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introduction : vinyl : cd's : maintenance : fixing a warped record : Maintenance Equipment
If you own decks already, like your television you may notice layers of dust collecting on your turntable lids as the electricity driven equipment will act like a magnet to particles in the air. To keep your equipment dust free is important. Dust in your crossfade for example will mean it becomes stiff to use, the internal electrical connections may not work properly and you could find the sound doesn't completely cut out even though the fader is pushed over as far as it will go. This will also come with wear and tear but keeping your equipment clean will prolong its life and save you re-investing before you need to. At a guess, your decks are probably in your bedroom. You probably have a combination of TV, DVD player, video, games consoles, decks, stereo or hifi separates and several other things with plugs on them. All of these will attract dust when switched on. Should you find your dust magnets need a bit of a clean, dampen a lint free cloth with some water (ensuring it isn't dripping wet) and wipe any surfaces with this. Wet and electricity don't mix well. By lint free I mean don't use those yellow dusters for example as they will leave as much fluff as you remove I use those firm sponge kitchen wipes. Not the small washing up sponges but more like a 1cm thick sponge rectangular type used for wiping down kitchen surfaces or wiping the top of your cooker (or the one your may have seen your Mum/girlfriend use!). You can get four in a pack form Tesco for less than a quid. So I'm told...........(JOKE!) You may be wondering why we dampen the sponge/cloth in the first place. The reason is that any fluff or dust will stick to the cloth which can then be rinsed away. Using a dry cloth would mean you are simply pushing the dust off the deck lid, back into the air for it to settle again all over your equipment in the next few hours. Its a very simple task and quick to do but this also has an additional benefit when using the decks. Vinyl These days vinyl is becoming more and more expensive to buy. With the digital revolution now in full swing and more and more catalogue deleted vinyl tracks available through simple legal download sites more music is available to more people. If you choose to continue to buy vinyl you will notice if you haven't already that it becomes very expensive very quickly. You will want to be careful and look after what is essentially an investment. Once deleted unless these are re-pressed at a later date you will not be able to get them again. You've earned your money and spent it wisely. There is no reason why the records you have bought should not play perfectly in many years to come. When cueing a record the platter is moving beneath the recordas you hold it stationary. This friction between the vinyl and the slipmatt will a certain amount of static electricity which will give the vinyl itself a charge. Depending on your slipmatts this may be minimal or if like me you favour the Butter Rug V2.0's used for scratching, the only flaw with these is that every time you remove a record the slipmatt sticks to it and you have to peel it off and put it back on the platter! If your equipment is also clean and the air is relatively dust free your records should also stay fairly clean. Fluff covered equipment combined with the static build up will do nothing but attract dust onto your records. Dust in the grooves will cloud the clarity of sound you will get through the stylus on play back and potentially can damage it over time. Remember those crackly old records your parents had that clicked and popped all the way through them? That's probably due to them being handled incorrectly,using an old overly used stylus or the fact that they have never been cleaned. Most likely is a combination of all the above. Simple maintenance can help reduce these effects.
There are several cleaning solutions for your record. There is the dry clean method which involves a brush with a plastic handle on it which can be bought for a couple of pounds from HMV. The carbon fibre brushes are charged with static electricity so when the vinyl is rotated the soft bristles of the brush press into the grooves and the static electricity acts like a magnet cleaning it of dust and dirt. There are methods of using liquids to clean your records but for the love of god do not use anything like washing up liquid and a wet cloth. The last thing you want to do is leave a film of detergent on your records which can eat away at the surface and certainly don't use anything especially chemical cleaners that could cause abrasion and damage the surface of your vinyl. You can buy vinyl cleaning solution from any specialist record shop or most audio hifi shops. A simple Goggle will help you here, although due to the price and the quantity you get for it you can make up your own solution. I have seen several different "recipes" for this solution which I won't go into details on. Its not my own work, I've never tried it but at least you now know it is easy to find and you can decide whether you wish to try it for yourself. Personally, I find a good old tin of lighter fluid is a good way to clean your tunes. Some people say if will leave a film on the record as i mentioned for the washing up liquid above but I have never found this to be the case and has cleaned unplayable records. Should you do this I won't accept responsibility for any damages. I'm saying this works for me and has caused me no issues at all. So why lighter fluid? Its cheap, readily available, easy, quick and any excess on the record will evaporate off the surface of the record. When done you can then give is a quick wipe over with some distilled water to ensure there is no residue left behind.
Using lighter fluid Run a soft brush over your slipmatt to remove any dust of any particles of dirt that may have collected over time. You could use a hoover if you wanted which would probably be easier. Secondly open a window, or several if possible. If you are doing more than a couple of records at any one time you need to do this outside where is is well ventilated. Breathing in lighter fluid fumes will not do you any favours on the general health and especially on the headache front. We will for the sake of this assume you are only doing one or two. Place the vinyl onto the deck ensuring the slipmatt is in first place. No need to power the deck up so leave it switched off. There is no point fighting the natural working mechanism and causing unnecessary stress on the motor as you clean your vinyl. Get a lint free cloth and manually push the platter round at about the same speed as it would rotate if it was switched on and playing. Hold the lighter fluid and squirt a continual small steady stream from near the the edge of moving your hand towards the middle to the middle and back towards the edge all as the record spins. If it slows whist you are doing this gently push the platter to keep it rotating. Continue this back and forth movement four or five times for one vinyl rotation until your liquid meets the original start point. Stop squirting as you don't want to drown it!! Get your lint free cloth and fold it a few times so it is thick but is long enough when laid on the vinyl to reach the from the centre to the edge. With very gentle downward pressure hold the cloth stationary with it touching the vinyl. Keeping your hand stationary again push the platter round by the nobbly metal edge so it rotates under the cloth. Push the record round for a few complete rotations until the lighter fluid has all disappeared. This will be enough to remove finger prints off the surface and get any dirt out of the grooves. A few practice runs will mean you get the right amount of fluid so GO EASY TO START. You can always do it again if it isn't enough. Drowning your record won't help and could cause more problems than is solves. Excess solution could wash anything on hte surface deep into the grooves which is more difficult to get out. You should always have clean hands when handling records to prevent fingerprints etc. If you are in a club this is pretty much impossible as the humidity itself will mean your hands will be naturally warm, so this can't be prevented. At least you now know how I clean mine and done little and often is a job definitely worth doing. Summary Dust is bad, cleaning is good. Preventative measures are the best bet. You know those anti-static sleeves the records come in. Best to use them as this will prevent them holding static whilst stored. All you need to do is put your records away as you finish mixing them. I know you are keen to get on with the next mix but in years to come you will wish you had been a tad more careful. Doing this simple task will prevent scratches, dust build up and other things that can happen when they are left lying about. Someone else deciding your deck space is a tip so they tidy it up for you putting all the wrong records in the wrong sleeves. You may get all into your mixing and forget you've stood a record up behind you against the wall. This is potential for standing on it, kicking it, or generally knackering it when your mobile goes off. I speak from experience here, and try to be vigialnt if you are playing out too. Nothing worse than pulling a sleeve to find it has the wrong record in it If you want to be really picky and for home use you could have a cloth handy to wipe each record before or after you mix it but its not something (somewhat over the top I think) you'd want to do with every mix. You may to start with but you will slack over time. Just remember you are DJing not cleaning but small measures will prolong the life of your records and equipment!
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