SwingDJs

An external sound card is a good investment anyways. The most popular portable one around here is the Turtle Beach - Audio Advantage Micro (about $40). There are a few gaming usb sound cards that will give you similar functionality for the same price range (SteelSeries Siberia for one).

You can probably find the Sound Blaster Live! usb on ebay for pretty cheap these days as well.

Haydn wrote: Traktor seems good and I know a few respected DJs use it, but I haven't got to grips with it yet.

I've been using traktor more lately. Especially since i've gotten an upgraded sound card to play around with. It doesn't have the greatest documentation so you have to play aorund a bit.

Great advice, thanks guys. I've used DJ1800 on a friend's mac which I found ok to use but I keep seeing all these programs for PC with whizz-bang functionality and all I really want is something simple. Tenks!

Juzz wrote:Great advice, thanks guys. I've used DJ1800 on a friend's mac which I found ok to use but I keep seeing all these programs for PC with whizz-bang functionality and all I really want is something simple. Tenks!

If you're on a mac, look at Cog. You can drag from itunes to it. It's really simple.

CafeSavoy wrote:

Juzz wrote:Great advice, thanks guys. I've used DJ1800 on a friend's mac which I found ok to use but I keep seeing all these programs for PC with whizz-bang functionality and all I really want is something simple. Tenks!

If you're on a mac, look at Cog. You can drag from itunes to it. It's really simple.

I think she said she's Windows Vista-based.

Juzz wrote:I've read this thread and am I bit overwhelmed by all the info available. I'm a novice when it comes to software as I currently DJ just using Itunes on a laptop. I want to:

- be able to preview a song while another is playing
- schedule one or more songs to play once the current song has finished

If the program does others things as well its a bonus but my main requirement is to be able to preview tracks. Do you guys have any suggestions for free/cheap program? Thanks!

I would try Disco XT which does what you want. It does a lot more as well, but you can simplify the screen to some extent to get rid of unwanted program features. The website is here, and you can download a free demo ...

http://www.discoxt.com/

I dunno if I'd start with DiscoXT. I've been using it for a few months and found it a bit complicated (though better than dj1800).

If you're just getting used to previewing while DJing, the winamp/itunes combo is simpler because you already know how to use itunes, and winamp is quite simple.


Btw, I _was_ using cog for previewing but found that it no longer lets itunes click and drag songs across to it. Is this just me, or is it a new itunes/new cog bug?
I like cog because it's nice and light and nifty for doing quick previewing when I don't to fuss with opening up DiscoXT or something equally heavy.

dogpossum wrote: Btw, I _was_ using cog for previewing but found that it no longer lets itunes click and drag songs across to it. Is this just me, or is it a new itunes/new cog bug?
I like cog because it's nice and light and nifty for doing quick previewing when I don't to fuss with opening up DiscoXT or something equally heavy.

I dunno. I use Cog 0.7 and itunes 7.71 and it still works. I think Cog 0.7 is the most recent. Can't comment on itunes 8 since i haven't loaded it. Were the songs DRM?.

at the beginning of this thread -some 5 years ago, people were raving about Jriver media center.

Does that still hold true 5 years later? or has anything better come along?

edit: ah, I just found a dedicated thread to Jriver. Never mind