Hello all,

Well, I've been doing a bit of DJ'ing from my laptop. My kit includes a Sound Blaster PCMCIA card with upto four stereo outs (I've only been able to get three working), PCDJ Blue and iTunes.

Seems that iTunes is my favourite for managing my music collection but prefer the all-in-one solution of PCDJ for the actual DJ'ing. I use a program I wrote to transfer all of my classified swing music to a location for PCDJ. A bit long winded I think but necessary for my set up.

Although I can output three channels and use an external mixing deck, I tend to mix on my laptop and output straight to the amp.

I'd like to hear what others do and their experiences are. Especially with DJ software.

-S

[quote:6b8463432e="SwingStylez"]Hello all,

Well, I've been doing a bit of DJ'ing from my laptop ... I'd like to hear what others do and their experiences are. Especially with DJ software.[/quote:6b8463432e]
You might find it useful to check out the Swing DJs forum (there's a specific thread on laptop DJing) -

http://www.swingdjs.com/phpbb2/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=c30b7f877b60b64ac9dc6be3e083d9fa

Hi, You sound knowledgeable about digital DJ. I am interested in buying some software, but I do not know if you need a different sound card to allow you to preview music while a track is playing. Also most of the DJ software seems to have a lot of unnecessary complication and would like some basis stuff.

I currently have an old version of Tractor which is great except that I canot preview the tracks I am queing up.

Any Ideas.?

[quote:f2730cc874="balboabunch"]Hi, You sound knowledgeable about digital DJ. I am interested in buying some software, but I do not know if you need a different sound card to allow you to preview music while a track is playing. Also most of the DJ software seems to have a lot of unnecessary complication and would like some basis stuff.

I currently have an old version of Tractor which is great except that I canot preview the tracks I am queing up.

Any Ideas.?[/quote:f2730cc874]

Hi Graham,

I don't know much about digital DJing, but I'm sure they can help you on the SwingDJS forum. There's a thread on Laptop DJing - ask them there ...

http://www.swingdjs.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=106&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=450

[quote:713003681a="balboabunch"]Hi, You sound knowledgeable about digital DJ. I am interested in buying some software, but I do not know if you need a different sound card to allow you to preview music while a track is playing. Also most of the DJ software seems to have a lot of unnecessary complication and would like some basis stuff.

I currently have an old version of Tractor which is great except that I canot preview the tracks I am queing up.

Any Ideas.?[/quote:713003681a]

Hiya,

I'm no expert but this setup works for me!

My kit looks like this:

[list:713003681a][*:713003681a]Laptop with all sound schemes and the system beep disabled (the beep you get when you adjust the volume or there's an error)[*:713003681a]PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS sound card with up to four stereo outputs and an input (optional, see below for for my comments on this)[*:713003681a]USB-powered lamp with stiff but bendy shaft[*:713003681a]iTunes[*:713003681a]PCDJ Blue[*:713003681a]Every kind of lead and plug![/list:u:713003681a]

I still use iTunes to manage my music (setting tempos, genres, adding tunes etc) because it's easy and bug free. I bought PCDJ Blue because it was the cheapest of all DJ software on the market I could find that had a screen that looked like a mixing deck and could handle two outputs. I played with a four output kit but that was too expensive. Swing DJ'ing has got to be the easiest type of DJ'ing from a technical standpoint (no beat mixing required, no blending because the dancers want the last beat of the song for dips and other finishes, no scratching - just pur music!). PCDJ still has some good features for pitch bending and slowing down and speeding up (useful for teaching situations). It has a playlist function and It also keeps a dats-stamped log of ever song I've ever played through it - which can be used a play list!

It works very well but has a few quirks. I has crashed on my a couple of times but it waits until after the current song before closing down (so no one had ever noticed :) ). I use iTunes to set the tempo of my tunes but PCDJ shows those temps/100 (if I set a song with 120BPM, PCDJ will show is as 0.120BPM). Of course, you can use PCDJ's tempo calculation feature for your music, but nothing is a accurate as calculating the tempo yourself. Sometimes PCDJ is waaayyyy off.

The PCMCIA sound card is optional because PCDJ can split your inbuilt stereo output into two mono outputs. One to be used for monitor/queue and one to play through. Occasioanlly, you want a mono-output for playing music because some crappy venues will put the right channel on the opposite end of the floor from the left. Meaning baseline up one end and melody up the other!

I got the PCMCIA sound card because its output was better quality than standard output of my laptop. I use the laptop output monitor/queue. The other benefit of the PCMCIA card is that I can mix on the laptop and use one output or mix externally and use two of the PCMCIA outputs. Expensive four-way DJ software will you use a combination of MP3, CD and external sources for mixing, so the extra input on the PCMCIA card might be useful to some people???

I manage all of my music collection in iTunes and my collection is stored on an external drive, so I wrote a little program that copies all MP3 where the tempo has been calculated to my C: drive. The copy is then used by PCDJ.

Finally, I use the little USB torch for visibility in a darkened room. I can't use the laptop screen as a light source because I likt to turn that down so I don't get blinded.

....

All this techno-fun aside, I have a good friend who can DJ a good night from her iPod. She doesn't need to queue her tracks because - and this is what I've found to be the most important aspect of DJ'ing - she know's most of her collection backwards. She will also put in some preparation for each night. The only downside (as she has told me) is her inability to play some unknown material from her collection.


Regards,

Ben