Westie DJ Tips: Spotify → Virtual DJ
So, you’ve been DJing with Spotify for Westie parties and are considering transitioning to using a DJ app? Or maybe you’re a dancer (or maybe even a non-dancer) who ended up here because you are curious. Either way, let me list out a few reasons why switching to a DJ app like Virtual DJ is a fantastic idea for those who want to get more serious as a Westie DJ!
With Virtual DJ (which is free, btw), you can:
- preview songs!
- get music metadata (like the BPM and the key) easily!
- have dynamic playlists that automatically update!
- decrease the chance of making mistakes (tho mind you, after you make a bunch of new ones for a bit 😆)!
- look cool 😎 (but more importantly, professional)!
- get help from many Westie DJs who use Virtual DJ!
As you can see, there are many compelling reasons. But wait, are there any cons to using a DJ app? 🤔
Unfortunately, yes. 😢
Here are some of the cons:
- Moving from a subscription service where you have access to all songs to a system where you need to acquire or download each new song you want to play can become costly.
- Using any DJ app for the first time can be a complex and overwhelming experience, often leading to more mistakes.
- You need to determine how to organize and manage your music as well as your playlists.
Despite those cons, I still think it’s worth transitioning to using Virtual DJ, especially if you’re thinking of becoming an event DJ (or already an event DJ). If you’re not convinced, perhaps by the time you’re done reading this post, you will be a bit more inclined to make the switch. 😄
Here are some topics that will help you get jumpstarted with DJing via Virtual DJ:
- Enabling Music Preview 🎧
- Acquiring Songs 🎵
- Managing Music 📂
- Basic: Virtual DJ Training 💻
- Advanced: Virtual DJ Training 🥇💻
- Making mistakes, Sweating, and Learning 😩😅🤩
Now, let’s delve into each of these steps in greater detail!
Enabling Music Preview 🎧
Why should I care?
One of the biggest benefits of being able to preview songs, obviously, is that you can preview songs. 😆 You don’t have to memorize all of the songs, as it’ll get harder to remember all as your library forever grows. I’m not sure if my library is considered large, but I have about 6500 songs at the moment. After a while (or from the get-go for me 😅), you will start to forget the titles, the artists, etc. So, being able to preview a song is a great way to be able to verify what you’re thinking of playing is actually the song you’re about to play. More than once, I’ve heard a DJ say…“Whoops, sorry, I thought it was a different song….”
Aside from the above, there’s a really important benefit most may not even think about. If you don’t have to memorize all of the songs, it also means you can decrease the time you spend searching for songs. I typically spend about 15 seconds listening to the intro, the chorus, and maybe the end of the song. That means in a minute, I can make snap judgments on 4 songs. In an hour, I can go through 240 songs. Let’s say for each song, in the interest of memorizing it, you listen to most of the song….say for a total of 2 minutes each. That means in an hour, you can only go through 30 songs. That’s a stark difference in how much time you spend looking for a song.
So, how do I do it?
These are two ways in which you can do that.
- Use a USB audio device
OR
- Use a Bluetooth headset
I strongly recommend taking the path of using a USB audio device over using a Bluetooth headset (at least initially) because there are great benefits, which include:
- keeping the songs you play on an isolated device that is not used by any other software/OS.
- avoids having to deal with the potential flakiness of a Bluetooth headset.
Personally, this is the journey I took as a Westie DJ:
- A cheap USB audio device + a wired headset.
- A better USB audio device + a better, wired headset.
- The same USB audio device + a wireless headset.
- Bought a cheap backup audio device.
Occasionally when I forget my main audio device, I have to do a workaround where I use the laptop’s native audio device to play music, and the Bluetooth headset to preview songs. It can be done and is definitely the cheapest way to set things up especially if you already have a Bluetooth headset. But again, this is something I recommend only using for emergency situations as it will likely complicate your experience (at least on macOS). That said, it’s comforting to know I have options! I have definitely forgotten my main audio device a couple of times. 😓
Any audio device recommendations?
Yes! Here are some recommendations on the audio devices you can buy!
