DJ MIX AND MIXING (see list of software below) DJ Mixing By Ron Bouchard Your DJ equipment may be great but your DJ Mix may be your most effective way of standing out from all the other mixing DJ's out there. Whether it's a DJ dance mix, party mix or hip hop mix, you need to spice it up with your own style and reflections. There are great DJ mix programs out there for mixing mp3's to doing DJ remixes and a great deal of the preparation for your final mix will be done well before the party starts. While a live DJ mix shows off your talents, there is nothing wrong with making a great mix at home and playing at the next gig. Check out the virtual DJ mix programs. Just like your expensive DJ equipment, DJ software is a great tool to utilize to make your show stand out. If your using a computer there are many DJ mix software programs that can keep the tunes flowing, even when your not on stage. OTSDJ,PC DJ and others are available to automatically produce your DJ mix for you. Add in a few DJ Drops and voice overs and you can mingle with the audience and take requests, freeing you to do more than just playing the music. DJ mixing is an art, but you don't need to do it "live" all night. You can take a break and still please the dancing crowd. Create a mix today, once you get the hang of it you'll never look back. SEE A LIST OF DJ MIXING SOFTWARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE

Title: How To Be A Good Wedding DJ Author: Kirsten Hawkins Article: If you love music and have a decent collection, a good way to make extra money may be to become a DJ for live events. To get up and rolling may take a small investment as a DJ must have top of the line stereo equipment and a music collection that reflects a wide variety of musical tastes, but the financial rewards can be well worth the initial expenditure. DJs are hired for any of a variety of events from school dances to weddings and Bar-Mitzvahs, and the manner in which you conduct yourself may need to vary depending on the event that you're working. Weddings are a particularly valuable market for a disc jockey and the wedding DJ often has one of the most fun jobs of anyone associated with a decent sized wedding reception. Following are some tips that can help you find success as a wedding DJ. Let's Get it Started in Here: A wedding reception is essentially a big party. Like any party, the reception will evolve slowly over the course of the evening and it is the responsibility of the wedding DJ to ensure that it moves along at the proper pace. When the reception first begins the wedding DJ will notice that people are milling around and talking, eating, and congratulating the happy couple. This is a good time to start playing music, making a selection that is both in line with the requested genres or tastes that should have been previously discussed with the couple or the person that hired the wedding DJ. Something upbeat but not overpowering is good here. When it is time for the dancing to start, it's time for the party to start. Sometimes people are a bit shy to get going. It is at this point that the wedding DJ needs to show some personality. Get on that microphone and motivate people to get on the dance floor and move. Make some congratulatory statements to the newlyweds and tell the guests to get out there and shake it. Once You've Sold it, Don't Buy it Back: Now that you've got the music going and the dance floor is full, shut your pie hole! No one comes to a wedding reception to hear the wedding DJ blather on into the microphone like a wannabe Howard Stern. If it's fallen on you to announce mini reception events like a dollar dance or the removal of the garter, then do so, but speak as little as possible. Let the music move the party and keep that microphone securely in the upright and locked position. Hey, Mr. DJ... Put a Record on: Requests equal tips for the wedding DJ. If a guest approaches you with a song request that falls into the category of music that you've been hired to spin, get it on there post haste. People get all warm and fuzzy inside when they hear a song that they specifically requested. Finally, two things that every wedding DJ should have in his collection are copies of The Hokey Pokey and The Chicken Dance. Treat these like the American Express Card of the wedding DJ: don't leave home without them. About the author: Kirsten Hawkins is an event planner from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.wedding411.net/ for more event planning tips, strategies, and resources.

