DJing Software.

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Cyrano de Maniac · #91 Post by **Cyrano de Maniac** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:05 pm

A follow-up regarding Disco XT after my less-than-glowing comments earlier.

I used version 4.8.1 last night to DJ a 3.5 hour gig. It made it through the night without a hiccup. At this point I think I'm happy with the software once again.

I was going a bit easy on it, as I had planned out most of the music before showing up for the dance, so I only had a small amount of song addition/removal/previewing to do through the course of the night (I think I'm going to strangle the next person who asks for Bei Mir, In The Mood, Sing Sing Sing, anything by Michael Buble or Brian Setzer...).

It still does have some sort of oddity I haven't figured out with regard to searching the available music. I had two Happy Birthday songs (one by Kermit Ruffins, pretty fun actually) and it somehow wasn't able to locate either of them during a search, though it played them just fine once located and added to the playlist.

There is one capability I don't normally use that I put into action last night, and which proved useful. During a jam I used a fast (2 second or so) automated crossfade to switch to the next song, rather than an abrupt stop and start (or even worse an end-of-track pause). It totally kept the energy going uninterupted.

Brent

fredo · #92 Post by **fredo** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:18 pm

Cyrano de Maniac wrote:It still does have some sort of oddity I haven't figured out with regard to searching the available music. I had two Happy Birthday songs (one by Kermit Ruffins, pretty fun actually) and it somehow wasn't able to locate either of them during a search, though it played them just fine once located and added to the playlist.

Brent

Brent,

I have the latest version of Disco XT installed and I'm having trouble getting an accurate iTunes sync of my music to show up in the preview area. Is this similar to what you experienced?

At first it would load up a really old iTunes library from before I switched to mac, so of course all the paths were broken.

Then after exporting my iTunes library to the xml file in my iTunes folder (and making sure to tell each software where to look again) Disco XT did load the correct library, but it was still not showing songs I had added to my library just a few days prior.

After fiddling with it some more it eventually went back to loading the really old library again. ugh. At this point I gave up.

I have no idea if the problem exists within Disco XT (because they claim that it will automatically refresh your iTunes library), or if the problem is with my iTunes and it's library files (there are two...one for itunes and one for other software to utilize).

Anyway, just curious if any of this makes sense to you, or others who have experienced this problem.

falty411 · #93 Post by **falty411** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 12:56 pm

I djed with disco xt 4.8.1 on saturday and found it to be just about perfect. I know the previous version was buggy, but for me, all the bugs have seem to be cleared up.

I used full automation mode and it worked like a charm. As it stands now, i think this is my favorite dj app for swing djing.

fredo · #94 Post by **fredo** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:07 pm

I finally got my iTunes library situation figured out....it was not Disco XT at all, but my itunes library xml file that was bum.

that said, I was all set to use Disco XT the same night as Falty, except his worked and mine wouldn't play any audio from the main decks! grrr... I think I'm just cursed, since others don't seem to be having as many problems with it as I am.

All in all though, the software seems perfect for swing djs on macs.

Haydn · #95 Post by **Haydn** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:02 pm

fredo wrote:I finally got my iTunes library situation figured out....it was not Disco XT at all, but my itunes library xml file that was bum.

that said, I was all set to use Disco XT the same night as Falty, except his worked and mine wouldn't play any audio from the main decks! grrr... I think I'm just cursed, since others don't seem to be having as many problems with it as I am.

All in all though, the software seems perfect for swing djs on macs.

Did you ever look at DJay or Traktor Freddie?

fredo · #96 Post by **fredo** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:01 pm

Haydn- I didn't really shop around a lot, to be honest. I wont claim that Disco XT is "better" than the others, b/c i haven't matched them side by side. I will say that Disco XT seems to have an interface and usability that I was able to use quickly and in a way that was similar to what I was doing before.

imports itunes library that I can preview from with headphones
keeps a playlist of what you've played visible
two decks that pull from the playlist
automation from deck A to deck B
and plenty of knobs and adjustments that are possible
i can use the automation when i want to run multiple songs in a row, or i can add tracks to the decks manually for more control.

Basically, i was using itunes with dj1800, when i was approached with Disco XT. I liked it so I'm trying to use it. From a glance and with no real trials, DJay looked like it wasted too much screen space on the unnecessary turntables, and Traktor seemed very professional and more expensive than I felt I needed for the amount of DJing that I do.

hope that helps.

zipthebird · #97 Post by **zipthebird** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 8:52 pm

I've been using Disco LT, a slightly less feature-rich version of XT, for about a year. I like the software, but there's a few things that really bug me:
- I can't design my own fades--only use the preset ones, none of which are ideal for swing dances.
- Every once in a while the automatic end-point detection decides that a song has ended when it hasn't. It once cut out right in the middle of Louis & Bing singing Now You Has Jazz. Far as I can tell, there's no logic to when it does this.
- Searching within iTunes playlists works great, but searching from my entire library is kind of buggy.

