Using Virtual DJ for Common DJ Sounds

 

 

Use Virtual DJ to organize your music. The program lets you organize your collection of tracks and group them easily in a DJ-friendly way. You can use filters to find the hot songs, find songs with a compatible bpm or key, access your previous playlists, and more. This is essential if you want to do any live DJing, as you need quick access to the right songs, and you may need to cater to audience requests. 

 

 

 

 

Use crossfades to blend one song into another. This is the bread and butter of DJs: keeping the music going without pauses. Use the "crossfader" to set the time at which you want the songs to switch, as well as how quickly you want it to change. The horizontal bar between the two decks is your "Crossfade bar." The further it is to one side, the more you will hear that song above the other. 

 

 

 

 

 

Match up the wave forms of songs to get them in sync using the pitch bar. You should try to keep the high peaks on the waveform synchronized and overlapped (one above the other). This usually means that the beats are "in sync" and the mix sounds good. You can use the two vertical pitch sliders to adjust the BPM on each song, making it so that the waveforms match up and the songs are in sync.

• Sometimes Virtual DJ does not analyze a track correctly, and the CBG can be incorrect, so you should learn to beat match by ear and not rely on visual aids.
• Syncing up songs makes transitioning from one to the other much easier.

 

Equalize songs on the fly. There are three EQ knobs next to each deck that let you change how the songs sound. They correspond to Bass, Middle, and Treble.

• Bass: The low end of the song. This is the rumbling, deep parts of the songs.
• Middle: This is usually where the vocals and guitars hang out—not super deep or high-pitched.
• Treble: Usually this knob affects the drums most heavily, though anything high-pitched will be affected.

 
 

Play with the song effects. You can use Virtual DJ to add tons of effects to your songs, creating house and electronic-style remixes anywhere. The program comes with a plethora of effects ranging from traditional flanger, echo, etc, to more modern "beat-aware" effects like beatgrid, slicer, and loop-roll.

• The built-in sampler will let you spice up your mixes with a broad range of drops and loops. You can also use the sampler like a sequencer to create remixes on-the-fly, effectively merging live performance and production.

 

Use the BPM analyzer to get a permanent readout of your songs and their tempos. BPM-analyzer: Before you start to play your music, select all your songs and > Right Click > Batch > analyze BPM. If you'd like to mix songs, you must choose BPMs that are close to each other. This will take a while, but will save you from having to compute the tempo of the song on the fly.

• For example; If you have a song of 128 BPM on the A-deck and you want to mix it with a 125 BPM song on the B-deck, you should adjust 8 to +2.4. As soon as the other song isn't coming through the speakers, you can turn it back to 0.0 by clicking the dot next to that slider. Don't try to mix songs that lay too far apart—this simply sounds bad.

 Attach Virtual DJ to other equipment for total control of your music. VirtualDJ is compatible with most of the DJ controllers on the market. All you have to do is open Virtual DJ and plug the equipment in. If you want to change any of the default behavior, VirtualDJ has a "VDJScript" language that lets you re-code the program to your liking




  
Experiment. The best way to learn how to use Virtual DJ is to use it. There are so many different features and ways to tackle problems that the focus should not be the software. Focus on you and your creative practice. Look up tutorial videos on YouTube, check out the forums on the Virtual DJ website, and ask friends for advice if you get stuck.