Atomix Virtual DJ 7 manual

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2 PLATFOR M INTRODU C TIONS HOME , BROADCAS TER , PRO BA SIC, an d P RO FULL 3 3 INTER FACES – ZONES BROWSER FILE SYS TEM / FOLD ER S TRUCTUR E FILE / SEAR CH RESU L TS 4 4 5 7 AUDI O AND VI DEO TA G SUPP ORT 9 GLOBAL SEARCH 13 SEARCH IN G 14 NETSEARC H 16 TRACK OPTIONS 16 BPM ANA LYSI S AND KEY DETEC TI ON 17 COMPUT ER BEA T GRI D (CB G) AND MAN[...]

3 Virtu al DJ offers a fe w diff erent p latforms o f choi ce to f i t a DJ‘s needs. Let us take a loo k at each platform and what each provide s in funct i o na lity. HOME (FREE)  Provid es all th e e njoym ents of PRO without all the overhead of com pl ex sound c onfigurations, com pl ex controller setups, broadcast i ng, or full vide o outp[...]

4 Before beginning to use V irtualD J, it is important to f amiliarize yourse l f with the controls and ―zones‖ of the software. Up o n openi ng VirtualDJ for the first t ime, your scr een resolution is evaluated and o ne of the included multiple re s olution skins a re s elected a nd d is played for you au toma t ically. T o change to a differ[...]

5 The B rows er Zone a r e a is where you n avigate and organize files stored on a local, external, or net wo rk hard disk. The Browser zo n e is divid ed into panels. 1. Fil e System / Folder Structur e 2. Fil e / Se arch Res ult s 3. Aut o mix Playlist 4. Sidelis t Panel 1: File S ystem / F older Str ucture Pan el VirtualDJ provi des several o rg[...]

6 History – provide s acc e ss to data s tored about each session use o f VirtualDJ. Th e data is stor e d as .m3u playlist f iles and it is st ore d in the M y Documents -> Virt ualDJ Tr acklistin g folder. History data is sa ved on the f ly in o rder to provide running h istory of playe d tracks f o r ea ch 24hr timeframe o f use. iTunes ?[...]

7 Panel 2: File / Search Results VirtualDJ pro vi d es several elements of informatio n a b out each track. T h e informati on is a combination of VirtualDJ def i n ed data fields and su pport ed f ile tag data. By default the title of the song and artist are listed fo r e ach f ile a lon g with columns for beats per m in ute (BPM ) a nd duration ([...]

8 The browser are a is determi ned by the skin d esigner on how much space it will us e as part of the s kin. However, you c a n use t he Browser Zo o m button to maximize the browser a rea t o consume the entir e skin area. The Browser Zo om button is th e dual mo n itor gra phic found to the f ar right of t he Search b o x. Click on the gr a phic[...]

9 VirtualDJ su p ports ID 3 T ag s of M P3 audio f iles and MP4 and M OV tag s of video f iles. VirtualDJ has always provided the fastest i nf ormatio n acce s s about one‘s collecti on b y using VirtualDJ‘s datab ase. Adding direct t ag a ccess to every file consider ably slows applicatio ns ability for timely browsing and searching. VirtualDJ[...]

10 Under each f ield with the up -arrow button ca n be read f rom the tag and import the inform ation into VirtualDJ‘s database. Click on the b utton to co py the data i n to the Virtua lDJ data f i eld. Using the right-arrow button f ound u nder a field is used to wr ite the V irtualDJ data f ield in f ormatio n into the files tag. VirtualDJ sup[...]

11 Displaying Virt ualDJ data field colu mns In th e f il e browser or p laylist panels, right click o n any column title and t he list of available fie lds is displayed. Select a f ield title to place a check ne xt to the name to have it included in the disp la y. Select the field name for a checked i t em to hav e it removed f rom the brows er d [...]

12 Data F ields  Loaded On – shows t h e deck that t h e track is curr ently loaded on  Titl e – Title o f the track  A rtist – A rtist o f the track  BPM – B eats per M inu te as analyzed by VirtualDJ  Length – Length of the tr ack in M inu tes:Seconds  A lbum – A lbum t h e track is associated wi th  Genre – Gen[...]

13 The databas e managem e nt system c omes wit h a dditional tools fo und o n the Config -> Brows e r tab.  Save ‗On t he Fly‘ during each sessio n use  Automatic ch eck o f datab ase integrity at start  M a nua lly check the datab ase integrity  Fix databas e error(s)  Clean out datab ase entries f or missing/m oved files Vi[...]