To any of the XT users, have you had these problems with the full version? I'm wondering whether I should spring for the upgrade.

fredo · #98 Post by **fredo** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:04 pm

zipthebird wrote:I've been using Disco LT, a slightly less feature-rich version of XT, for about a year. I like the software, but there's a few things that really bug me:
- I can't design my own fades--only use the preset ones, none of which are ideal for swing dances.

XT allows you to edit the preset fades. I use the "no fade" option, and then add in 2 sec to that fade option so it will pause 2 sec before changing songs.

- Every once in a while the automatic end-point detection decides that a song has ended when it hasn't. It once cut out right in the middle of Louis & Bing singing Now You Has Jazz. Far as I can tell, there's no logic to when it does this.

This was a flaw in the previous version of XT, but 4.8.1 has resolved that issue, as far as I can tell.

- Searching within iTunes playlists works great, but searching from my entire library is kind of buggy.

I'm not sure if I've noticed this or not. I typically don't search through one big library folder, but I will look for this to see if it's an issue.

Haydn · #99 Post by **Haydn** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:47 am

fredo wrote:Haydn- I didn't really shop around a lot, to be honest. I wont claim that Disco XT is "better" than the others, b/c i haven't matched them side by side. I will say that Disco XT seems to have an interface and usability that I was able to use quickly and in a way that was similar to what I was doing before.

imports itunes library that I can preview from with headphones
keeps a playlist of what you've played visible
two decks that pull from the playlist
automation from deck A to deck B
and plenty of knobs and adjustments that are possible
i can use the automation when i want to run multiple songs in a row, or i can add tracks to the decks manually for more control.

Basically, i was using itunes with dj1800, when i was approached with Disco XT. I liked it so I'm trying to use it. From a glance and with no real trials, DJay looked like it wasted too much screen space on the unnecessary turntables, and Traktor seemed very professional and more expensive than I felt I needed for the amount of DJing that I do.

hope that helps.

Thanks

. I've had a look at the demo of Disco XT, and it does look good. I use a Mac, and have tried DJay and Traktor. I like DJay, it's pretty easy to use, cheap, stable, and integrates well with iTunes. I also saw it's on sale in the Apple Store in London, which bodes well for its' future. Traktor seems good and I know a few respected DJs use it, but I haven't got to grips with it yet.

Juzz · #100 Post by **Juzz** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:02 pm

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!

lipi · #101 Post by **lipi** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:05 pm

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!

you have conveniently neglected to mention what operating system you run.

Juzz · #102 Post by **Juzz** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:09 pm

Windows Vista

mellifluent · #103 Post by **mellifluent** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 12:03 am

Quoting Juzz:

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

The first one is a little harder than the second so I will answer the second first. Just about any music playback software can schedule another song to play after the current one finishes, but it depends on the level of control that you want to have. Software like Traktor will let you set start points and manually crossfade between songs but you can only load music one song in advance. Players like I-tunes, winamp, or Foobar2k will let you setup playlists that will let you schedule quite a few songs to play after the current one has finished.

To preview a song while another is playing, it seems like there are two ways of doing this. One is to use two separate players assigned to two different outputs of your sound card. one player plays back to headphones for monitoring, the other plays out to the room. I know some people use a combination of Winamp and I-tunes for this. I use two separate instances of Foobar2k running at the same time. The other way to do playback and monitoring at the same time is to use a program like Traktor, J-river media center, or BPM studio Pro. These programs have the ability to play back to different sound card outputs independently. However, they cost money when I-tunes, Winamp, and Foobar2k are free (although Foobar2k is open source so funding it would be good if you like it).

-Nathan

Toon Town Dave · #104 Post by **Toon Town Dave** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:24 am

Nathan summed it up pretty well.

For a novice DJ, I'd say the Winamp/iTunes combination or equivalent would be the best place to start. Once you get used to it, you'll probably figure out what you'd like to do differently to make your job easier and then you can shop for better software.

Those of us who have been DJing for a while and are used to 2 CD decks would probably find specialty software that acts like a dual-deck CD player more familiar if we were making the switch today.

CafeSavoy · #105 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:33 pm

Toon Town Dave wrote:Nathan summed it up pretty well.

For a novice DJ, I'd say the Winamp/iTunes combination or equivalent would be the best place to start. Once you get used to it, you'll probably figure out what you'd like to do differently to make your job easier and then you can shop for better software.

Those of us who have been DJing for a while and are used to 2 CD decks would probably find specialty software that acts like a dual-deck CD player more familiar if we were making the switch today.

True. And you should note that with some of the more robust products you might also need to upgrade your sound card.