What type of software should I use?

The vast majority of DJ's usually fall into three groups; the wedding/party DJ, the club DJ, and the radio jocks.

This site is mainly devoted to the wedding/party jocks, since radio jocks tend to use specialized software, and a lot of club jocks will insist upon nothing but vinyl.

So, how do you go about selecting a software package to use for weddings and parties? Try them all first! Most will resemble a dual deck CD player, along with the area for the track listings (usually called the library or record case). Then you usually have a mixer, EQ section, and in some cases effects sections.

One of the most important issues you should consider, is whether the software package you like can output it's decks to different sound cards (USB, PCI, etc.). Many DJ's prefer running the separate decks to their regular mixer, which has many advantages over using the mixer portion of the software itself. This will give you the ability to cue up a track much easier, and with much less overhead on the computer's CPU, which is doing many other things.

If you try to do everything on the PC - dual decks running, decks being cued, effects and what not, you are going to run into problems in most cases. These usually rear their ugly head in the forms of sound drops, skipping, etc. Many people will tell you their software can do everything at once, and they are correct to a point, most packages can and will do all at once, but at what expense to your reputation?

If you go see a pro band playing, you do not normally see them using a single mixing console with everything built in, they usually have racks and racks worth of equipment, each dedicated to a particular task. The same is true of pro DJ's.

For a simple gig, you can usually get away with a software package going either to a small mixer, or to powered speakers like JBL Eons or Mackies. If you want to get fancy, you will want to run your computer and software to a good mixer, with amps, effects, proper balanced mic inputs, etc.

So why use software you say?

Easy, and that's the answer! Software makes your life much easier, in that you do not have to carry loads of CD or vinyl with you to a gig. Finding a track takes milliseconds if your software package has a good search function, and most have an automix function, which comes in handy when nature calls, or you want to interact with the crowd.

Remember one thing; If you ask too much out of an individual piece of equipment in your lineup, you are asking for trouble on the dance floor, and that applies to software as well. The software runs on a computer, with an operating system that is designed to do many things pretty well at the same time, but not designed to do one thing exceptionally well.

Windows (the OS in question), was not designed for DJ use, it was designed for business use. You can probably already see the dilemma here. When you choose your software, test it out well, and make sure it will always run the way you want it to. Reliability in front of your audience should be of primary concern, followed by features. It doesn't matter how many features you have, if the software isn't working, they are all useless.

Check out our menu link for DJ Mixing Software, and that will give you a good guide as to the testing we have done.