14 VirtualDJ provides an intuitive on the fly search capability. Adding files to the global search is quite easy and can b e done i n two ways. First is by setting the ‗Search D atabase‘ property in the Con f iguration‘s Browser tab to ‗ Add automatically‘. T his will add any f iles not alread y part of the search (new a dditio ns) when b[...]

15 UN DERST A NDING THE RESU LTS Once you h ave entered the search term, V irt u alDJ‘ s ce nter browser sectio n displays t he results that match your search s tring. In th e following exampl e, a s earch on ‗Bobby Va l e n‘ is entered. T he 2 f ile(s) listed above the d ivid ing line r epresent the f ile(s) f ound in the fo lder that is cur[...]

16 W ith the N e tSearch options selected, V irt u alDJ will also search the NetSearc h se rvices fo r results matching th e search criteria. VirtualDJ wil l only pr o duce results where the Artist and/or Title o f th e track match the s earch criteria . NetSearch ca n be us e d by e ither s e lecting th e NetS earch opti on from t he left n avigat[...]

17 The BPM E ngine analyzes the audio to determi n e the temp o of the track. Analyzing a track can be performed 2 ways – Lo a d the track to a deck or right -click on the track i n t h e Brow e r p anel and select BPM -> Re -Analyze. You can also analyze a group of trac ks contained in a f o l der from the lef t Navigation pan el, right-click[...]

18 EDIT GRID tab Alternatively, an anchor method c an be u sed. First tap - out the beat using the "Manual Beat Tap" button while the track playing. Second, pause t he track and move the tra ck to the f irst do w nbeat ( f irst beat), and click on "Fir st anchor". Then advance to the upbeat (second bea t), and click on "S e[...]

19 The Aut o mix fe ature works fro m a single deck. By defa u lt i t is Deck 1; however, p ri o r t o starti n g th e Automix if Deck 2 is select e d as the a ctive deck t h en Deck 2 is us ed. B y utilizing 1 d eck t his f rees the opposite deck for s taging the first so ng to be used onc e you d ecide to stop th e Automix pr oce ss. In ad dition[...]

20 Playli st & A utomix M anagement Using the Pl aylist m anagement m enu by clickin g on t he [ + ] i con and choose f r o m the avail able op ti ons for how the a utomix will function and tracks are managed in t he playlist. A utomix Types – 5 modes  SMA RT – VirtualDJ attempts to determine the optimal mix p oint based on the o utro of[...]

21 Deck Waveform Di splay – Mi x Point Markers W hen automix is active, the d eck be ing used f or aut omix play will sho w both the cur rent t rack ( t op) playing and the next tr ack (bottom) t o be played. Th e currently playing tr ack will display an EXI T mix point marker. The track to be played n ext will show an E NTRANC E mix poin t marke[...]

22 Even w ith the mix p oint markers ava ilable for on -the-fly adjust s, th e mi x p oints for a track c an b e set prior t o usin g that track as p art o f a a utomix playl ist. The adjusted mix points ar e o nly utilize d whe n using the SM ART a utomix ty pe. To edit a tracks Automix mi x points, loa d a track to a deck, then select t he respec[...]

23 VirtualDJ incorporat e s its own versio n of a waitlist ca lled the Sideli st. The Sid elist panel (4) can be used to ho l d tracks that you know will play ed so metim e du rin g your session. It also provides a lo c ation for VirtualDJ to m o ved tracks that were loade d bu t never played because a n ew tra ck was loaded t o t he deck. The S id[...]

24 In orde r t o simpli f y browsi ng and provid e better an d robust f ile managem e nt capability, VirtualD J provides thre e (3) methods for the u ser to organiz e the database. On the left pan el‘s bord er are three (3) folder op tions Create Favorite F o lder (m onitored folder) – pick a f older f rom the drive to alwa ys display i n the b[...]

25 A highly dynamic an d creative way to or ganiz e a collecti o n of tracks is to a pp ly co nditions that automatically f ilter (search) the database for tracks that match the criteria outlined. VirtualDJ calls these types of fo lder FilterFol de rs. Create a Fil ter Folder Click on the bl ue FilterFold er icon and a Filt e r cre ation dialog is [...]

26 Filter Folder Examples FILT ER Expected Result isscan ned=0 o r isscanned=1 Local Databa s e top 100 nbplay top 100 list top 100 firstseen recently added top 100 la s tplay recently played bpm >12 0 and bpm<130 bpm r ange fr om 1 20 to 130 year>=1980 and year<1990 80s m usic days since lastplay<7 songs played last week days since [...]

