When i purchased Traktor originally i didnt know which was the best option and as i intended to do a bit of club / oldskool hardcore mixing i went for the professionals choice..

I now wonder if virtual dj might be the better option for mobile gigs though.

Could someone who has used VDJ over the years please tell me what they like/love about it and any downpoints? Im sure it will help many people including myself decide.

Here are my pro's and cons for traktor:

Pros
compatible with a lot of gear
has a lot of fx which can be played with extensively
easy to build a playlist


Cons
Has been unstable but partly due to hardware conflicts
when it crashes my preferences are lost and need to be reset
search database frequently crashes and needs to be reset (really annoying)
prelisten feature is a bit fiddly - tiny headphone icon which can be missed with mouse pointer
no video / karaoke facility
no large clock which PCDJ had - was very useful for mobile gigs i found
using fx is a bit fiddly

There are lots of DJ / Mixing Software out there for this line of work, why are you limiting your choice to only two of them?. You do mention a couple of them in your post, but they don't appear in your shortlist (PCDJ being one example).

Just wondering how you'd narrowed them all down to purely two possibilities is all.

i love traktor and have used it for a good few years on the mac... however, i tend to find its reliability is directly linked to how well your hard dive can take a good hammering from the bass line ;o)

solid state dives are the way to go if you've had a hard drive fail like me due to too much vibration lol
since using my solid state drive things have been much better... however my vci-100 does like to drop out now and then.. and that can be a real pain on the night while in the middle of a mix!

hence the reason i use my cdj2000s all the time these days for all my gigs, in clubs & mobile use... since the pc/mac environment isnt really geared up for life on the road, however careful you are!

getting back to the question... pcdj / vdj / serato / traktor... et al are all fairly similar and im sure you'll like some features other hate and vice versa... so is rather a hard question to answer without being personal about it which isnt much good for you lol

Having said that i'd much rather use traktor than any of the others as i know where all the buttons are and its functionality... get the learning curve out of the way, it may then come down to your personal style of djing or workflow, if you use time code cd's or midi controllers etc...

id personally stick with traktor as its about as good as it gets (as with serato)...

preview is a bit small... but i dont use this pre listen feature as i use external mixer mode.

re your comment no video / karaoke mode - its not designed to be a video dj tool or karaoke... if this is the route you wish to go, then maybe look at other software?

as far as your database is concerned i find friends that use 'moody' mp3s tend to have more problems with searching and crashing... foreign characters and the like in the tags cause traktors search facility to go nutts... so its always worth running your mp3s via scan & repair or something similar to ensure things run as expected... ive had files from beatport and traxsource to cause problems too so its not always the moody mp3!

for plain and simple djing better the devil you know ;) but if you think video djing or karaoke is the way forward then maybe look for something new?

1) Fount it a bit unstable on previous versions, but 1.2.6 and 1.2.7 have been pretty stable. Mostly gets upset when sleeping and then removing the USB device while asleep. But thats not just traktor that gets upset I've found :)
2) Haven't lost preferences - you can usually save the track collection (right click track collection and "save") to stop playlists disappearing :)
3) Search database - i've had issues in the past (and still do) where tracks sometimes have 00:00 length and sometimes the kbps column or BPM goes a bit awry too.. but a re-analyze seems to sort that - again it could be due to dodgy characters in other files that cause it...
4) prelisen feature - i only really use the preview feature and a bit of a cue sometimes if I need to shift the track on a bit.
5) yeah no video/karaoke - but i'm not interested in that just yet - I'll re-evaluate when it comes to that...
6) There's a clock right at the top centre - easy enough to see I think :)
7) fx - is a bit fiddly - but I rarely use that feature either (mostly to mess with at home) :)

Cheers,

David

I don't know alot about traktor, but I have been using VDJ for about a year now, and love it, so easy to use. I also do karaoke and video so use pretty much every feature, and have never really had a problem with it. In fact it is so easy to use, and makes life so much easier up to CD's that you almost feel like a cheat when DJ'ing with it. I look back over the playlist history all the time for ideas, and when I use the program with my Denon DN-HC4500 it is a pleasure to DJ, I highly recommend it.

