...put a record on

Huh? Record? LP? Single? B-side? What are these things? (Well, admittedly a few very cool and talented DJs still spin vinyl) Old school is cool after all.

Ok so I’m no DJ, but I can keep a beat and I’m not a complete idiot when it comes to matching like with like…. I’ve been checking out some online DJ and music mixing tools and have also found some programs you can download to master your mixing. So whether you’re a seasoned professional or a basic beginner try these tools out for size…… drop the beat!

Scratch It

Fun! This site was developed in 2000, I remember I first messed around with it in 2004 - it works using a flash interface and you can light stage lights, work the crowd, bring in an MC and select from a few beats and scratches. There are three turntables and three different levels to experiment with and a looping back beat that you can scratch over using the 2 other turntables with inter-changeable loops for each turntable. It’s super fun for those of us who are not DJs at all and I suspect even some of the hardcore mixers will find it’s old school style pretty fun to mess around with.

Looplabs 

Looplabs is an online music mixing application and platform. Dubstep studio allows you to easily mix and create and then save your tracks to share with friends. The software is intuitive and easy-to use and the studio also develops online music campaigns for many big brands.

JamStudio 

JamStudio is a bit different in that it’s more of a music creation tool – you can create music and beats using guitar, drum, bass, and piano loops. You can build your song by adding instruments and loops in almost any combination and then save it.

DJay

Because of bandwidth costs and speeds in SA it’s probably more preferable for most to download some sort of a mixing program that you can then mess around with and master while offline using your own beats and tunes. I found a pretty cool program called DJay for my mac (You can download a demo version and then decide if you’d like to pay.) You drag and drop software from your iTunes library and can line up bpm (beats per minute) and adjust volumes and speeds. 

TOP PICK: MixMeister

This seems to be the real grand daddy, even Sasha says it’s ‘World Class’ - Mix Meister is a powerful DJ mixing package that has a bpm analyzer and sophisticated production tools. As with most quality programs this also has a trial version and then you can choose to upgrade and pay. Well worth it if you want to hone your skills. Great news is that the Mix Meister Fusion and Studio products are now Mac compatible also.

To get started there are also plenty of programs you can download for free  – just search online and sift through the results. Perhaps also take a look at My Music Tools as a starting point to find DJ mixing software and tools you can download.

If you know of any other cool sites or programs let us know in the comments so we can build up a list of DJ mixing tools.