How pioneering DJ Grandmaster Flash hacked together his first mixer

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/24/how-pioneering-dj-grandmaster.html

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And that, people, is a reason we need to revive vo-tech programs in high schools.

Education and skills for kids whose intelligence and learning style are hands on.

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I’ve heard a little bit about this before, though not in detail. Also around that era it was typical for musicians, engineers, etc to have to wire and/or build some of the studio electronics themselves, at least that’s my rough understanding from listening to Questlove talk about it in some interviews with older musicians.

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This is what makes America great.

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Can’t give this enough likes. :heart:

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Cool stuff.

There was a historical Hip Hop exhibit at the local museum a couple months ago called ‘Respect’; the installment featured all sorts of memorabilia, including Grandmaster Flash’s first turntables.

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Radio Shack!

Also, when he says “to the left” it’s the most Grandmaster Flash thing ever.

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Radio Shack sold a mixer in the eighties that had cueing switches for the turntables. His hack must have predated that. Perhaps he inspired them to add that feature!

I hacked two of those Realistic mixers together to make the mixer for my pirate station Radio Limbo in 1998.

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