Mixers A typical modern DJ mixer generally has between two and six stereo channels for connecting and mixing audio sources. Each channel usually has a phono input with RIAA equalization for turntables and one or two line level inputs for sources such as CD players. Controls for individual channels are arranged in vertical columns (channel strips), starting with a switch or a knob selecting between the inputs. Below the input selector is a gain (or trim) control, used to match signal levels between channels. Next follows an equalizer section, used to fade parts of tracks in and out; a common basic technique is to kill the bass on one channel while mixing so the basslines of two tracks don't clash. Some more controls may follow, such as a balance knob, built-in sound effects and aux-sends for external effects units. Below there's normally a cue switch sending the signal to the headphones, letting the DJ to preview and beatmatch a track without sending it to the master output, but on some mixers there's a different way to select the cued source. Channel strip ends with a fader which sets the channel's signal volume in the final mix. The signal may pass through a crossfader. On simple mixers there are normally two channels assigned opposite ends of the crossfader, sometimes with a button to reverse the crossfader's direction. More advanced mixers have assignable crossfaders in which each channel can be assigned to either end of the crossfader or to bypass the crossfader entirely. Many scratch mixers have a crossfader curve control that effectively changes the distance the crossfader needs to travel to open the channel fully, letting to shorten it to a millimetre or two, which is useful for speedy scratching (see turntablism). Additionally, one or two microphone inputs may be present to accommodate MCs. These can be configured either as additional inputs to main channels or as special microphone channels which are similar in structure, but normally have fewer controls and are often monaural. Most DJ mixers feature peak meters to aid matching levels between channels and monitor the signal for clipping. Usually there are peak meters for master mix and cued mix, though sometimes per-channel meters are present. A DJ mixer has one or two headphone jack plugs and a headphone volume control. Headphones are normally used to monitor a cued channel, but on some mixers other variants are possible, such as split cue where cued channels are sent to the left headphone channel and master mix to the right, or a way to select between cued channels and master mix. Normally there are two or more outputs for the master mix, used to send the signal to an amplifier or another mixer for the public address system, to a loudspeaker in the DJ booth for monitoring the mix, or to a tape recorder or a computer for recording. There may be one volume control for all outputs or separate controls for each outputs. Sometimes a recording output doesn't have a volume control. Title: Music Editing Software Can Create Sweet Sounds Author: Morgan Hamilton Article: Recently, I received a CD from my friend, George. The CD was full of songs he had mixed himself on his laptop. I was expecting to hear a CD full of music that sounded hacked together since he used cheap music editing software. However, when I listened to the CD, I was stunned by the quality he was able to achieve even though he did not use any professional equipment. Since George is a part-time Disc jockey at an underground club in Los Angeles, I knew that the CD would contain a nice mix of tunes. The only evidence I noticed that it was not a professionally mixed CD was the presence of a few blank spots in between some songs on the CD. This was probably something to do with the music editing software he used to create the CD, but other than that the music did not sound different from something that had been manufactured by a professional in a studio. The realm of music is changing due to advancing technology. Consumers these days have more control over what they listen to and how they acquire music. Many people have iPods and other kinds of musical playing device, so people are become more accustomed to being able to have greater freedom over the music they listen to. Several years ago, people had to create mix tapes of their favorite songs by pressing a tape recorder up to a radio speaker. Modern music lovers have easy access to a computer and music editing software that enables them to create better mix CD's of their favorite music. People also have a variety of choices on selecting the appropriate music editing software that will match their specific needs. DJs and professional musicians are investing in editing software that has more features, so that they are able to edit music according to their professional needs. For the average person, an inexpensive music editing software that has minimum features is enough to satisfy that person's musical cravings. Technology has really come along way in helping people enjoy products like the excellent quality of music that is possible through the amazing music editing software. About the author: Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning <a href="http://www.mymusicreport.com/music--more/music/music-editin g-software-can-create-sweet-sounds.html">Music Editing Software</a>. You can find more helpful information about <a href="http://www.mymusicreport.com >Music Editing Software</a> and other similar topics right here.

