@al-db4hm]

Thank you for this! I'm wondering if you can help me out with an issue I'm experiencing when trying to do this. When I find the beat to cue, and I am moving back and forth with my hand to catch the beat, I am finding that my stylus keeps jumping backwards to the outside of the record slightly. This throws off the positioning of the beat, and it is very frustrating and difficult to correct since it keeps jumping backwards every time I try to fix it. Any ideas as to why this may be happening?

[@DjPhaseFour]

Could be a couple things but assuming the stylus is balanced it's probably the spindle hole on the record itself, put the record on the platter and see if it shifts around at all if it does get a small piece of scotch tape (about 1/2 inch long and cut into about half the normal width) and insert it through the hole where it looks the most irregular. fold the tape back so it sticks on both sides of the label with the smooth part facing inward. Test the record again and see if it still shifts around, if it does repeat with a second piece of tape. Generally you will only need 1 or 2 pieces to correct the issue.

[@irinadumitru9088]

Omg. ...This is so frustrating...It happened to me so many times and I had no ideea what to do.....

[@Kirollus]

@@irinadumitru9088you're probably using a cart that isn't tracking too good - use ortofon concorde for better tracking

[@PeterShaw-lb9lt]

What is it with these so caiied professionals putting dirty fingers all over the playing surface all that skin and oil contamination

[@DjPhaseFour]

It's live and tactile, I don't handle my albums this way. Also I wash my hands and clean the records.