Laptop Questions

I'll ask this here too, though I'm not sure if this is the kind of DJing that is discussed here:

Anywho, my band does a decent amount of wedding gigs, and we usualy rely on the sound guy to DJ. But I'm looking to take this over and use my laptop to DJ. What should I look into for this? What would be a good, relatively cheap or even free program to use? I remember WinMix had a crossfade option on it. I'll need something like this.

Also, I plan to download music for each reception, what would be the best place to get mp3s, I plan to do it legally so keep that in mind. Thanks!

I'm interested to know about this as well. Looking for a program that does beat matching, cross fading, etc. This is for a non-profit youth group that holds dances regularly, has their own PA and access to a lap top, so it doesn't make sense to spend $400 on a DJ every time they have a dance. Can anyone point me in the right direction?? Thanks.

There are a few hardware items out there that incorporate a dual deck CD style controller via USB connectivity with a desktop or laptop. Numark makes a couple of such interfaces for PCDJ, to be used with PCDJ software. Alternately, there is a new iPOD mixer where you can pitch, EQ and crossfade two tracks from one iPOD. Check out the Numark website.

V.

What about something that doesn't use an external playing device (CD or Ipod)? I'm looking for a program that can take mp3s and beat match them, cross fade and everything. Not looking for scratching or FX. There's gotta be a DJ in a box type program out there.

PC DJ without the hardware should ake care of that. Fair warning: crossfading with a mouse takes a bit of practice and patience

V.

I haven't tried this program but it's a free program for MP3 DJing:

http://soundman.jamrid.com/SoundmanMain.htm

I know there's some others out there that are less than 50.oo but I don't know the names off the top of my head.

I use Ableton Live5 but it's far from free and I've heard the cracks aren't very stable. I highly recomend it though if you're really serious about MP3 DJing. It sounds the best and gives you the best effects options.

Originally posted by gruvjack PC DJ without the hardware should ake care of that. Fair warning: crossfading with a mouse takes a bit of practice and patience V.

Yep. I highly recomend one of these:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Keyboards/Midi/MIDI/Controllers?sku=703602

You can actually get pretty acurate with it.

I use tracktor and it seems to work great. I havent done much beat tracking with it but I bet I could. It does awesome auto crossfade through a playlist tho.

Hell, my Windows Media Player has a crossfade feature. Isn't that good enough? I didn't buy it, it came on the 'puter.

The OP was interested in doing weddings... usually a variety of material. Would scratching/beatmatching/etc be necessary?

I did someone a last-minute favor for a freind-of-a-friend, DJing next to a band, breaks and last hour/half. I just brought out a PA, plugged in the laptop and played music with the crossfade thing on. Don't wedding usually just want music between sets, not necessarily a "show" type thing?

Just a thought