Virtual DJ vs other programs?
I’ve been using VDJ and am really comfortable with it. Everyone keeps telling me to get away from it, I’ve been trying Ableton, but find it so damn confusing plus I have to wrap all my songs!!??
My question is:
Are people out there using VDJ and what are some other programs? I’ve been DJing for about a year now, and for my gigs I like something that I feel comfortable with, ie VDJ.
Thoughts?
are you just using controllers with VDJ?
VDJ used to be well known for crashing and being buggy to hell, but from what i hear its now a respectable program.
If your happy with VDJ and youve not had any problems, stick with it, your other choices of programs are traktor or serato, serato being the “industry standard” and not having a sync button, (idk about itch) or traktor, which DOES have a sync button and is favoured by quite a lot of users on this forum.
I use both the above and use both equally as much but i prefer serato for its cleaner layout, plus traktors timecode with CDJs is buggy, or so ive heard.
Nothing wrong with VDJ. I’m really looking forward to VDJ 8 - I just wish they’ give us a LITTLE info on what it might be like, or when it’s gonna drop!
Hoodless: yeah I’m using a midi controller with it and love it. Had no issues with crashing ect.
Thanks for your input.
Patch:did not know 8 was in the works, nice to know other people out there use it. Look forward to seeing what 8 has to offer.
Ive not used VDJ in 6 years so please tell me if any of my info is wrong, but it does have interesting features like the VJ capabilities and internal VST support, i reckon if they had a better marketing team and didnt have an exceptionally bad rep in the past it would be a forerunner along with traktor and SSL,
Also VDJ can use either traktors or serato’s timecode vinyl? im sure i heard that somewhere if anyone can back it up i may download it (VDJ7 Home version is free isnt it?) for the VJ+timecode setup, as i cant justify £70 for video-SL. Maybe if i like it on VDJ ill buy it for SL for my gigs, but i cant see it in the near future.
vdj home is only a trial version that allows the use of midi controllers and audio routing options for the first ten minutes when you open the program. The video also unfortunately wont display in full screen in the home version… It is really only for those that would have use a cracked version with a keyboard and mouse anyway… but in offering a bug free “free” version they are trying to build a reputation as they can control the quality of the program that all users have.. If anyone is stupid or greedy enough to use a cracked version good luck to them, but their opinion of anything, least of all the quality of their cracked version should not be taken seriously…
In answer to the timecode vinyl question, serato, traktor, mixvibes, numark, hercules are fine, but torq and I guess Ms Pinky don’t work… Personally I use Serato CV02 they’re great when setup correctly and give a fluctuation of about +/-0.03 bpm on my system, so I never have a problem beatmatching with them.
It’s not all about what you use; but how you use it. VDJ is fine but be aware that the others exist..give them a try if possible!
if you’re happy with vdj then stick with it. i use traktor but am considering buying vdj when version 8 is released… vdj has some cool features and flexability that traktor doesn’t - i just can’t justify it’s price atm.
got kontrol S2… stuck with traktor… then again I prefer it sine it works for me.
there is actually a basic mapping now avilable for the s2 provided by a user “technz” he apparanly has an s4 one awaiting approval… the only downside is that it is defined in midi not hid, so it doesn’t have the jog resolution that it has in traktor, only the default 128 clicks per rotation, you could try adding a little to the definition to tell vdj how many clicks the jog uses with full=“4000” so the jog line in the definition file would look like this
<jog name=“JOG” cc=“0x02” zero=“0x40” full=“4000” channel=“0” deck=“1” />
not sure how many steps the jog actually uses
i just watched his s2 and s4 videos and only heard him mention midi, nothing about hid. i didn’t know anyone had been able to interface with any NI controller using their NHL
I must be mistaken, I thought he said it was in HID in another post somewhere… my bad, I’ll edit that part out..
shame tho as i’d probably have paid 10$ just to see the mapper and device file 
shame tho as i’d probably have paid 10$ just to see the mapper and device file
you could use HID trace from vdj to see what messages it sends, but Native Instruments probably set it so you need to send it a signl so it works in HID when traktor is open with SysEx or something
yep, being NI i bet they require some kind of startup handshake or they tell your app to bugger off even the novation nocturn requires some handshaking as it’s not midi class compliant and only talks hid.
i’ve tried that hidtrace.exe, not bad. i also have a hiddump(.exe) in midimasher that does the same thing in a console.
i hadn’t seen vdj’s xml format for hid mapping. about as unfriendly as the midimasher format i guess, nasty having to mess around with raw bits and bytes 
midimasher uses a name, type, byte offset and bitmask.