I use DJay 4.0 on my MacBook, no controller. With the new feature of key analysis and a bit of reading of “Beyond Beatmatching”, it suits my needs for now, which basically includes: impressing my wife and daughter, making electro/ tech-house mixes to jam in the car on the way to work. I downloaded free versions of VDJ, Traktor Demo, and Serato DJ Intro. I like how VDJ has the superimposed waveforms, Serato is useless without a controller (kind of dumb on their part as a consumer giving it a go can’t even play around a bit), and started beat gridding in Traktor last night. Okay, Traktor people, I get it. It looks polished, and I see how the gridding can lend to super tight mixing. From what I gather, this can be accomplished in Serato as well. Still, it seems with the release of DJay 4, that Algoriddum is gaining fast. Perhaps with another update or two, some higher end controller integration, and easier access to manipulating the mixer, DJay may throw a more serious hat into the ring. For now, I will continue with DJay, but must admit, Trakto has piqued my interest. I guess if the S2/S4 didn’t seem so…..plasticy, I would jump. For now I will wait. I know, Vestax-400 can be mapped, etc…..i’m not sure I’m ready for all that. I just want to jam. I have a full-time family and career as a physician. If you’re new like me, read “How to DJ Right” and “Beyond Beatmatching”. These books really helped me get started. Of course, I’m tearing through Phil’s video course right now and absorbing more information all the time. Basically, DJay for now, and on my Mac, the iOS versions seem to be falling behind. But, I’m open to the other big guns. Time will tell. Personally, the DDJ-SX looks amazing, but I’m turned off by Serato’s lack of useable free software, and the first version of anything has lots of kinks to work out. Wanna bet there is a DDJ-TX around the corner?
