Erstwhile DJ days

- 3 minutes read - 498 words

Update 02 Jun 2022

I’m working on reuploading and relinking the mp3s, stay tuned… OK, they’re reuploaded. Be warned that the first track says it’s 21min and it’s only about 10. I tried to snip the extraneous bits on the command-line, but maybe I should use an actual editor to do that. Otherwise, the files should work just fine.

So I was posting on Mastodon about this recently. Back in about 2000 or 2001, my parents were kind enough to get me a DJ setup: two turntables (no microphone) and a mixer. I ended up buying a bunch of vinyl from our local indie shop, House of Records, and loved spending time there. I even bought some vinyl in the UK back in 2000 when I was there and took it all the way home with me.

That said, I recorded a number of the mixes I did on these turntables. I had a portable MiniDisc player/recorder back then. I loved the idea of having one, so I got that as a gift at some point as well. I recorded a lot of albums onto discs, along with mp3s from my mp3 scene days, so it was fun. But it was also useful for recording these DJ mixes, since I could run a cable from the mixer into the MD recorder.

I remember sharing these with friends back in the day. They are not great. I thought they were at the time, but they’re really not. I had a lot of Eminem, Dr. Dre, DJ Shadow, and UNKLE in my collection at the time, so most of these mixes involve those artists. Some use DJ Rectangle’s “Ultimate Ultimate Battle Weapon” vol. whatever, too, for samples, but that’s the exception. I was looking for language-learning records back in the day too, since those are good for samples, but didn’t have a whole lot in the way of that. I think I had a Russian record maybe?

Most are just the track with some scratches over it. I never learned how to beat juggle or any of that sort of thing, so it’s just me messing about. “Organ Donor Megamix” is literally just DJ Shadow’s “Organ Donor” and “Organ Donor (Extended Overhaul)” on different turntables and mixed.

Track 12 and the single “Double Homicide in the Ghetto” have really cringey voice intros from around 20 years ago. I’ve left them in because why not? It’s a weird time capsule.

Nonetheless I had fun with these and it’s a weird blast from the past for sure. Hopefully you get some enjoyment out of them.

Here’s a zip file, if desired.