Virtual DJ 8 Clinic ?

I attended the Clinic today at American DJ in LA and it was AWESOME! I’m even more convinced I made the right decision when I chose Virtual DJ as my primary mixing software! Adam from VDJ made the presentation in 4 sections over 3 1/2 hours and started with a general overview showing the layout and how you login and set up the software. There was so much information disseminated that it’s hard to remember it all BUT this supercharged version of Virtual DJ has a Sampler to beat all samplers which allows you to use UNLIMITED samples! No more are you limited to 12 samples as in VDJ 7! Adam demonstrated the power of this new sampler with a Novation Launchpad allowing the use of 64 samples (1 bank).The samples can be assigned colors which will correspond to RGB colors on the display! You can load in unlimited banks of 64 samples and remix til the cows come home. THe samples are quantized and will sink with whatever track you’re playing. The new software will come with some basic instrument samples (kick drum, snare, etc) included. You can then stipulate how the sample will play when the key is pressed (one shot, repeat, stutter, Hold to play). VDJ 8 will come set up to natively plug and play with the Novation Launchpad and Launchpad mini!
Lots of new Effects will be available and will be easier to access.
One of the coolest features, I think, is the Sandbox feature! This allows you to start a track playing and then switch to sandbox mode which allows you to move around in the track (monitoring in your headphones) and set cue points, loops, etc getting ready for the spot at which you want to transition to the next cut- all this being done transparently to the audience and while the same track is playing! It’s like having two computers running simultaneously! This is a particularly neat feature for a DJ playing a cut with which he/she is not totally familiar allowing them to find the perfect transition point before it occurs through the Main speakers.
VDJ 8 also has 4 assignable buttons per deck that allow you to assign pretty much whatever function you want to them.
As for skins, they are now resizable automatically so you don’t need to choose a particular resolution. You can grab the skin and drag it to increase or decrease the size and all parts of the skin will adjust smoothly.
One of the best features of VDJ 8 is the improved sound engine which provides (we’re told) much higher fidelity sounds to the audience.
Personally, being a Sample junkie, this is a DREAM come true and I can’t wait to start remixing music on the fly!

I’ve just touched on a few incredible new features that will be available when the software is released on…………….. well we still don’t know when but we DO know it will probably be released on a Sunday!!! Just don’t know WHICH SUNDAY!!!! Rest assured though, when it is released it will be awesome!!!!

Thanks for the write-up. Sure there are lots of (VDJ-using) folks out there that are happy with the new developments.

Nothing there to tickle MY fancy, but then again, VDJ never DID do that for me anyway 😀

Greetinx.

The presentation went so long that we could have played with it but after 4 hours we wer anxious to get into the LA rush hour traffic and head home! Sorry that I didn’t try it but Adam was just a few feet in front of us using the American Audio mixer and had a camera trained on it so people in the back could see what he was doing on the big LCD screen. Also had another screen tied to the computer output so we could see waveforms and the skin. Sure appears to be light years ahead of version 7! I think someone considering Traktor may reconsider and jump on this new supercharged version 8!

That song editor would be very useful to me and might help me eliminate having to use audacity for small edits. I’m curious about scratch performance because if they have that down I’ll never look at another program.

Another interesting feature with version 8 is that you don’t need License numbers. You’ll have a login that you use on any computer that the software is on. THis is rather cool in that if you need to use a friend’s computer that only has a Limited edition license, once you log on….it will open up the PRO version for you (providing YOU purchase a Pro license)!! They are also saying that you can RENT the software for $20 a month. This would be great if you didn’t want to spend the full pop to buy the software but wanted to test out and USE the PRO version! You could actually keep paying $20 a month to use it forever except ,in that instance, it would make more sense to BUY it!!!

@ DJDuane: Thank you very much for your detailed information. Hope dies last and maybe the timeline feature isn’t totally perfect already and they release it as an update later on!

Kind regards

I still cringe when I hear “skins”. I never got that. Entire industries of people labouriously crafting their software to look like … well … something else LOL.

If you’ve ever used a controller like the Stanton SCS.3, then you understand the value of controller-specific skins.