Project: Computerised DJ Deck

chet84

chet84

chet84

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Coventry
In my spare time I do a bit of DJ'ing for birthday parties, weddings etc. It all started when my girlfriends dad (I know :eek: ) was asked if he wanted to buy some equipment. He said yes and asked me if I wanted to help him start up. We started DJ'ing on keptr putting the money earned back into the equipment to upgrade. Now 4 years down the line we have decided to go computerised!

I had the idea of having 2 seperate mini itx computers and putting them through one of the Numark usb decks. I put a rough spec together and this is what I came up with:

Spec for single computer:

7" Touchscreen
Epia M1000 Mini-itx
512mb Ram
80gb Hard Drive - Windows and programs
200gb Hard Drive - Music
Mini Keyboard
20x4 LCD
Shuttle PSU

Anyway, having put this spec together, I bought 2 lots of everything - except the 7" touchscreens are now 8" lol. I have also bought the Numark deck and am ready to build a case to hold it all in.

I have a couple of nagging problems at the moment though -

1. Winamp - I want a easy to use, touchscreen skin that has big buttons for play, pause etc, a playlist and a list of all the songs ewith a search function. Can I find one... no! Any idea?

2. Is windows the best software to use? Is there anyway I could boot into a music program - or have winamp boot an startup? Whats the best thing to do?

Anyway I will be posting pictures of the equipment later and possible deck designs... any ideas or comments are welcome!

Thanks for looking :)
 
Any reason yours using Winamp over a more capable DJ software such as SAM?

Windows can of course start any application at boot up so no issues there.
 
BigDom said:
Any reason yours using Winamp over a more capable DJ software such as SAM?

Windows can of course start any application at boot up so no issues there.
Click to expand...

I have no knowledge of DJ software mate... and its only a music player effectively as there are two computers... all fading, mixing is done on the mixer.

Cheers Basmic - now all I have to do is find a suitable skin
 
I'd reccomend you look at SAM Party DJ, I think you'll find it works well for what you want. Plus is should allow you to use more of the features of the mixer. In fact using SAM you'll probably only need one PC :/. It's available on demo and very commonly used by computerised DJ's ( my experience of it is with internet DJing and withotu a mixer but I know people who use some quite complex mixer setups with multiple PC and mixer decks too ).
 
hi guys thatnks for all the relys... the thing is that I wanted to keep it as simple as possible! I'm not a club DJ... just a bog standard cheesy disco one lol. Thats why I went for the deck etc... but I didn't want to use just one computer because the chance of it going wrong is very high imo.
 
One Word:
Native Instruments Traktor DJ studio 3
Ok that was more than one word but this program is without doubt the best dj app there is. The high end version of this program does everything you could ever need. They also do a free "player" version which i havent tried cos im a registered pro version user.

Do a google for "native instruments" and you shall find :)

Albaba
 
Looks great mate, but would be a pain to use with touchscreens... I'm basically looking for a normal mp3 player tbh which is like winamp or easier to use! I've ssen one called Touchtone Audio player but can't find that many reviews on it. Any thoughts?
 
Hi guys... i think you're all missing the point! I have already bought the bits for two computers, I just need some advice on the software I can load to use them with touchscreens. I don't need mixing etc... as I'm a cheese DJ that does weddings, partys etc :)
 
But not on a touchsceen!!! I want to use play, pause, skip backwards and forwards. And then an easy to use search function so I can search all the songs on the HDD, all with big buttons so I don't need a mouse! Winamp would do the job but buttons are a bit to small!
 
As a dnb dj, using turntables is the only real option for me, however a lot of DJ's are crossing over to ableton/final scratch/serato or the CDJ option. Like someone else said earlier, the best DJ program for a PC is Traktor. Really really is good, however im not sure if you can use touchscreen with it?? (Is touchscreen down to the software or screens?!!?)
 
Reason I say SAM is ideal is it's a nice full screen app and all the music is preloaded into the library. So with the touch screen you can quickly and easilly move music into your playlist or directly into play. You can, if you wish, also use the two USB facility of your mixer ( I'm assming the one I googled is the one you use ) to allow you to precue songs. But for what you do it's ideal, what you do is essentially the same I do as an internet DJ.
 
If I were you, I'd sell that kit and get a laptop, final scratch, a mixer and a nice pair of decks.

With what you're doing, you might as well have got two ipods.
 
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