Survey: What's Your Software

Hint: If you make a survey using surveymonkey you may get more responses and it will analyse the data for you.. 🙂

As for me, I Use Virtual DJ 8

Why did I choose it?

– Customizability – I have created my own sin which fits my needs perfectly. No need for things I don’t need cluttering up my monitor space. And no need to keep clicking things to change functions. This took me a few hours to do.

– Ease of use – Everything is logically laid out to start with, which enabled me to work out what I wanted to do when I made ym own skin. The settings menu is also much easier to use than the Traktor one (I have no experience of Cross)

– It fitted my workflow – This is the most important one. I like the way I can store track/playlists in many temporary windows at once whilst I am DJing – useful for remembering requests when you are going to play them in a few track’s time. I also like the way the (gasp) automix function works – For the kind of DJing I do it is actually frowned upon to crossfade one track into another. The song needs to end. Therefore I like the way I can set up the automix – it handles the changes in bpm really well (I generally go from 115 to 160 and back again in an hour – sometimes twice), it will do the transition for me, completely on the beat without me having to do a thing.

– I compared it to the competition. I didn’t like the way that I needed a specific audio interface to make Serato work properly, so that was out. I tried Traktor and couldn’t get my head around the workflow properly. I tried Cross and liked it but found the automix clunky and I missed having lists of tracks I could flick tacks between. So I chose VDJ.

What kind of gigs?

As I have already said, I am not a club-style DJ. The closest thing is a mobile DJ – it very similar – play a wide variety of music, change of BPM’s a lot, set up with your own PA system etc. But it isn’t wuite the same and it is all about the tracks you play and when you play them NOT how you mix them..

What made me choose it over the competition?

I have already said most of it – I didn’t like the system for using Serato, I couldn’t get my head around Traktor and I missed things that VDJ offered me in Cross..

There you go.. Hope that’s comprehensive enough for you..

Why are you collecting this by the way? If you are trying to work out what kind of software to use yourself, ignore everyone else. Try the options. Come to your own conclusions. I don’t like Traktor or Serato. Doesn’t mean that they are bad in any way – even for the style of DJing that I do – indeed, many people absolutely swear by Traktor and/or Serato – but they didn’t work for ME.

Every bit of software is different. They all have pros and cons and are all different. That’s how they all co-exist.

bob6397

What made you choose your software?

I had been DJ-ing with a Numark D2Director (HD-based system that was controlled like a dual deck rack mount CD-player) for a while and at the same time playing around with PCDJ Red, Jackson DJ and several of the other packages. But all without a controller and none that really caused any real warm feelings (although PCDJ Red at the time got close). Then I bought the MC6000mk1 when it came out (after I had just decided I should get the S4) which came with Traktor. I started using Traktor and while a nice program in/of itself, I soon ran into compatibility issues with my workflow and the total lack of support for flexible beatgridding. I started looking around and kinda came to the conclusion that Serato had the best papers. I have toyed around with VDJ too since a lot of versions back and somehow I could never connect with it. Add the fact that I have some kind of irrational yet strong dislike of skins (and especially the early version of VDJ had an entire sub-culture of people who seemed to do nothing but create skins, not sure what that is like now) and VDJ was out. Unfortunately, this was the last days of Serato as the clam company. It was so closed you couldn’t pry it open with a crowbar. So, it wouldn’t work with my MC6000 (oh irony as the MC6000mk2 is supported by Serato out of the box). I didn’t fancy buying another controller, if only because unlike Traktor, the MC6000 was definitely my kind of controller. I also didn’t like the thought of getting an external sound card and using the MC6000 as an analogue mixer. I found Mixvibes Cross in version 2.4 and the rest – as they say – is now history in version 3.3.10.

What type of gigs do you play with it?
Any gig that will have me (meaning that is willing to pay my asking price) and a few events each year for a charity (A Sisters Hope – raising money for breast cancer research) and for my American Football club (playing music during warm-up and halftime). Mostly corporate events and high(er) end weddings. The occasional club/bar. And stuff like Rotary anniversaries. Afterparty’s for concerts of The Who and Anouk.

What makes you favor it over the others?
I like the track management. It lights up the matching key in a different color, so even if you select genre or bpm to sort on, you can still easily pick out the harmonically mixing tracks. For the rest it’s a lot of small stuff. Integration with
RekordBox was a plus as I used to play a few sets on other gear (Nexus 2000 and DJM900 Nexus), so quickly exporting all my stuff to an RB stick was welcome. The opportunity to use video in the future was welcome also as was the fact that all usb-connected CDJ-players have HID support within Cross. So I stopped using RB and now hook up the CDJs in HID-mode if I have to use them for some reason.
In general, it fits my workflow just fine, has many small features that aren’t life saving but make my life just that bit easier.

What’s your software?
Serato Intro (use Numark Mixtrack Pro 2 in my room) and Serato DJ (when i do my sunday island night gig)

What made you choose your software?
Another DJ recommended it before he left

What type of gigs do you play with it?
I’m in the military and currently deployed. I’ve been Djing about a month now. so i pretty much play for other military members, nothing like a club or anything like that

What makes you favor it over the others?
I haven’t tried any others but in the future i will. like i said i’m new

What’s your software?
Serato DJ

What made you choose your software?
Friendly environment, colorfull waves, simple and easy interface,

What type of gigs do you play with it?
Clubs & Mobile DJ’s

What makes you favor it over the others?
Plug N Play, you plugged in your controller you good to go, no fiddling around the setup and such
More friendly grid with the multi-genre tunes I throw at it, 80′ classic dico ? no problem, rnb-hip hop? no biggie

I don’t think stability, flexibility or user friendliness really play a role. Both have plenty of everything. Just different implementations of features, some different features and some workflow differences.

While I can work with any DJ software out there (and trust me I have seen most in one incarnation or another), there is still software that I like working with better than others.

Due to circumstances I ended up with Mixvibes Cross which I now use at home for practice as my main platform during mobile gigs with my own gear and as my DJ software of choice with CDJs in HID mode in club settings with 2000 Nexus’ (if I am too lazy to bring my controller).

What’s your software?
Synner 3

What made you choose your software?
I wrote it myself because I wanted better control over my workflow.

What type of gigs do you play with it?
Mostly private parties.

What makes you favor it over the others?
As above, having total control over how it functions is a huge plus. The workflow is tuned for me and the way I want to do live remixing – a hybrid between Ableton and Traktor.