Ableton Live - Ableton Live brings to music creation, production and performance the flexibility of loop based software plus the power of full fledged music production suites. AnalogX Scratch - An simple program that simulates "scratching" a record with digital audio samples and a simple interface. n/a 338.3 KB Beat Master - A simple BPM list generator for DJs. n/a 854.3 KB BeatCalc - Finds the tempo (in BPM) for a WAV file, tap speed or manual input and then calculates delay times, LFO speeds and pitch transpositions. n/a 1.6 MB BeatIt! - Manual BPM counter with 4 memory banks for tapping in tempos. n/a 136.1 KB BPM Studio - Digital audio mixing software for professional DJ's that plays MP2, MP3, WAV, CDA and WMA files on up to 6 sound cards. n/a 4.0 MB BPM-Meter - Automatically measures the beats per minute of an incoming audio signal. n/a 41.5 KB CDumper - Controlling up to 15 CD-Drives on a single computer simultaneously with pitch, tempo, 3D positioning and effects for each. n/a 5.5 MB Deejaysystem Mk-I - Deejaysystem? Mk-I is a simple yet DJ-Oriented audio player. n/a Digital 1200SL - Professional DJ software that lets you mix MP3 and WAV files between two players with a virtual DJ interface. n/a 1.8 MB DiscoSoft - Digital audio mixing software that plays MP2, MP3, WAV, CD and WMA files on up to 3 sound cards, plus includes a bunch of extras. n/a 5.3 MB DJ Master - A digital audio player that plays audio files in a wide variety of modes for mixing and creating play lists. n/a 680.7 KB DJBPM - Manual BPM counter software for disc jockeys. n/a 1.5 MB DJPower - A full encompassing program to meet all the needs of a modern and professional DJ. (see Terms for demo password) n/a 3.1 MB Dr Benway - The Dr Benway is a free plug-in VST beatslicer effect for Windows only. n/a LiveSlice - LiveSlice is a beat slicer that can load up to 64 wave files at a time, slice them up and combine the slices in the multitrack arranger. n/a MGC DJ 2000 - Very basic DJ software that provides 3 players and 19 customizable sound effects. Uses Windows Media Player to support a wide range of formats. n/a 0 bytes MixVibes - DJ application that lets you play and mix multiple sound files (MPEG, WAV and more) on up to 16 channels using 1 to 4 sound cards/devices. 721.0 KB MJ Studio - A virtual mixing console for the digital DJ. n/a 2.2 MB OpenSebJ - An Open Source Realtime Audio Mixing Tool n/a Ots CD Scratch 1200 - Free "Virtual Turntables CD Player". Play two songs from the same CD at the same time - one forwards and one in reverse! n/a OtsDJ - CD/MP3 Radio and DJ software, auto mixing, smooth audio compressor. n/a OtsTurntables - OtsTurntables is a DJ program that empowers you to scratch, play backwards/forwards, tempo/pitch-shift and mix audio. There is a free version and several levels of commercial versions n/a     n/a   n/a  2.6 MB Pitch Calc. - A program for calculating relative pitch settings for mixing songs of different tempos. n/a 346.0 KB Stylus RMX - Stylus RMX is a groove-based virtual instrument plug-in for Macintosh and Windows. n/a   Sxratch - Sxratch is a free VST plug in Virtual Scratcher. n/a Tactile 12000 - A 3-D, interactive simulation of a DJ setup. n/a 3.1 MB Traktor - DJ-mixing tool that provides 2 players, a playlist section, mixer, beat matcher, digital scratcher, cue section, filters and extensive automation. n/a 3.8 MB TRAKTOR DJ Studio 3 - TRAKTOR DJ Studio 3 brings new features including four decks and integrated mixer to the versatile and comprehensive digital DJing solution. n/a UltraMixer 2 - UltraMixer is a DJ-Mixing-Software for Linux or Windows. n/a   Virtual DJ Studio - Mixes MPEG and WAV files on 6 lines and has an AutoPilot line for playlist support. n/a 6.9 MB Virtual Turntables - Allows you to mix MP3s and WAVs like you would CDs with a real mixer and multiple DJ CD decks. 3.6 MB