- Cheap: SAUX USB C to Aux Audio Dongle Cable
- Not Cheap: Audioengine D1
Audioengine D1 is not cheap, but I’ve been using it since 2018, and my only gripe is that there’s a power button in the front, right next to the volume control! Many of my DJ friends who use D1 have turned off the audio device at least once during a set. 😆 Aside from that, the sound quality is great, the volume control makes it super convenient, and any problems I’ve had with it have always been solvable by unplugging and replugging the audio device.
I also bought the cheap one I linked above because it’s small enough it’s always with me in my backpack (whereas I don’t always have the D1 with me). I don’t really care for the audio quality of the cheap one, but it’s good enough to use as a backup.
Those are just the two that I currently own I can speak about. Though many DJ friends I work with use Audioengine D1, you should definitely check with your DJ friends what they use as there are plenty of great options at varying prices.
Acquiring Songs 🎵
Ugh, do I really need to (re)download songs?
Unfortunately, you cannot play songs you download via Spotify (nor likely play songs from other streaming services). Therefore, you have to figure out how you want to acquire/download songs. There are a bunch of legal ways such as getting them from:
- iTunes (not Apple Music)
- Amazon Digital Music (not Amazon Music Unlimited)
- Bandcamp
- SoundCloud
This may not be the most economical way to do a mass migration from a streaming service (like Spotify), so how does one rapidly initially acquire songs? Turns out there are ways to do that, but I will not document it here. 😆 You can reach out to me directly if you have questions tho! By now, your DJ buddies may already know it, so consider asking them too.
What do *you* do?
I buy songs on iTunes when available. When songs aren’t on iTunes, I acquire the songs via other means. Again… ask me privately if you want to learn about these “other means.”
Managing Music 📂
What do use?
I use macOS’s default music software Music (iTunes) to manage my music. Benefits of using that include the following:
- No need to worry about the folder structure.
- Allows me to change the DJ app if I want to (tho I haven’t in a while 😆).
There is one major con, however.
I update my macOS regularly, which means the Music app may get updated too. With the update, all of the bug fixes (🥳) but also new bugs (😫) will be included. I’ve had to deal with some terrible updates in recent years (since December 2021) resulting in disappearing playlists, over-written playlists, and playlists getting moved. I’ve never lost my songs, but as a computer 🤓, I’ve been able to deal with all of these playlist-related issues…but it’s a pain in my 🍑. Also, I can imagine this being a major issue for some who are less technically inclined.
Wait, doesn’t all software have the same updating issue?
Yes, they do. But my challenge comes from the fact the macOS update forces Music to get updated. I want to update my macOS frequently because I use my Macbook for more than just DJing. If I never updated my macOS, then Music wouldn’t get updated, and I wouldn’t have this issue. Or, if I used Windows with iTunes, I can independently choose to keep iTunes from updating while updating Windows OS.
So, is there a better alternative?
An alternative (that many non-US DJs I’ve recently met seem to be doing) is to manage songs in folders directly. Of course, one major con is that you have to decide how to organize your songs. Should you put everything in one folder? Separate it by the artist? By genres? By BPMs? I think in the end it doesn’t matter too much how you organize your folders because within Virtual DJ, you can ignore the folder structure when creating playlists since it’ll give you a “flat” view of all of the songs in a folder and its subfolders.
Since either scenario (using Music/iTunes or manually managing via folders) allows flexible playlist creations, I may start recommending folders as the easier/safer way of managing songs actually.
What about letting Music manage the folders only?
You’re right! I have been using Music to both manage the folder structure and my playlists. You can easily just use Music to manage the folders (by importing songs into it), but create playlists within Virtual DJ. Maybe that’s the best of both worlds.
Basic: Virtual DJ Training 💻
By the time you are reading this, you should be ready for some basic Virtual DJ training! So, let’s get to it! Btw, if you haven’t downloaded Virtual DJ yet, go get it! Make sure you download it from their website, not an app store provided by your computer.
These are the things I will cover!
- Configuring your audio.
- Finding, loading, and playing the songs you acquired earlier.
- Previewing a song.
- Creating a playlist.
Configuring your audio
Two outputs that you should configure are master and headphones.
Master will output the music coming out of your deck(s). If you have a USB audio device, you will configure master to go to that audio device. If you don’t have an audio device (yet), configure master to go to your internal audio device.
