Friday Roundup: Record Store Day And The Timeless Magic Of Vinyl

In the second of our new Friday series, we’re sharing some of the articles that we’ve found most inspiring online this week, to save you the bother of trawling around the web looking for them yourself! (You can still catch up on last week’s links here.)

This week, a very personal piece about what vinyl means and why it has a place alongside MP3s, some common-sense advice on why it’s sometimes OK to not be doing anything when you’re DJing, and the first of what looks set to be a useful three-part tutorial on using Traktor DJ on the iPad.

1. Record Store Day And The Timeless Magic Of Vinyl – Whether you’re a digital DJ who’s never owned vinyl, or a vinyl DJ who’s turned digital, this personal account of a trip to a record store on Record Store Day a week or so ago, brought to us by Mark Settle over on DJ Worx, should be a good read for you. While he’s definitely got one foot in the future, Mark also shows why for him, having a foot in the past is a good thing too… Read more
2. Value-Added Mixing: When To DJ More And When To Do Less – While it explains a lot of stuff that you’ll realise soon enough if you DJ out, we do like the way Ean Golden in this DJ Tech Tools article has highlighted performance areas where DJs alone can shine; DJing, as he rightly points out, is something separate from production, and the two complement each other; truth is there are real DJ skills to be learned that are nothing to do with being able to produce music. Read more
3. Native Instruments Traktor DJ For iPad Tutorial Pt 1 With Endo – You’ll have to see past the Dubspot promo stuff, but once you do Endo presents a well-filmed and nicely paced talkthrough of Traktor DJ for iPad, the best bit being it’s the first of three parts. If you wondered what all the fuss was about, this may help to explain why for many people, this app is what iPad DJing has been waiting for, not least because it can act as a companion for “big” Traktor on your laptop… Read more

What are your views on any of these articles? Do you have a “must read” you’ve found online this week that you’d like to share with us? Please share your thoughts in the comments.