I have DJ'd for almost 25 years, starting out on vinyls with some crappy Numark belt driven decks that couldn't even maintain the proper rpm and drive, but am now just DJing at home for my own pleasure with a controller.

I have previously tried Virtual DJ years ago, as well as Serato DJ Pro, and Rekordbox. I am now at a point where I don't want to have to duplicate effort, so am looking for a single software solution for the future before I invest my time in adding tracks, preparing tracks, creating playlisys and crates and so on. I do not want to do it, and then change software and have to do it all again or pay extortionate amounts for another piece of software to transfer my cue points etc between software.

I've heard and read a lot of good things about Virtual DJ 2023, so I am wondering if it is where its at at the moment? I've heard repeated claims about it having the best stem quality and algorithm, the best customisability, the best CPU/RAM performance, the most reliable and solid, amongst other things.

Any views before I finally take a punt on it....or any of the other software, and invest my time in sorting out my music?

 

You see, I guess that unless you're a pro and hop from system to system until you find the best for you (or the best gear sponsor), any sw is good enough, though stem separation is a pretty new concept and I don't know if they have it all.

Since child I experimented to play with a Lenco that didn't have speed control but I was trying to beatmatch with a tape deck pushing or braking with the fingers the vinyl record.
Then with direct drive Akai, quartz locked (+ and - some small speed control) and then of course the 1200, still the best to me.

However, in early 2000's came out Traktor, and to my surprise it worked well, I was basically using it like a real system (except for the little tech miracle of time/pitch stretch), and since then I never changed, because I customized controls and reached a high level of proficiency, so even if other sw can be better I wouldn't change in anyway, it would take too long to get accustomized.

To get a proper answer there should be someone who tried them all.

 

When it comes to mixing I still jam old school. SL1200 mk3's for me., but IF I fancy doing the auto route? I use Ableton and a Launchpad, because it still has the tactile approach!

 

You mentioned in the other thread that you are mixing mainly Techno and Tech House and i have to say that for these genres Traktor is still the dominant platform.

 

In one word, yes, VDJ is the best, when it's about stem separation, FX and controller compatibility. Almost all inovation was initiate by them, which is probably why they're not regarded as "pro", because they were the first to add the infamous "sync" function (then later the key sync, which is now more and more a standard thing), also the name doesn't help for that "pro" impression.

Their licence system with a "buy once, get update for free" is also great, they got a suscription model too (which is a standard thing now) but they don't force you into it and don't use it as an excuse to ask money for their already customer (looking at you Native Instruments...). The company ethos seems a bit more on the DJ/innovation side than on the stock market side.

The only kind of downside would be if you plan to use it with vinyl, their timecode is not as great as Traktor or Serato, but nothing that should be a problem if you're not a scratch DJ (but the software can use every timecode signal).

As a DJ myself, I try almost all DJ software on a professional use (except Djay that I just try on someone else setup, as Im not an Apple user), and they all got pros and cons, but everytime, VDJ go in my top 3 choice.

But it also depend on your setup and how do you want to use it, if it's for the stem functions, try the demo first and see if your computer can handle it without too much latency. VDJ sounds better but at the cost of more ressource from the computer (it mostly use the GPU, which is great if you got a good GPU cause it let the CPU handle the others things, but having a good GPU on laptop is not cheap as a good CPU)

 

Does it work in the same as FL Studio then, in that if you buy the Pro level license, you then get all future updates for free?

My older laptop that I hoped to use as a dedicated laptop for DJ has a 4 core i5 2.8GHz-4GHz CPU and on board GPU, so not great maybe?! My main production laptop has an 8th gen 6 core i7 CPU though with a GTX 1060 mobile GPU, so will probably be good for everything, but was hoping, like I said, to be able to use my older laptop.

This is where a version on the sister site would be useful to give the options a deep dive longer term test of all the features. I think Traktor, Serato DJ Pro, and Rekordbox are on there, but Virtual DJ 2023 isn't unfortunately

I may just have to see how far I can get with the trial. However, it seem like I can only trial with a keyboard and mouse for free and have to sign up and pay to test with a controller??

 

The 2021 version of Virtual DJ is on there and that should happily work with your 2nd Lappy! Worth a try no?


https://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/Minimum system requirements.html << here are the specs for the 2023 version but lower down the page will also give you the older versions too..

 

If you are considering Traktor, Serato, Rekordbox and Virtual DJ 2023 for your main DJ software, this last one is you best bet imho. Not only for the superior Stems 2.0 algorithm developed (take in consideration you will need an Nvidia card with at least 6GB VRAM), but for the really good audio engine and video handle, compatibility with almost any past, present and future hardware, improved GUI, versatility, customisability, support (continuous updates, improvements and a strong community in their forums able to help), etc.
I own licenses of all of them and use Virtual DJ exclusively.

 

Last edited: Mar 28, 2023

I used Traktor DJ for decades and have been mainly using VDJ (2021) for some time now and can say that the scratch engine is top notch. But I still use my Traktor Time Code Vinyl. That’s the nice thing: You can use different TC formats with VDJ. The tool is no longer the toy that pro DJs think it is. I also find the custom interfaces mega, although there is a lot of ugly stuff from the community, but also exactly what I want! So clear recommendation!

 

Last edited: Mar 28, 2023

Not sure if it's exactly like FL Studio, but it seems like. They got a free version that you can try, but you can't use it with every controller, so if your controller is not officially supported you'll have to use it with a licence. You can try it with the subscription for a month, I did that at some point cause I wanted to try it with my S4MK3 from Native Instruments, but the mapping wasn't available without paying licence (and you can't download the mapping with cracked version), so I get the one month sub, download the map, cancel it and then use the mapping with the cracked version (and as I enjoy it - not with the S4 though - I bought a full licence).

It should work on you're old laptop (when not using it with my desktop I use it on a i5-4210u 1.70GHz-2.4GHz and on board GPU, with 16go of ram and SSD), it's not the best for latency if you want to use the stems, but other than that it's ok, if I'm not using the stem I get the same perf as with Traktor or Rekordbox (without stem use - I didn't try Serato 3 on this one so not sure how it can handle the stems when it's process by CPU). But your bigger laptop should handle that better if stem is really what you want to use.

 

Gosh...
There was a time when DJs were appreciated just for proposing good music and making seamless transistions, now if you don't add violent and obtrusive FXs, beatmashers, reverbs, phasers and the like to render unidentifiable tracks they spit on your face...
And now stems separation too...

 

I just tried the demo version and stem seperation failed poorly on first try...

 

Ok, but let's say the track is a "bit" oversaturated and overnoised.
Would it work with a "traditional" track?

 

This seems odd. When you remove the Hi Hat, it doesn't even sound like it's doing anything, as in not even trying. Had it definitely finished the stem prep before you tried this?

 

With some tracks, the algorithm can't quite "decide" what belongs to which stem. The stems "kick" and "hihats" would better be named "drums low" and "drums high". Very squashed and noisy sounds go into the "instrumental" stem. Also a choir- or vocal-like synth may end up in the "vocal" stem. But overall it is still very useful for mixing with most tracks i tried it on.

 

Yeah, goes without saying that will happen. It's a new technology and processing then on the fly, so the algorithm is still immature and new. Anyone expecting perfectly clean stems for all parts for all genres and styles, frankly, has unreal expectations. Anything I've tried it on, they are the best on the market and definitely clean enough to use, especially live against other musical layers where any artifacts or non-clean stems won't be detectable.