Is this just learning to DJ on a laptop?

No. Vinyl Lab at Creators Campus starts on vinyl in a high-fidelity listening room, building a real relationship with the record before any digital mixing. DJ technique grows out of understanding where the music comes from.

Do students need music or DJ experience?

No prior experience is required for Vinyl Lab — only curiosity and a willingness to listen. Beat matching and mixing are taught from the ground up.

Where do students perform?

Vinyl Lab students who are ready play at The Drop, the Thursday-night music event on the De la Luz Soundstage; select students guest-DJ at Beyond Armour Yard on Race Street.

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Vinyl Lab

Start with the record. End on the stage.

Vinyl Lab is Creators Campus's music track. It starts on vinyl in a high-fidelity listening room and builds through eight weeks of musical history, DJ technique, and live performance — each week a different musical culture, ending with sets on the De la Luz Soundstage.

Vinyl Lab begins where music begins — with a record, a needle, and the decision someone made to press that exact sound into vinyl. In a high-fidelity listening room, Creators Campus students hear music the way it was meant to be heard, then build forward through history, technique, artistry, and live performance.

Each week of Vinyl Lab is organized around a distinct musical culture and the rhythmic tradition it produced — where the groove came from, who carried it forward, and what it became. Students don't just study that history; they learn to listen deeply, beat-match, build a mix, and read a room.

Every week, a working DJ joins Vinyl Lab as an artist-in-residence — not a guest lecture, a real working session. Students who are ready play live sets at The Drop, the Thursday-night event on the De la Luz Soundstage, and select students are invited to guest DJ at Beyond Armour Yard, the weekly outdoor/food truck gathering at the mural park down the block on the canal on Race St.

Classes

What you can take.

Each class runs as a week-long session. Open one to see what it covers and who teaches it — or filter by week to see what's offered when.

Week

Vinyl Lab

Week of Jun 22 · Afternoons · with Carlos REC McBride

Vinyl Lab is Creators Campus's music track — it starts on vinyl in a high-fidelity listening room and builds through musical history, DJ technique, and live performance. You learn to listen deeply, beat-match, build a mix, and read a room.

Each week centers on a distinct musical culture and the rhythmic tradition it produced, with a working DJ in the room as an artist-in-residence — a real working session, not a guest lecture. Students who are ready play live sets at The Drop on the De la Luz Soundstage.