Music
5 essential digital DJ tools for beginners and professionals
You don’t need expensive record decks to get the party moving – this cutting-edge digital software will help you mix, blend and beat-match with the best of them.
Until recently, digital DJing was a fairly wide-open field, and you might find DJs hitting the club with a mix of gear that included laptops, soundcards, controllers, or bulging CD wallets.
Over the past few years, though, things have changed. The rapid development of Pioneer’s rekordbox, along with important updates and additions to their latest range of CDJs, including USB integration, improved looping and quantisation, means that a USB stick and a pair of headphones is all that most DJs need.
While the ubiquity of Pioneer CDJs has meant this approach has become something of an industry standard, it’s by no means a solution that works for everyone. Below, we take a look at some of the other options available to professional and amateur DJs alike.
Native Instruments Traktor Pro 3
Native Instruments were one of the earliest companies to embrace digital DJing, releasing the first version of their Traktor software back in 2000. Partnering with Stanton in 2003, they developed Traktor Final Scratch – a Digital Vinyl System (DVS) that allowed DJs to play and mix digital files using special timecode vinyl.
DVS is still part of the Traktor set-up – having been officially incorporated into the latest version, Pro 3 – but it's the software features and integration with dedicated hardware controllers that drew in the majority of its users.
Its Deck FX section runs deep, allowing for complex and unique permutations mappable to multiple controls, while the new Mixer FX streamlines to single, per-channel controls for increased playability.
The tight, four-deck mixing, looping and beat-jumping capabilities make it perfect for DJs looking to employ multiple sound sources, creating new rhythms and tracks in real-time and incorporating their own productions, blurring the lines between live performance and DJing.
Serato DJ Pro
For DJs looking to keep things simple, you can’t do much better than DJ Pro from Serato. Trusted by scratch DJs and turntablists the world over, its rock-solid stability and no-nonsense interface makes it the top choice for anyone demanding tight, accurate control or the ability to mix tracks with minimum fuss.
The hardware, produced in conjunction with Rane, has, in recent years, expanded from plug-and-play boxes to a range of dedicated mixers and even a motorised, digital-specific turntable-style controller.
Serato-certified mixers and controllers by the likes of Denon, Roland and Numark mean that whatever a DJ's style, they'll find something that suits them.
Pioneer rekordbox DJ
Combining some of the best bits of Traktor and DJ Pro is the rekordbox DJ. An add-on based on the existing rekordbox infrastructure, its familiar interface means that DJs who want a single program for mixing at home and preparing sets for the club will find a solution that makes a lot of sense.
While it’s not quite as stable as DJ Pro or as deep as Traktor, it is a comparatively younger piece of software and, with a company as large as Pioneer behind it, you can bet they’ll be catching up with the competition pretty swiftly.
Atomix Productions VirtualDJ
Consistently underrated and yet the most used DJ software in the world, Atomix Productions' VirtualDJ has many features that similar software from much bigger manufacturers has neglected for years.
Key sync, streaming integration and smart playlists, among many other features, have been built into VirtualDJ for years, and yet some of the larger players are only now starting to shout about them.
VirtualDJ is also a very open piece of software, working right out of the box with the vast majority of controllers on the market, and customisable far beyond what’s possible with other major software.
Ableton Live 10
While designed initially as a live performance tool, Ableton Live was quickly adopted by DJs looking for a new way of doing things.
Freed from the constraints of manual beat-matching, users are able to instead focus on incorporating a live approach into their sets, allowing for fluid, amorphous constructions that often redefine the concept of DJing itself. Deep, right?
Being able to play works in progress, unreleased tracks and individual stems alongside finished tracks can add a unique twist to sets.