27 Depending on the le vel of com plexity of using Favorite, Fi lter, or V i rtual fol ders; you may n eed to group the fo lde rs together into one or m ultiple folders. Or , creat e a fol der w i th a m ixture of these types for quick access to key track types in your collection. To create a neste d fol der stru cture, use the Virtual F older feat[...]

28 Virtu alDJ‘s standa r d i nterface pr ovides access to two virtual ―decks‖. To load a track to a deck, drag and drop files into each of the decks sp inni ng virtual platters. The two decks are equipped with the follow ing control s and d isplays: 1. In for mation abo ut track c urr ently load ed – prov ide s key inform ati on about the c[...]

29 4. Waveform display for currently - Thi s vi ew sh ows th e visu al waveform of the enti re track, allows for viewing the rem a inin g dur a tion of the audio , as w el l as what h as already b een p l ayed . W hen h ighl ighted in blue or r ed (Using the defaul t skins), that area of the waveform indi cates what has been played and the current [...]

30 9. Pitch slider / Pitch buttons Controls the speed/pitch of the track w hen m o ving the s li der. Moving it downw ard the speed of th e music speeds up. By m o ving upw ard the speed slows dow n. T he ―Zero‖ button lets you sm oothl y bring the p i tch b ack t o 1 00%. Double click on it to br i ng it back instantly. The two Pitch buttons a[...]

31 Virtu alDJ also support more th an t he t raditional 2 deck se tup by us ing sk ins th at have m ul tiple decks defined for use. The basic transport (CUE, PAUSE, PLAY , S YNC) controls all func tio n the sam e as de scribed in the prior section for each ind ependent deck . Also, the supporting controls li ke Hot Cues, Loop IN and OUT, pi tch fad[...]

32 With t he 6 deck skin all of VirtualDJ‘s standard controls are still the sam e , ho wever; the [A] and [B] opti ons on the i ndividual decks ident i fy which deck is assigned to the L eft or R i ght FULL deck. If Deck 1 is set to A then a ll the controls from the LEFT d eck for l oop, effe cts, a nd transport controls will act upon Deck 1. The[...]

33 Virtu alDJ featur es an internal m ixer section a s par t of the Mixer pane l . It can be used just like a regu lar DJ m i xer. The con tro l s on the m ixer i nclude: 1. Panel selection buttons 2. Master and Headp hone Cu e volum e knobs 3. Channel Gain This knob sets the gain level for the corresp ond i ng channel (deck) . (R igh t click ing w[...]

34 With the multi -deck skins the fundam en tals of m ixer h ave n ot ch anged. But depending on w hich skin i s used the controls do act d iff erent ly on the individual d ecks. With the 4 d eck skin, you w ill find th at eac h d eck h as gain, eq, volum e and P FL c ontrols. Th e 6 deck skin has the trad i tional 2 deck l ayout . As described ear[...]

35 PC Version Mac Version ZOOM LEFT ZOOM RIGHT Item s f ound on t he toolbars – 1. VirtualDJ Logo 2. CPU – usage graph o f the CPU 3. 4/4 CBG Bea tkeeper 4. Clock – Displays current t ime. Depending on the skin, a left click will change th e displ ay to a co unter or different t ime formats of 12hr/24hr. 5. Config – Provides access to the c[...]

36 Above the playe rs, a window po sts curves co rres p onding t o the tw o rates/r h ythms of the music. These curves are r epresented in a w aveform, a llowin g you to s ee your music. The p e aks in the c u rve represent b eats. In o rder to synchro n ize the mus ic, these peaks sh ould occur at the same time . The present is repres e nted by t [...]

37 VirtualDJ is desig n ed to be v ery simple a n d easy to us e yet it is also f ully customiz ab le to matc h your preferred system p erforma n ce. To m ake changes to Vir tualDJ‘s configurati o n, cli ck on th e (CONFI G) button. This will b ring you t o the ―Settings‖ d ial og. The options in the ―Settings‖ d ialog can b e viewed and [...]

38 The Options set tings control the multiple f eature s an d actions to a cc ommodate yo ur style for using VirtualDJ. Cross fade r – T his o ption all ows you to sel e ct th e cross fader c urv e. There a re fo ur differ e nt opti o ns including: Full, C u t, Scratch, and Smo oth. Pitch Range – Allows yo u to change th e pitch ran ge of the p[...]

39 M S N – W hen a c tivated, this option will allow yo ur W i ndows LIVE M essenger to show the music you are playing. T o take advantage of this fe atur e , yo u n eed to mak e su r e th a t t h e ―w hat I am listenin g‖ op ti on is on in your M S N M e ssenger. A uto Pitch Matching – W hen loadin g a song, automatic ally adjust s the pit[...]

