Easier and Safer DJing with iTunes

[Haydn]

At the moment, I use iTunes on the Mac to DJ. I know a lot of other DJs do the same. I'm still trying to work out the best and easiest way to use it for DJing.

What I do at the moment is:

1. Use a new playlist, which I call 'BLANK FOR PLAYING'

2. Find the 'BLANK FOR PLAYING' playlist

3. Double-click the 'BLANK FOR PLAYING' playlist to open a second iTunes window

4. Re-size the two iTunes windows so that the 'BLANK FOR PLAYING' one is at the bottom of the screen, and the main window at the top.

5. Move between the two windows by clicking on them using the mouse. I know which one I am in because the red amber and green buttons are in colour in the active window. Or I press the [Tab] key.

6. I click at the top of the extreme left-hand column in 'BLANK FOR PLAYING' so that the 'Up' arrow symbol is showing. This means that tracks will be displayed in the order in which I add them.

7. I drag songs I want to play from the top window to the 'BLANK FOR PLAYING' window. I can do this either by clicking the song with the mouse, holding down and dragging, or by holding down the [Control] key while clicking the mouse, then choosing 'Add to Playlist: BLANK FOR PLAYING' from the menu which appears. I can add multiple songs by [Shift]-Clicking or [Command]-Clicking. I can use [Esc] to clear selections.

8. To choose a song to play, I go the the 'BLANK FOR PLAYING' window, and select a song. To select it, I can click on it once using the mouse. Or I can select it by using the [Up] or [Down] arrow keys.

9. To play the song, I press the [Return] key

10. Songs play in the list order

11. If I want to change the order, I can [Command]-Drag songs up or down the list.


Dangers and Safer Options

Pressing the [Space] or [Return] keys or clicking the mouse at any time may interrupt the song playing and/or play a new song. I find this a particular problem with the mouse (or laptop trackpad). I have found that by using [Command]-Drag to move a song instead of just dragging with the mouse prevents accidentally playing the wrong song. Also, [Control]-clicking when moving songs from the upper window means I don't have to manually drag the songs (which can also lead to accidental playing).

What is your experience? Is there a better way? Any suggestions to pass on?

[opie]

[Double post]

[zipthebird]

My go-to is Disco LT, but I've been experimenting with other options for times when I want to spin from iTunes. Right now I'm playing with a little open source program called Cog, which is a simple media player. I use Cog as my live playlist, and use iTunes for previewing. When I find something I want to play, I can drag it over to Cog. This eliminates the "accidentally clicked on a song I was just trying to move" problem.

The only downsides to Cog:
- it doesn't play iTunes DRM'ed files. I'm working on replacing all of my DRM'ed files anyways, but in the mean time it is a slight nuisance.
- it doesn't do volume adjustment, so I need to manually moderate the volume for each new track.

[fredo]

I only JUST use iTunes when my other software is either not working, or if I forget to bring my headphones for previewing. You're absolutely right Haydn, using just iTunes is dangerous. Too many hotkeys to accidentally press. So you must either preview on you ipod, or not at all, while DJing, yes? you'sa crazy man!

zipthebird mentioned Cog, which I've used also, and while it's simple and easy to drag to from iTunes, i found it to be a temporary solution to DJing. The biggest danger with Cog was that it switches audio outputs if you take your headphones out of the headphone jack mid-song! So if you put Cog to the speakers, and your laptop/itunes to headphones, and then accidentally pull your headphones out, the audio will switch from the dance floor to your laptop.... not good.

The absolute safest software I've used is DJ1800 because it limits you to manual drag and drops from itunes, and it doesn't let you accidentally put another song on to a playing deck. It can't do continuous play, which sucks, but for safety, it's fairly idiot-proof.

Haydn, it sounded like from your other post that you're interested in DJay. I'd say try it out, or try Disco XT -- either would be safer and easier than trying to do it all in iTunes.

[zipthebird]

...The biggest danger with Cog was that it switches audio outputs if you take your headphones out of the headphone jack mid-song! So if you put Cog to the speakers, and your laptop/itunes to headphones, and then accidentally pull your headphones out, the audio will switch from the dance floor to your laptop.... not good.

Didn't know that. Thanks for the tip.

[zzzzoom]

DJ1800 ....... It can't do continuous play, which sucks, but for safety, it's fairly idiot-proof.

It actually has three play modes.

single, continuous and loop.

BUT in continuous mode, once you drag a playlist into the deck, you can't add or reorder it.

[straycat]

The only time I use iTunes myself is during lessons - partially for the convenience, and partially because of the iPhone / Remote / iTunes combo.

During the extremely brief period I did DJ with iTunes, one of the first things I did was disable the ability to double-click with the touch pad, because it was so easy to accidentally double-click when trying to click-and-drag. Then I started packing a mouse in the laptop bag.

As for DJing - I'm still on Megaseg. Expensive, but the best DJ interface I've tried bar none, and extremely safe to use.

[Haydn]

As for DJing - I'm still on Megaseg. Expensive, but the best DJ interface I've tried bar none, and extremely safe to use.

Just tried the Megaseg demo - it does look good, and fairly simple.