What's the Best DJ Software?

DJDecks

Information courtesy of www.djdecks.be

djDecks offers you up to three decks to load your songs in (2 are shown by default)
Each deck has a pitch slider with a selectable range from +-8% up to +-100%
You can pre-listen the song using headphones through the rear-out of your 3d-soundcard, with a second sound card, by splitting left and right channels or by using ASIO drivers.
djDecks has a very advanced bpm detection that will help you synchronizing your songs.
It’s very easy to set a cue-point and start your song exactly when you want it at the position you want. Beat-matching two songs is also made easier by using the virtual record to speed a song up or down.

djDecks includes a high-quality three-band equalizer per player. You can configure the cut-off frequencies of each band to create cool filtering effects.

You also get an advanced effect panel with effects such as echo, flanger and gapper.
It’s very easy to create instant-loops up to 8 beats long with just a simple click on a button.
To select your songs you can use the playlist and file browser. It loads all the id3 tags and shows the songs found based on id3 tags so you get the information displayed the way you want it, instead of by filename.

djDecks can also be controlled by external hardware such as an external analog mixer, or by dj controllers such as the Hercules DJ Console or the Behringer BCD-2000.

If you want to have the feeling of mixing with vinyl, yet have the advantages of digital files, then you’ll definitely want to check out djDecks’ TimeCoded vinyl plugins. Using special vinyls that contain a special code, your mp3’s will follow the exact speed and location of the needle on the control record.

To see a complete list of all features djDecks offers, check out the complete feature list:

Decks
-Play mp3, wma, ogg, flac and wav files in up to 4 decks as well as Audio CD’s
-Change pitch with 4 different ranges from +/-8% to +/-100%
-Change volume, play and pause (instant-start) with low latency (up to 2ms with ASIO, up to 10ms with DirectSound)
-Edit ID3v2 tags for mp3’s and the ogg vorbis tag for ogg files
-Fast and accurate automatic BPM detection
-Pre-Listening :
Through Soundcard rear-out,
Through Left/Right splitter or
Through Second Soundcard
-Mix on an external mixer :
Player 1 to Front Out, Player 2 to Rear Out or
Player 1 to Soundcard 1, Player 2 to Soundcard 2
-DirectSound or ASIO output
-Spectrum analyzer, stereo VU Meter
-Configurable song break and startup speed for turntable-like effects

Effects (on each deck)
-3-band equalizer with on the fly changeable frequencies
-Echo/Sampler/Looping
Create echo effect, high pass and low pass filter available on echoed sound
Echo/Loop time configurable up to 8 beats
Volume of buffer and source both configurable
Easy looping with shortcut keys
-Flanger
Automatic or Manual
Configurable Strength
-Compressor/Normalizer
-Gapper effect
-Filter effect
-Bitcrusher
-Automatic 0dB limiter to prevent clipping
-Tempo Control: Change speed without changing pitch, or change pitch without changing speed
-Load up to 2 custom VST effects simultaneously on each deck

Mixer
-Crossfader with 4 different fade-curves, and configurable slope
-Spectrum Analyzer, stereo VU meter
-Limiter to prevent clipping
-Output samplerate up to 96kHz/16-bit for DirectSound and 96kHz/32-bit for ASIO
-VST effect possible on main output as well

External Hardware Supported
-External analog mixer supported
-Behringer BCD-2000
-Hercules DJ Console (Regular, Mk2, Control MP3)
-Vestax VCI-100
-EKS XP10
-FinalScratch, VirtualDJ, SSL and MsPinky digital vinyl records to control your music
-Any MIDI controller

Other
-Record your mix in mp3, wave or ogg format
-Create your own skins with djdecks’ advanced skinning system
-Separate BPM Analyzer to batch analyze your complete music library

Playlist/Music Browser
-Easily navigate through your music directories
-Shows all songs based on id3v1, id3v2 and ogg tag information (title, bpm, length, …)
-Sort your music in crates
-Search for music by typing part of title, artist, album, comment field
-Give each song a specific color for easy sorting
-Browse directories or files by album art
-Save playlist in winamp playlist format, or to html
-Open winamp playlists
-Drag&Drop songs from windows explorer
-Shows .cue + .mp3 files (as extracted with EAC for example) as directory

DJDecks use with Vinyl

What is djDecks Vinyl Control?
djDecks is a computer dj program that can play mp3,ogg,wma and wav files.
FinalScratch is a system that allows you to manipulate your digital music files with a special vinyl record. The records contain a special code that allows your pc to determine at which position and at what speed your vinyl is currently spinning. MsPinky, VirtualDJ, Serato Scratch Live and Traktor Scratch are similar systems, but they use different records, and different timecodes to determine velocity and position.
The DJDecks site offers some plug-ins to make the FinalScratch, MsPinky, VirtualDJ, SSL and Traktor Scratch records work with the djDecks software.

What do I need to use it?
You need a computer capable of running djDecks and an original FinalScratch timecoded vinyl.
You also need a sound card with ASIO drivers. ASIO is a system designed by Steinberg that makes it possible to record and play back sound with a very low latency.
There is a small list of cards that have ASIO drivers. These cards should work with djDecks.
If your card doesn’t have ASIO drivers, there are some generic ASIO drivers available that can work with almost any sound card. Performance may not be as good as with native ASIO drivers but they may enable you to try how it works.
Links to some of these drivers can be found on the DJDecks installation page.

What is the project’s status?
Needle dropping, pitching, scratching, back-spinning, reverse playing, … are all working very well, as long as you have the right hardware.
The right hardware means a soundcard with ASIO drivers, a decent phono pre-amp and a FinalScratch vinyl.
Your computer should have a processor faster then 1Ghz, and 256MB for 1 deck or 512MB RAM for 2 stereo decks.