mp3 DJ-ing - recommendations

[eFestivals]

I've got both variable speed decks for both of vinyl and CD, so that I can mix stuff for my own pleasure.

Now that all of my collection is digitised, that seems a bit daft ... so I'd like to have a set-up I can use for playing mp3's.

I have no knowledge about what's out there, so i'm hoping that someone can recommend something, and hopefully a full solution....?

Thanks.

[The Nal]

Mate of mine uses Virtual DJ. I've had a couple of goes on it. Easy and hassle free.

Traktor is apparently one of the best though if you're going pro.

[eFestivals]

Mate of mine uses Virtual DJ. I've had a couple of goes on it. Easy and hassle free.

Traktor is apparently one of the best though if you're going pro.

do either of those have physical decks, or are they all done on-screen?

I've had a play with Virtual DJ (best part of 10 years ago now tho), and i can't say I was too impressed with trying to do it all on-screen.

[thegremlin_1999]

I believe mixxx has support for external decks but as I've not used it in that context I don't know for sure!

Either way, it's a freebie

[eFestivals]

I need someone to tell me everything, really.

I've just been googling, and discovered that what I'm meaning is a 'controller' and not physical decks .... but I'm still none the wiser of what are the features worth having, what's achievable with them, etc.

I need an idiots guide.

[The Nal]

Honestly have no idea. I've only had a prick about with Virtual DJ and it was all screen yeah.

[eFestivals]

I've had a bit of a read around the net, and feel i know a little bit more, but not loads.

I guess I'm going to have to start looking at controllers and their various features, think what i might be prepared to spend, and try and come up with a mix I'm happy with. Then get whatever software works with that controller.

In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions of which controller they think is good, and why, I'm all ears.

[thegremlin_1999]

Again, it's not something I really know about but a mate of mine was after Hercules ones when he was thinking of learning.

[eFestivals]

I spent a while looking at what's out there last night, and while i'm still a long way from having firmly deciding what I might buy, what I have discovered is that I need to be careful about what software works well with the controller.

In theory any software should work because the controllers are MIDI and the software is a MIDI controller, but some software comes with 'mappings' for particular devices so that the software on-screen looks the same as the controller.

As Nal says above, Virtual DJ and Traktor are two of the main software packages, and there's also Serato which appears to be in the same ballpark with a starter's version and then better 'pro' versions (and often comes bundled with some of the Pioneer stuff). I guess it would be wise to go for something like this, as it gives me an upgrade path for the future if I wanted t do that.

Some of the cheaper stuff comes with less popular software, tho from what I've read they're able to do the job pretty well too.

You can buy controllers from the likes of Maplins from about £40, tho some (particularly the cheap stuff) doesn't come with built-in soundcards, meaning that you'd then need a 2nd soundcard on the computer used with the controller.

I'm a bit drawn towards the Pioneer controllers, just because I've always wanted CDJ CD decks but could never justify the big spend for the top-end kit, and from their budget range it looks like both of the Pioneer DDJ-WeGO and PIONEER DDJ-SB are well respected bits of kit at around £200 ... I'm not really sure if I can justify that spend at the mo, tho.

[eFestivals]

Stick with vinyl and cds. Don't become another soulless entity!!!

I am aware this is no help to you whatsoever.

I've no intention of ditching my vinyl and CD decks. In fact, the idea is (once I have some office space again) to have it all setup so that any of the parts can be used together (I've not digitised my vinyl).

But .... i'd like to try some mixing some reggae, and it just goes wrong too often when i try using those decks - I blame the fact that the timing isn't steady with non-computerised music (tho it's probably my abilities really) - and so I'm hoping that a smarter system than me might help me achieve something that doesn't make people want to leave the room.

It's just a toy for myself, for a bit of fun - but I don't want something so basic that I quickly find myself wishing I'd bought something better.

[windy_miller]

Amon Tobin used to use Final Scratch. It used real vinyl records which contained an encoded time signal. A special tuntable/needle was used to convert the time signal on the records to MIDI signals that could be used to control the digital mixing.

I always thought it sounded like a really good idea (you get to mix digital files using real vinyl), but it seems they don't make it any more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Scratch

Edited October 7, 2014 by windy_miller

[eFestivals]

I've seen that there's stuff like that to use with both of vinyl decks and CD decks, tho I've decided to swerve that sort of thing to use dedicated mp3 kit instead.

[WS_Jack_III]

You can buy decks that work with Virtual DJ and assign the controls as you wish i think.

I stopped using it ages ago and never had decks for it. Use Ableton live now with an APC40 midi controller which is kinda a kooky way of doing it but fun as hell when you pull it off. Gonna get a launchpad next to assign extra effect clips.

Edited October 7, 2014 by III

[eFestivals]

You can buy decks that work with Virtual DJ and assign the controls as you wish i think.

yeah, i think that's right - tho you can also get Virtual DJ already mapped to many devices (that's how the licences for it are sold).

I downloaded VDJ yesterday and had a play on my PC, which only proved to me how much I'd forgotten over the tracks I might play, which then had me go back to my CD decks for a play around ... which proved again how much I'd forgotten.

So now I'm unsure whether to bother pursuing this idea, cos I'm not sure whether I'll put in enough work to get something worthwhile out of it. I guess the best bet is to better organise the (dance) music I might use to get things going at an uncomplicated level, and if I manage to get somewhere half-decent with that I'll try similar with some reggae (which is what I'm wanting to really try), and then think about a DJ controller from there.