Some DJs adopt the title 'DJ' as part of their names (e.g., DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Qbert, DJ Shadow and DJ Yoda).

In hip hop, rappers and MCs use these beats to rap over. In hip hop music, DJs may create beats, using percussion breaks, basslines and other musical content sampled from pre-existing records. DJs also create mixes, remixes and tracks that are recorded for later sale and distribution.

DJs typically perform for a live audience in a nightclub or dance club or a TV, radio broadcast audience, or an online radio audience. Originally, the word 'disc' in 'disc jockey' referred to gramophone records, but now 'DJ' is used as an all-encompassing term to describe someone who mixes recorded music from any source, including vinyl records, cassettes, CDs, or digital audio files stored on USB stick or laptop. DJs may also use a microphone to speak to the audience effects units such as reverb to create sound effects and electronic musical instruments such as drum machines and synthesizers. DJ software can be used with a DJ controller device to mix audio files on a computer instead of a console mixer.

Mixers are also used to pre-listen to sources of recorded music in headphones and adjust upcoming tracks to mix with currently playing music. DJs often use specialized DJ mixers, small audio mixers with crossfader and cue functions to blend or transition from one song to another. This can involve aligning the beats of the music sources so their rhythms and tempos do not clash when played together and to enable a smooth transition from one song to another. This enables them to blend tracks together to create seamless transitions between recordings and develop unique mixes of songs. ĭJs commonly use audio equipment that can play at least two sources of recorded music simultaneously. DJs may adopt the title 'DJ' in front of their real names, adopted pseudonyms, or stage names. Originally, the 'disc' in 'disc jockey' referred to shellac and later vinyl records, but nowadays DJ is used as an all-encompassing term to also describe persons who mix music from other recording media such as cassettes, CDs or digital audio files on a CDJ, controller, or even a laptop. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile DJs (who are hired to work at public and private events such as weddings, parties, or festivals), and turntablists (who use record players, usually turntables, to manipulate sounds on phonograph records). DJ workplace in a nightclub, consisting of three DJ-CD-Players (top), three turntables for vinyl records and a DJ mixerĪ disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience.

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