My trials and tribs of going digital...

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djhath

New DJ
Nov 27, 2006
99
0
47
Acton, MA
So, today was the first official day of firing-up the new digital DJ system:

* Dell Latitude E4300 laptop w/ Windows 7 Ultimate, 4 GB RAM, 250GB HD (have external, but haven't added it to the equation yet)

* Denon DN-HD2500 MIDI controller w/ latest firmware

* Rane MP4 mixer

I tried-out two software packages so far - Serato Scratch Live and RockIt 5.0

With SSL, I was only able to get audio out of the left side, but that was it. Haven't dug more into it yet, but am not encouraged by what I've seen yet.

With RockIt, I found the setting to enable the HD2500 as a MIDI controller and got it to work, got audio out of both players. However, one little quirk (which I forgot to take notice of in SSL) is that when loading an mp3 file, it didn't go right to the first bit of sound, but played a second of silence if there was some in the file.

In my previous CD players, it would automatically cue to the very first bit of music and eliminate all pre-track silence in a track. That's probably just a setting in RockIt, but was surprised it didn't do that by default.

Also, RockIt didn't detect my mp4 mixer, which is attached by USB; though, again, I think that's probably a matter of finding a setting similar to enabling the MIDI controller functionality.

I haven't tried any other packages yet - VDJ, PCDJ, etc... However, I have the entire week off from the day job, largely to get the digital rig up and running.

Hank's already got me outfitted with a new logo and business card as I re-branded upon emerging back into the fold... Looking forward to joining the masses, eventually.
 
Very nice review of how your adventure is going... one thing to note... I don't know of any software that automatically cues past silence.... that's up to the user to set cue points.

In VDJ for example I don't play the entire intro to Baby Got Back instead I set a cue point to just before the beat and about where the girls say "Becky look at her butt..". Now every time I load that song it instantly cues to that spot in the song.
 
jokerswild said:
Very nice review of how your adventure is going... one thing to note... I don't know of any software that automatically cues past silence.... that's up to the user to set cue points.

In VDJ for example I don't play the entire intro to Baby Got Back instead I set a cue point to just before the beat and about where the girls say "Becky look at her butt..". Now every time I load that song it instantly cues to that spot in the song.
Click to expand...


Rockit can cue past initial silence, but you have to turn the pre-processor on -- it is off by default in V5. Also turn on the Start Level mode.

The reason it is turned off by default, is because many use external USB drives (read: slow). It can cause hiccups in the currently playing track, while trying to cue up and process the next track you are loading.


You can also set cue points, just like in that French crap :)


62+% of features are turned off by default in Rockit 5, because my user base does not understand how it works, and I do not have time to explain it, given the price point.


If you look around -- you'll find some neat stuff though... ;) :)
 
jokerswild said:
In VDJ for example I don't play the entire intro to Baby Got Back instead I set a cue point to just before the beat and about where the girls say "Becky look at her butt..". Now every time I load that song it instantly cues to that spot in the song.
Click to expand...

Oh, I know what you mean with Baby Got Back. If I were to start a song that starts right on a melody or a beat, but in the recording, there's a brief half-second or so silence in the track, I was simply accustomed to CD players that eliminated dead space by default. I'm looking to figure-out how to enable that functionality in the software I'm trying-out. :)

Thanks for your comment on my post.
 
djhath said:
Oh, I know what you mean with Baby Got Back. If I were to start a song that starts right on a melody or a beat, but in the recording, there's a brief half-second or so silence in the track, I was simply accustomed to CD players that eliminated dead space by default. I'm looking to figure-out how to enable that functionality in the software I'm trying-out. :)

Thanks for your comment on my post.
Click to expand...

That's the reason to buy or use a freeware audio editing program. I tweak and check my files using Sony Sound Forge and remove said dead space that pops up in some files.
 
Day 2...

Solved the Serato issue - I had to have the mp4 mixer connected directly to the laptop per Rane's tech support advice. So, I had a fully-functional set-up (mixer + MIDI controller) with the software.

Went back to RockIt briefly and still don't believe I've found any mixer-related settings yet so that I can use the USB connectivity to use the mixer along with the MIDI controller.

Good thing I downloaded the demo of Virtual DJ pro (6.1), because it looked like I could only download the 7.0 Home edition of it to use as a demo. The 6.1 demo only allowed use for 10-15 minutes or so before it shut itself down. However, it seems like quite a package.

Thus far, I'm liking both RockIt (for its multitude of benefits toward simpler-oriented DJs that don't require all sorts of 'performance' bells and whistles (scratching, etc) and Virtual DJ (scratches really well for a MIDI controller). The MIDI controller scratching seemed to lack within Serato.

We shall see what tomorrow brings.
 
djhath said:
Day 2...

Solved the Serato issue - I had to have the mp4 mixer connected directly to the laptop per Rane's tech support advice. So, I had a fully-functional set-up (mixer + MIDI controller) with the software.

Went back to RockIt briefly and still don't believe I've found any mixer-related settings yet so that I can use the USB connectivity to use the mixer along with the MIDI controller.

Good thing I downloaded the demo of Virtual DJ pro (6.1), because it looked like I could only download the 7.0 Home edition of it to use as a demo. The 6.1 demo only allowed use for 10-15 minutes or so before it shut itself down. However, it seems like quite a package.

Thus far, I'm liking both RockIt (for its multitude of benefits toward simpler-oriented DJs that don't require all sorts of 'performance' bells and whistles (scratching, etc) and Virtual DJ (scratches really well for a MIDI controller). The MIDI controller scratching seemed to lack within Serato.

We shall see what tomorrow brings.
Click to expand...

hath - VDJ has a "home" version that is free......not sure if there are any limitations, but its v 7.....
 
Steve LeBlanc said:
hath - VDJ has a "home" version that is free......not sure if there are any limitations, but its v 7.....
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've tried it, my friend... The big limitation is that it doesn't allow for use with MIDI controllers. I'm trying to practice and learn software so that I can function as I would be doing an event.

RockIt's been the best trial so far for allowing functionality. Just need to figure-out the USB mixer piece.
 
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