when did you first started to DJ and why.......

[gccradioscience]

I started being a DJ when I did part 15 broadcasting on a small electronic kit radio station. And then in 1995 I did one on another part 15 FM station using a local oscilator on a walkman. I always collected cassette tapes, and made mixed tapes over the years since then. I enjoy using a SSM-60 radio shack mixer playing CD's, mindiscs and tapes. I always had DJ software and I still run a part 15 station just for fun during the holiday season and I like to bring up remixes using store bought CD's, and tapes and minidiscs especially during Halloween and Christmas. I am planning on finally wanting to get a DJ MIDI controller and learn how to use it with Mixvibes software. I still buy alot of music even used and new CD's. DJing is something for me to do. Hopefully I might work as a mobile DJ or college radio DJ. Maybe LPFM.

[UncleVibes]

Cool, an experience of communication

[joebataz]

Returned to music after a 30 year sidetrack into IT. I played several instruments in high school and wound up playing bass in a small garage band. While I had the love of music the talent was lacking so I found myself touring with major acts (don't ask, there were too many) as a roadie/lighting designer. Did that for about 14 years until a smart alec RCA engineer handed me a parts manual when I said I was thinking of building a new controller. A few weeks later when I saw her I had a complete schematic of what I was thinking of and she asked how I got it. I told her I read the book she gave me. She got me into RCA Solid State and began my IT career. After working as a consultant through many east coast technology and financial corporations I reached a point where the IT industry was making me crazy and destroying my health. After 9-11 (yes, I got to watch the towers come down from 10 blocks away) my company wanted a data center out of New York and I moved to Arizona. I worked a couple of more years and had enough with IT so I took early retirement. To keep from being bored I start playing around with LED technology and found myself with a small lighting system which has grown considerably into the system I now use. Seems like I DO have a natural talent, mixing lights and video with music. So my business is growing and my health has gotten considerably better. Lost 40 pounds, 5 inches from my waist and at 64 I look 40 ish.

Joe B

[HarriettFoley]

I've started back in middle school cuz I wanted to be awesome and was obsessed with The Prodigy. Can't stop since those days

[Blackbrook]

cuz I wanted to be awesome

[BennyB]

I wanted to started DJing for a lond time (since I was 17), but I had no money to buy a gear.
I love music, so much, then I heared, that there is something called VirtualDJ, and of course I didn't buy it (Torrent....).

My first hardware next to my laptop keyboard was a Mixvibes U-Mix44 Soundcard, and later on a simple 2channel mixer, which I rocked with for a lond time
Meanwhile I got the chance to play in a party while the DJ was having a brake taking a dump and drinking something strong...
That stuff was a pair of CDJ100 players... I haven't played CDs bofer, but they seemed so natural after the software, that was when I wanted to get a controller.

Then I met SylMV on Musicmesse 2011, and since then I've been a Baad-Baad boy :P

[Olove]

Actually can't say, how and when I started to DJ, I just remember me, mixing casettes back in the early '80s, with 2 casette players. In the 90's I tried to mix with a recordplayer and a few techno records. The record player "of course" had no pitch control, so I used a chock under the turntable to slow down the bpm.
Had the chance to DJ in a Club nearby, but wasn't ready then, cause I am pretty heavy handed with records and CD's.

In 2000 I started to use mp3 and a tiny little program called "acoustica mp3 audio mixer". A very nice tool to cut mp3 and wav files and maybe mix them - you can change the tempo of the tracks, adjust the pan and the volume. Thats where I did my first remixes with.
Never had the Idea to be a DJ until I had the chance to use "MixVibes Producer" at a friends. Did a few mixes, friends seemed to like it...tried other software and decided to get myself U-Mix Control Pro 2 when I realized, I won't get any farther without hardware. That's the best decision (and actually the last) I made in 2013.

Sorry...got to go. The mixer is calling me.

[Munkeycop]

Great topic idea.

I originally got into the idea of DJing via my Dad who was a mobile DJ (I saw was, he still is. He's pushing 65 and still has residency in a bar where he lives along with a few mobile gigs here and there). I always liked the idea of mixing records together which was probably realized when the Megabass records came out in the late 80's/early 90's. Here's a sample...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpltmX80vGo
Through the early 90's me and my mates were into rave music (this is the UK remember) and there were always mix-tapes going around from DJ's like Carl Cox, Slipmatt, Mickey Finn via from events like Fantazia and Dreamscape. Listening to these I would imagine in my head how the records were getting mixed (no Youtube back then to just go and look it up).
I started buying 12" records in preparation for the day when I would get turntables. The day would come in the summer of 1994 when after 8 weeks of working my first weekend job in a supermarket I was able to buy some belt-drive turntables (called Pro 150's) and a SoundLab mixer. They were pretty horrible but by learning to mix on bad decks I was able to then mix on any other turntable I came across (seeing as any other turntable in existence was an improvement).
So fast forward a few months and I landed a New Years gig at a local lively bar purely because they hadn't booked anyone. They were shocked when I turned up to work (I was 16 at the time). I ended up working there frequently for the next 5 years right up until the week before I moved away to a larger town.
I've been DJing it ever since, always as something on the side to supplement the main income. For the last few years I've been out of the loop following a residency that ended abruptly (I was undercut by another DJ) but since picking up Cross DJ and a Pro Mix 2 I've been working on a new approach away from the house music that I've been playing for so long.

[Robredz]

A long time ago when Vinyl was king and CD newish, I was one of if not the first to use CD back in the day,when the need for a Transit over an Escort was to carry all the records, now I run twin CD along with a laptop. What is great is that I can carry the equivalent of a van full of vinyl on a USB stick. I started DJing because I enjoyed the thrill of entertaining, working with bands, and the buzz of the business I still do.