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For the Home DJ's

post #1 of 14
1/14/09 at 5:36pm
Thread Starter 
I'm wondering which DJ mixing software is the easiest to learn & most compatible with iTunes (Mac). I'm not talking about sound or board mixing or professional mixing like on a movie or video, just DJ mixing, beat matching for seemless musical mixes.

I use to have 2 Denon 3500's & a Rane mixer but sold them about a year & 1/2 ago & want to get back into pure mixing just for fun & making my own continious mixes. I really don't need any scratch capabilities, beat juggling & all that. Just something that can make seemless mixes on the fly, with maybe some simple effects.

So for you home DJ's or even mobile or club DJ's as well what's a good starter software for doing all this?
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post #2 of 14
1/14/09 at 7:17pm
I just use ableton. Live 7 has a ton of live mixing tools. http://www.ableton.com/live-for-djs There's a TON more you can do with Live, but it's great for DJing.
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post #3 of 14
1/14/09 at 7:39pm
Here is my software solution for home DJing:

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post #4 of 14
1/14/09 at 7:42pm
Ableton + Adobe Audition.

So....r u da next GrlTalk?!?!
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post #5 of 14
1/14/09 at 8:22pm
Thread Starter 
NICE!!!! Thanks for the input guys! I'll check both out tonight.
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post #6 of 14
1/14/09 at 8:26pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by spertia View Post
Here is my software solution for home DJing:


I know, I know I hear ya my man!! There's no replacement for the tried & true analog & if i was a serious DJ or had the dough I would definitely go that route but like many of us I had a decent size CD collection & went the CDJ player route & now since tech is getting better & my passions are still just for kicks & giggles I want to go with something a little less hardware laden then lets say a Final Scratch route hooked up to a macbook.
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post #7 of 14
1/14/09 at 8:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroStyles View Post
Ableton + Adobe Audition.

So....r u da next GrlTalk?!?!


No not quite my brutha I just wanted something creative to do while winding down from work.
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post #8 of 14
1/14/09 at 10:02pm
Traktor.
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post #9 of 14
1/20/09 at 12:43am
Soulwax, Justice, DJ Falcon and I think Busy P all use Abelton live.

I think that is as good as it gets...... Look no farther

I agree with getting an audio editor also... wavelab, audition, etc...
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post #10 of 14
1/20/09 at 12:49am
Brettchaotix has a pretty cool setup, i Know he used to DJ some club nights and might got back to it...
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post #11 of 14
1/20/09 at 3:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by spertia View Post
Here is my software solution for home DJing:


I had to sell my 1200s when we started making clothes to raise capital
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post #12 of 14
1/20/09 at 12:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magician View Post
Brettchaotix has a pretty cool setup, i Know he used to DJ some club nights and might got back to it...

Abelton is pretty cool for creating your own music by combining loops, beats, etc... but I've never liked it for straight song mixing. It's got a bitch of a learning curve but once you get over it, it's a lot of fun to use!

My personal preference for straight "DJ mixing" is Native Instrument's Traktor. It has a more intuitive interface for someone who is used to records and a mixer.

I use it with an Echo Audio Indigo soundcard that has two outputs. I assign one to "house mix" and run that line out to the PA system and the second output to my headphones so I can "cue" just like you would traditionally.

I also use an M-Audio midi interface (well, they call it a midi interface but it's actually a USB interface). This one is a little fancier than what I use but you get the idea. The cool thing about traktor is that you can assign ANY traktor command/button/dial/switch to ANY botton or dial on the mixer. It's 100% customizable. For example, my USB mixer has 2 faders per channel. One is for volume (with a dial for gain) and the other is for pitch (with a dial for fine-tune pitch).

Whole package was cheap when you consider the cost of traditional DJ equipment:
Traktor: free (thanks bittorrent)
USB Mixer: $150
Laptop/PC: can be cheap, I've run it on a PIII with 512MB of memory.
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post #13 of 14
1/20/09 at 1:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettChaotix View Post
Abelton is pretty cool for creating your own music by combining loops, beats, etc... but I've never liked it for straight song mixing. It's got a bitch of a learning curve but once you get over it, it's a lot of fun to use!

My personal preference for straight "DJ mixing" is Native Instrument's Traktor. It has a more intuitive interface for someone who is used to records and a mixer.

You know, you can just press 'merge' and the two tracks will fade into each other - that's probably the most important point of critique; it's just too easy.
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post #14 of 14
1/20/09 at 4:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kas View Post
You know, you can just press 'merge' and the two tracks will fade into each other - that's probably the most important point of critique; it's just too easy.

Auto-fades rarely work well if the songs aren't really similar in tempo. I don't DJ dance music that has steady bass so it auto-fades usually blow up in my face. For example, in one set I'd play:

Do The Whirlwind - Architecture in Helsinki
The Warning - Hot Chip
Peter Bjorn & John - The Chills
Her Space Holiday - Tech Romance
The Libertines - What Became Of The Likely Lads
We Are Scientists - After Hours
Clash - Lost In The Supermarket

Ok, so maybe not in that order but you see what I'm saying - an auto-fade could never do that correctly.
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