Simple DJ Software for Swing Dancing Events

January 31, 2018 11:13 AM

Can anyone recommend a simple DJ software setup? This will be for Swing Dancing events.

I don't think I need any of the fancy fading or beat matching or any of that kind of stuff. Basically what I'm looking for is an application that will let me manage and organize music. Preview music (using an external sound card) build a playlist on the go. Similar questions to this have recommended Winamp but it looks like that software is dead. I'm currently using MediaMonkey to manage and organize my music collection but it doesn't look like this software (and its addons) allows for previewing to another output. Any recommendations?

posted by crios to Technology (5 answers total)

Best answer: I've used VIRTUALDJ in the past and it does all you want and more, though I really just used to create a playlist, cue up tracks, and do a little bit of crossfading.
posted by kendrak at 11:32 AM on January 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I have downloaded VirtualDJ and I'm liking it but honestly it's too many buttons, doodads, and gizmos. I could use it to get the job done but I don't need the turntable stuff or crossfader. For simple Swing Dancing DJing usually music is allowed to end to silence and then the next track comes up.
posted by crios at 11:35 AM on January 31, 2018

I program music for my dance group sometimes, and liked winamp because you can go back and see what you did last week or a year ago and that helps to keep various pieces of music and dances in circulation. Here's an article that lists alternatives. Lots of love for foobar2000, media monkey, clementine.
posted by theora55 at 12:20 PM on January 31, 2018

I use itunes for previewing and organization and winamp for playout for swing dances. You're right that winamp is not supportd anymore but there should still be installers available. You should also checkout swingdjs.com for suggestions.
posted by kbuxton at 1:12 PM on January 31, 2018

Best answer: I'm not sure if there is any non-turntable-and-fader software that will let you cue (aka preview) the next song in your headphones while outputting the currently playing tune to the soundsystem. You could probably kludge together something using two different playback packages with one set only to output to the headphones and the other set only to output to the line-out (or however you've got it set up), but I would personally get frustrated at the extra overhead of having to load a tune twice, into two different programs, and anxious that with the additional points of failure I would embarrass myself by screwing up.

That's one of the basic functions of DJ software though. You don't have to use all the knobs and levers but you would have one program in which you both cue and output. You start playing a song on deck 1 then you cue up the next song in your headphones on deck two and no one else can hear it except you, then when the first song is over you just move the fader over to deck two and play its tune and now you use deck one to cue the NEXT song. This way everything is handled by a single piece of software using a single music library.

Finally I'll mention there is an open source DJ software package called Mixxx that's pretty capable for the price (free).
posted by glonous keming at 2:26 PM on January 31, 2018