I have to say it feels "better" using a midi controller than the keyboard to play a track... I've got the Denon-HD2500 although it seems to be being used more of a midi-controller rather than the purpose it was designed for (playing directly off of it!), but its there as a backup in case laptop crashes though I guess :)

Cheers,

David

I am in the same boat....I have also tried mixmiester.

Because of my Internet radio connections I have to use either Sam or Virtual DJ.
Virtual DJ trial copy that I have is easy to use and get around unlike Sam or Mixmiester where you need a degree to set the software up.

I would never use mixmeister as a live play out system... the play list and library is way too clunky, no link to itunes either, the EQ's again are very clunky... however much they say its a playout system i'd never use it live!

many of my radio shows are put together with music, sweepers and links.. mixmeister is very good for that! Also if you have a decent 4x4 house track you can be lazy with your mixing...

again... no matter how you look at it pc's & mac's do crash and when they do your dance floor will be very quick to let you know about it!

I am a VDJ user and in the past 3 years I can't say it has let me down yet. I have been using the same Acer laptop for years too, again so far it is still serving me well. I have found that ensuring your laptop isn't full of non DJ related stuff does help the software run more accurately.

Hope that helps

i have used spacious audio's sam party dj.it costs $129 and boasts that it can handle 50,000 tracks.I use it with windows xp home and have never had an issue with it.the only problem is that you have to load every track seperately,unless your music is already on hard drive.(or maybe im not computer literate!).you can download a free 30 day trial.
i also have just purchased pcdj red version to have a second back up on another laptop, but have not used it yet, so can not comment.
regards
chris

I have used both I used VDJ with a Hercules controller then last year changed to a Vestax controller that had Traktor bundled with it. for ease of use I would say VDJ has the edge I find I have to use a mouse more with Traktor & VDJ seemed more intuative to use. As 1 of the other guys said depends what you want it for if you want more features like karaoke go the VDJ route.
And definately keep a laptop just for music & djing :)

I use PCDJ software and generally find it great to use. I use:

PCDJ VJ
PCDJ RED MoBILE
PCDJ KARAOKI

All great and you can have karaoki as a plugin or use as stand alone.

VJ is the one i prefer as this does everything i need, such as Video Discos, Karaoke, easy to switch and no need for extra equipment

I have both PCDJ-VJ and PCDJ-Dex but prefer VJ, it’s a great program, very stable and user friendly. I believe PCDJ have dropped VJ now, but PCDJ-Dex is also a great choice. I will switch over to Dex one day, just need to find the time to set up all my folders. There are also loads of skins for Dex and new one’s coming out all the time.

virtual dj 7 easy

cheers guys,
i have been with traktor for so long it just feels wrong to change but virtual dj seems to be a much better option for the mobile dj so when the time is right i think ill get it. In fact i like the sound of PCDJ VJ too!!!
Have just bought Karaoki which is a great program too.

I have used virtual dj 5 and 6 for the last four years on the mobile circuit ,it performs very well I currently have it installed on my samsung nc10 netbook and it works brilliantly even if the processor becomes loaded it will ensure it keeps the track playing it never let me down ,the other plus is it can use itunes playlist which is handy for me as I tend to set playlists up for quick reference.

:)

I used PCDJ Red for first couple of years then tried PCDJ red mobile, Got sick of stuttering, and conflicts with other stuff ie windows word or other ordinary stuff, so tried VDJ havent looked back since.
i now realise where PCDJ get their ideas ......VDJ.
I am still on V.6 and am currently playing around with V.7, cant see the point of all those decks tho.. unless your a top club DJ in Ibiza or somewhere, whats the point? The average mobile Dj and lets face it we are (aren't we?) doesn't really need more than two decks and maybe a video.

Anyway back to original thread, VDJ all the way!

P.S anybody want to buy a full liscensed version of PCDJ Red Mobile?

Goochie.

VJ let PCDJ (USA) use it's base platform for PCDJ VJ which is why it's virtually the same although PCDJ have lost the licence and there will be no further update to PCDJ VJ.
VJ 7 is fantastic and so far very stable
Tractor is good and cheaper at the moment but will not do video
Download VJ you can have a full home version free so you can have a play!