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Music Discovery Tips

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Even though many DJs have an insatiable desire for new music, the Internet is so awash with listening and downloading options that without direction, you could fritter away many hours of screening music without netting anything to use in your sets. While everyone has favorite recording artists, there are many online tools that will help you keep up with those artists and find new music in similar styles that you’re likely to enjoy. We pulled together the music discovery habits of several DJ Tech Tools contributors to compile a list of sites and tips that is sure to keep you flush with usable new tracks. You may already know and use at least some of these, but a more well-rounded and complete routine will definitely keep you covered with all the new tunes you can handle.

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Melodyne Editor’s Direct Note Access for DJs

After more than a year of big-time hype, Celemony’s Melodyne Editor software with Direct Note Access (DNA) is here. So… should you have believed said hype? DNA promised to allow Melodyne Editor users to manipulate the pitch, length and timing of individual notes within polyphonic material. In the case of this version of the software, that polyphonic material is meant to be chords played on a piano, synthesizer, guitar, other stringed instruments, etc. However, it’s tempting to get one’s hopes up about Melodyne Editor as the be all and end all of isolating vocals and instrument parts from stereo mixes, so that DJs and remixers could have carte blanche to any part of any track they desire. After the jump, we explore and the can-dos and the can’t-dos of Melodyne Editor.

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Playable Holiday Songs and New Year’s Tools

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The DJ TechTools staff spent most of the day cracking up over terrible christmas covers and collecting our favorite holiday songs that might be useful over the coming weeks. We found some good Christmas remixes, holiday covers, classic favorites and even a few New Years tools that will help you make the countdown smooth and easy.  Download them all after the break.

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DJ Laptop Stand Comparison

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As laptop DJs, we love blazing fast new computers, DJ software updates and new, innovative MIDI controllers. However, some of the most pivotal gear for a laptop DJ is also most often overlooked. Laptop stands can be critical components to a DJ’s setup, as you may also be using them to hold your MIDI controllers or CDJs, as well.

We have compared three laptop stands that are designed specifically for DJs — The Crane Stand, the Odyssey L Stand M and the Stanton Uberstand — to see which one has the edge for portability, ease of set-up, sturdiness and flexibility. Read the full review after the jump.

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How To Be a Successful DJ Part 3: Production

ClaudeVonStrokeTopPart One of this series covered setting goals and deciding on the direction of your DJing career, and the second installment helped you secure your first gigs. But now that you’ve got some skills and some steady gigs, how do move to the next level of booking high-profile, globe-trotting dates? Any DJ’s path to the top will be multi-faceted, but it’s pretty much accepted these days that you will not get there without producing your own respected tracks and remixes. Many DJs will already have a music background or a desire to produce music, so it’s not simply a career move to do so. However, for some insight on the correlation between production and a DJ career, we talked a man who might not have a DJ career without production: San Francisco’s tech-funk producer/label owner/DJ Claude VonStroke, who had some great advice to share.

While it’s beyond the scope of this one article to show you how to make good electronic music, over the coming weeks, DJ TechTools will begin offering technical articles on music production for DJs. Please use the comments section if you have specific wishes for what you’d like to learn or understand better about music production.

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Time-Stretch Comparison: Live/Traktor Pro/Serato/Torq

TimeStretchTopYou asked; we listened. Our article comparing the time-stretching/compression algorithms in M-Audio Torq 1.5 and Ableton Live 8 has been updated to include Trackor Pro and Serato Itch (which includes the same algorithm as Scratch Live). How much of a difference is there? We ran some tests and let you hear and decide for yourself after the jump.

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Key Analysis Software Smackdown

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As big proponents of harmonic mixing, the DJ TechTools staff started out with a simple question: which program that analyzes a song’s key gives the most accurate results? To find out, we looked up the keys using sheet music for a selection of 50 pop/rock songs and then analyzed those songs using four key-detecting apps: BeaTunes 2, Mixed In Key 4, MixMeister Fusion and Rapid Evolution 2. Read on to find out the results.

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DJing with In-Ear Monitors

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This week’s “What’s in Your DJ Bag?” video with MSTRKRFT sparked some discussion on the importance of preserving your hearing as a working DJ. You can go the route of wearing professionally-made ear plugs underneath your headphones, but a growing number of digital DJs are adopting in-ear monitors (aka earphones, earbuds), which they use to monitor the master mix reliably and consistently from venue to venue. DJing with in-ears can provide excellent sound isolation from the many unwanted noises around you, as well as allow you to mix at a lower volume to protect your hearing.

Read on for a description of some trusted in-ear monitor models, as well as an interview with Bay Area veteran club-hopper DJ Solomon on his experience mixing with in-ear monitors over the last 2+ years.

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This site is dedicated to digital djs. We develop performance tools and teach cutting edge techniques that enable creative expression. Visit tutorial videos on youtube, equipment reviews in the blog and a very helpful community in the forum. New articles every Mon, Wed, Fri.
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