Headphones will output the preview (either the preview button on the side or by enabling headphones for a deck). Whether you have a wired headset or a Bluetooth headset, select one of those for headphones. Of course, you can only use the internal audio device as master or headphones, not both! This is one of the reasons why you may want to get a USB audio device (or a Bluetooth headset).
Finding, loading, and playing the songs you acquired earlier
To be able to test your audio configuration, make sure you have something connected to the device configured for master. Connect wired speakers or headphones to the device so you can pretend that’s connected to the loudspeakers at some venue.
Now, let’s go find your song within Virtual DJ.
Once you find a song, drag that song into one of the decks (or just double-click on it).
Then press play! Sound should come out of master! If not, try to figure out what’s wrong by looking at the audio config, volume, and other things that may be incorrectly set.
Previewing a song
Now, let’s see if you can preview songs. If the headphones button is lit up on the deck where you’re playing music, you may already hear something come out of it. If nothing is lit, try pressing the preview button on the side, and see if you hear anything come out of it. If there’s no sound, again, go figure out what’s going on. If you hear something, great!
Creating a playlist
Fantastic! Since you have successfully played and previewed a song, now let’s spend a little bit of time organizing your songs.
Music
If you decided earlier to use Music to manage your songs, create a new playlist. Once you do, name it whatever you want, and drag some songs into it.
Go back to Virtual DJ and reload iTunes. You may have to do it twice (as there’s a minor bug/issue where it doesn’t refresh on the first try).
Voila! You now have a playlist!
Virtual DJ
If you decided earlier to manage your songs manually via folders, you can make playlists within Virtual DJ. Similar to what you may do within Music, just create a list, drag some songs, and there you go!
By now, hopefully, you’ve been able to preview and play a song, organize your songs in playlists, and feel confident enough that you can use Virtual DJ at a dance party. 😄 What you should do is practice at home finding songs, previewing, and playing them as if you’re at a dance party and you’re DJing. You should also mess around with the audio configuration a few times so you get comfortable doing that each time. Configuring audio is probably the part where I have the biggest issues when starting my set. Once I verify my audio is configured properly by hearing the sound come through the speakers, I rarely have application/Virtual DJ issues afterward.
Advanced: Virtual DJ Training 🥇💻
Now that you’ve gotten some basics down, let’s get into some juicier topics that will make your DJing experience better!
Dynamic Playlists
Music → Smart Playlist
Earlier, you learned how to create a manual playlist where you manually dragged songs into it. I create manual lists for things like bumper music and certain themes I may use for contests (blues, pop, R&B, etc.). Turns out there’s a way to create something that updates dynamically. In Music, it’s called Smart Playlist. To do that, create a new Smart Playlist. You’ll then set the rules you want, which will result in the playlist updating automatically as you add more songs that fit within the rules you set.
Virtual DJ → Filter
If you choose the path of using Virtual DJ directly to manage playlists, you can do something similar with Filters. Try creating a filter, setting the rule(s) you care about, and see the same thing happen. As you add songs, that filter may get automatically updated if the song fits within the filter you just created.
Automix
Automix is a nice feature (tho I don’t use it personally (unless I really have to 🚽)) that allows you to focus just on finding songs and putting them in the right order. As long as you have songs in the Automix list, it’ll continue to get played automatically. In theory, you can create your whole set and let Automix play your set. It’ll be the same experience you probably have if you’re using Spotify to DJ.
Westie DJs Guild Virtual DJ Meet-Up!
Mid-2023, a few of us gathered on Zoom to share tips and tricks of Virtual DJ. Here’s the video! You can learn more tricks from DJs around the world!
Making mistakes, Sweating, and Learning 😩😅🤩
Now that you have a reasonable understanding of how to take advantage of the awesomeness of Virtual DJ, the only thing left for you to do is to DJ, make mistakes, sweat, and learn! I’ve been using Virtual DJ for a while now, and I STILL make mistakes occasionally. I still learn new things. You WILL make mistakes. Just make sure you learn from that and think about how you may avoid that mistake in the future.
Thank you for reading this! Don’t be shy to ping me if you have any thoughts/feedback to share!