40 Dis e ngage Beatl ock – Once engaged, the Bea tlock fea ture will keep t he deck loc ked to th e b eat on the o ther d eck, no mat t er i f y ou are s cratching o r ch anging the p itc h o n t h e other deck. Di sengag e ―on load‖ or ―on switc h ‖ will au tomatically d isengag e the bea tlock featur e when the d eck is lo aded/switch e[...]

41 VirtualDJ Performance S ettings tab is for o ptimiz in g per f ormance to the ca pabilities of the computer . Depending o n the system‘s r e sources , some s ettings will work better than others . N OTE : W hen new comp o nents (controllers, soundcards, exter n al drive, and so f tware) a r e added to the system, pe r formance options may requ[...]

42 Master Tempo Pur e Scratch (no Master T empo) – Don't use ti mestretch, but focus on ge tting a pure scratching sound. This option can be used when you w ant VirtualDJ to act like traditional turntable s and f o cus on providing a quality scr a tch sound. Fast Stretchin g – apply a real time / h igh qu ali ty time-stretching algorithm u[...]

43 VirtualDJ, PRO plat form; pro vi d es a very powerful mapping cap ability to s upport almost any exte rna l controller on the market to day. Utilizing device defin iti o n and mapp ing f iles natively embedde d in VirtualDJ and/o r externally hosted in V irtualD J‘s f ile st ructure and created by you, a lmost any control ler can be used with [...]

44 Mapper Op tions – to the rig ht of the Connected Devices drop -down, click o n the bu tton for accessi ng the v arious mapper options.  Rescan for New Devices – when selected V irtu alDJ scans for any dev i ces connected Toggle On/Off th e use of these various type of devices. Checked is On, Unchecke d VirtualDJ will not use that type of [...]

45 A ssign a Key and Actio n using Key-Learn + Action-Learn The faste st and m ost li kely the easiest is using t he Key-Learn i n combination with the Act ion- Learn skin se l ection options. 1. Selec t your controller from the de v ices drop- down 2. Click the Plus button at the bottom to Add a new entry (Key- Learn is on by defau l t) 3. Press o[...]

46 A ctions and Parameters ( VDJScript) There are a l arge nu m ber o f a ction s th at hav e vari ous t ypes of parameters that can be added to gi ve va rious levels of control when the act ion is applied. The standard for us ing th e act i on w ith the param ete r is - <action verb> <action param eter > . e.g. p i tch +0.05 – change[...]

47 VirtualDJ allows y o u to choose be tween sever a l different i n terfac e designs c alled ―skins‖. By d efault, VirtualDJ provi des you wit h sever a l skin options at in stall. Installed ski n o ptions inclu de a traditional 2 deck layout, o r you can select b etween 4 or 6 de ck designs; all in multiple resolution options. S o, you can c [...]

48 VirtualDJ can now ta ke advan tage of many feat u res w hile con nected to the Int ernet. T hese features (M usicGrou ps, NetSearch, etc...) r equire you to have an active M e mbership on the VirtualDJ website, and to provid e your login and passw ord on this tab. The MusicGro u ps featur e is the a bility for a DJ to sho w their playlists to o [...]

49 VirtualDJ is able t o decod e s eve ral f ormats n ative ly with its audio and vi deo de cod e rs. Th e Codec t ab identi f ies wha t file types ( b y extensio n ) use w hat speci f ic deco der for play in Vir tualDJ. At install, VirtualDJ i ncludes the some of t he common sound and video f ile extensions. I f, VirtualDJ is not already associate[...]

50 ENA BLE / DIS A BLE – P rovides the ab ility to h a ve the a pplicatio n‘s vid eo engine enabled o r d is abled. By disa bling the video engine A LL vid eo fe atures o f th e applicati on are not u s able a nd may incr ease performance f or DJ‘s using on ly the AUDIO f eatures of the a p plication. A ctivate – Tur n the video engine on o[...]

51 Decode in mul t i-thread – De cod e the video streams using all available CPUs/G PUs ( f aster, but o n some computers it can sometim es fail to load th e video) Keep ra ti o (crop) – K eep the videos in 16/9 or 4/3 no matter what the screen resolution is, by cropping the videos on th e sides Keep r a tio (full ) – Keep t he videos i n 1 6[...]

52 VirtualDJ features a power f u l s ampler, which provi de s the a bility to record, load, save and play samp les on the f ly. The sampler can b e a ccessed by clicking on the ―Sampler‖ tab in the lower window and features 12 slo ts for sam ples which are availabl e to use at any given point in time . There are two types o f sampl es tha t ar[...]

