I'd Like To DJ From My Laptop

Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:17 pm

I generally play acoustic cover gigs on the weekends, but I was approached by a friend, a local bar owner who asked if I would be interested in DJ'ing every saturday night. I would, however, I would have to first get equipement.

I've got a Dell laptop running Windows XP (I need help on how to find out what kind of sound card it has and the specs on it)...so I'd be using this as the brain of the operation. I know I'd need to either get a pair of powered speakers, or some passive speakers and a power amp, as well as digital DJ software. From what little I know, this seems to be a simple way for me to do what I need.

My questions are:
1. What is a cheap and effective digital dj software I can use?
2. What are minimum requirements for a proper sound card to be used?
3. Physically, how will everything be connected and run for everything to work?
4. How will I be able to run a single mic to talk through?

Keep in mind that I have a budget of $800 to work with for speakers/amp and software. Any additional thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

***PART 2***
I have a cheapy 100w 6ch powered mixer and 2 10" speakers currently, is there anyway i can use this setup very temporarily?

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:48 am

Do you have supply the PA for the bar or just monitors?
Btw, DJ'ing is the art of playback. Just use winamp.
And keep bouncing around and moving one hand around your mixer tweaking knobs and the other hand hold near your headphones to take one cup off and put it back every now and then... Neither should be plugged in.

For extra class, use Winamps fade outro/into function.

If it's music that you need to keep the beat constant all night long, thump thump thumpthumpthump... Get a Panasonic CD DJ and mix sets using it's pitch hold/time shift at home which you then record. Use Winamp in the club to play one 4 hour long file you made earlier...

I'm positive there is no difference between Winamp and ANY DJ I've seen.

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:55 pm

Look at Numark, I believe they have software that mimics CDJ's and DJM600's - like a virtual DJ Coffin...

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:24 pm

Greener wrote:

I'm positive there is no difference between Winamp and ANY DJ I've seen.

*smile*

DJ Q-Bert, the Michael Jordan/Jimi Hendrix of Turntablists:

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:34 pm

If only this was the only type of DJ.
I love a good Vinyl Artist.

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:10 pm

Let me make this clear....I simply have to play music from some hillbillies. I want to cross fade between song ins and outs. That it.

I'm still looking for answers to questions 2, 3, and 4 from the first post. Thanks.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:55 pm

I remember one version that had it as standard, and I had to turn it off.
I can't seem to find it in this current version.

Basically all it does is; shift+v (fade out) b (next song) x (play)

But it had a slight fade in.

http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/32368

That is one of many plug-ins which do it.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:01 pm

To question 1:

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/cat/LIVE_PERFORMANCE/

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/cat/DJ_MIXING/

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:05 pm

I've used the paid version of ostAV before, it's great, and i have use it live on several occasions, once i was familiar with it, it was really easy to operate

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