53 Samples can be playe d from the skin‘s interfac e . The sampler is found just b elow the ‗Effects‘ int er face on the ski n . Simply select the sample f r o m the p ull -down menu, and t hen click on the sample title t o begin play. The f r ame around the t itle w ill light up duri ng p l ayback. If the s a mpl e is a loop, then click the [...]

54 VirtualDJ features a comprehensiv e se t of audio and vid eo effects and tr a nsitions w hich ca n be accesse d by clickin g th e ― Effects‖ tab. Th e e ffe cts list is display e d on t he l eft side . E ach of the e f fects can be activat ed f or both decks. M u ltiple effects, both audio and video; ca n also be activated. To us e a n e f f[...]

55 In additio n to mixin g tradi t ional a udio, Vir tualDJ makes it p o ssi b le to mix vid e o cont e nt with the e ase and famil iarity of a DJ in terface. I n stead of audio files (.m p3, . wma, . m4a, et c.), vi deo f iles (.avi, .mpg, .wmv, . vob, etc.) can be p layed. VirtualDJ‘s inter face p rovides a ll the sa m e fea tures to mix, scrat[...]

56 Video Files in the Browser Video f iles are distinguished in the B rows er wi t h a small, blue ―V‖ on their icon . And, audio f iles with linked videos are distinguish ed in the Browser with a sma ll, blue ―L‖ on their icon . W hen playing a video /linked audio file, a vid eo window w ill open in VirtualDJ. If the installed vid e o card[...]

57 In addition to being able to play music and o ther vid eo content, Virt ualDJ allows provides su pport to play and mix k a raoke fil es. VirtualDJ is comp atible wit h MP3+G, W AV+G, W M A+G, OG G+G, and .ZI P files. The tracks will ap pear with a ―K‖ in its icon . W hen loa ded on the d eck, VirtualDJ will load the audio track on the deck a[...]

58  Between Songs o Show Bitmap – a Bitmap can b e used to display a background in between e ach song played o Show T ext – use to show informati on about specials o r next song/singer between the songs. Use the X a n d Y co o rdinat es for w he re to display the text. Available variabl e s to be used with the display e d text are %SONG, %SI[...]

59 VirtualDJ provi d es a n addition al ability to record or broadcast th e outp u t. To a cc ess the rec o rding and broadcastin g features cli ck on the ― Record‖ tab. T h e following i n terface is dis p layed . The following m e thods ar e availa ble:  Record Audio  Burn CD  Broadcast  Record M o vie To access the rec o rding s [...]

60  Spli t i n multiple fil e s – che cked will split th e session as separ at e tracks, i n stead o f o ne lar ge audio f ile. W hen splittin g to separate tracks, a ―Cut‖ butt on a ppears ne xt to the ―St art Recording‖ button to demarc ate tracks. The ―Auto - split o n cross f ade‖ option will automatically de marc ate tracks wh[...]

61 Broadcast ing to the Internet (“Broad cast”) wi th BROADCA ST ER, PRO BA SIC, or PRO FULL platf orms VirtualDJ provid es a method f o r broadcasti n g the session in real t ime on the I nternet as a ―we bcast.‖. This way peo ple around th e world c an listen to t h e mix sessio n . Click on ―Con f ig‖ to acc ess the con f iguration s[...]

62 Record Mov ie Click on ―Con f ig‖ to access t he con figuration se ttings for vid eo recording . Record From –  A uto-Start – checking this box will a utoma tically begin the recordi n g when the f irst track b egins playing. I f n ot c h ecke d then m anual a ctivatio n o f the r ecordin g wil l n eed to be activated usin g the ―St[...]

63 http://w ww.atomixproduct i ons . co m http://w ww.virt ua l dj.co m A tomix Productions Inc. Los Angeles CA 90036, USA VirtualDJ Co pyright: Copyrigh t 1997-20 10 Ato mix Prod uct ions All Rights Res erv ed Number IDDN.FR . 001.04 0012.01.R.C.20 00.000.314 00. T ra d ema rks: The V irtualDJ Log o is a regis tered trade m ark o f Ato mix Product[...]

EULA SUMMA RY: - This licens e gives y ou the right to install and use the s oftware o n a maxim um of tw o compu ters , by one perso n. - It does not give yo u the right t o rent or sell computer syste ms, on whic h the softwar e is install ed, or to re nt or sell the s oftware or par t of it. - The softwa re is distr ibuted "as-i s" an [...]

2 Copyright © 2009 wr itten by Chri stopher J . Stoll[...]