Virtual DJ V 6.0

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Ready to download on the VDJ site, if you are a user. Looks very interesting. :thumbsup:

[kjdiscos]

Ready to download on the VDJ site, if you are a user. Looks very interesting. :thumbsup:

Any chance of a review darren when you had chance to have a play around ?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Any chance of a review darren when you had chance to have a play around ?

I haven't installed it yet, but I will post my findings.

[kjdiscos]

I haven't installed it yet, but I will post my findings.

Excellent Sir, Look forward to the findings

O/T

Did you manage to get those settings for that ripper, Wouldnt mind giving it a go

[Charlie Brown]

Yeah, I will be interested too Darren.....I'm in a spending mood :sj:

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Excellent Sir, Look forward to the findings

O/T

Did you manage to get those settings for that ripper, Wouldnt mind giving it a go

PM me your email address and I'll send the files over to you.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Well, the first thing to notice are the fact that there are widescreen skins, so no more stretching and losing half the screen.

The second and most interesting thing is the new internet search facility. If you have it configured, when you search for a request and don't have it, VDJ then searches for the group/song/phrase on the internet and you can stream it live on your laptop/PC. I'm not overly sure of the legal situation on that, but I'm sure they've got it covered.

Obviously you need a wireless connection if you are out working.

More later.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

thanks Darren. As you know im stuck with the cue so looking into the upgrade (if price is right) so very interested in what this new release has to offer.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

On the new widescreen skin, there are 3 modes, one for time coded vinyl, one for normal mixer and one for scratching. You can scratch with a mouse by pulling the display up and down and there is no latency at all - scratching is in real time. There is also a facility for cloning one deck to the other one and I have no idea why someone would use that, but maybe I'll find out...

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

You can also map your own keyboard or midi device and it has an autolearn button which helps you to do this. Most midi devices are natively supported anyway, so most of us dullards won't need to do that!

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

This is what they say about it on Facebook - saves me posting all the new bits!
Welcome to VirtualDJ 6/

This new version of VirtualDJ brings many new and exciting features. It greatly enhances the core values which made VirtualDJ so popular: accessibility, versatility and cutting-edge technology.

New script language

Because no two DJs are the same, we think that every DJ should have a custom-made, tailored software application. VirtualDJ 6 has been centered around a new language, called VDJscript, that really lets you take full control and full ownership of your software, and tweak it to your perfect liking in a matter of minutes.

With VirtualDJ 6, all the commands used in skins, keyboard shortcuts, controllers' mappings, etc, now use VDJscript.VDJscript has been designed to be both simple and complex, depending on how you will use it.

New controller support

In VirtualDJ 6, we changed the approach we had on external controllers. In VirtualDJ v5.x, and in many competitors software, the software was designed around a mouse-and-keyboard use, and as the market released new USB DJ controllers, they were added one by one as emulation of the keyboard.
Any controller, be it HID or MIDI, can now be used with VirtualDJ, and every buttons, jog wheels, sliders, LEDs, LCD displays, etc, can be assigned to VDJscript macros to make your controller react exactly as you want it to.

By default, VirtualDJ comes preinstalled with an impressive list of over 40 different USB controllers, already fully mapped and ready to be used plug-and-play.

NetSearch
Because the technicality of the mix is only half of DJing, VirtualDJ 6 puts a strong focus on the other half: playing the right track at the right moment.

Two new features are there to bring you the tools to make the best musical selection. NetSearch is one of these new tools. Whenever you are looking for a song but don't have it, NetSearch will automatically crawl the Internet to try to find the song you're looking for. You can then instantly stream the song or video directly off the Internet. You will never again have to turn down a request because you don't have it, or be frustrated because you can't find a file.

If you don't have an Internet connection where you are DJing, do not worry. You can search all the tracks you need at home where you have a connection, and cache all the songs on your local or external hard drive, then play them offline from your club.

The songs browsed by NetSearch are files which are freely available on the Internet, as found on promotional websites and free catalogs. That includes several millions of songs, mainstream music as well as underground tracks or specific remixes. Atomix Productions is also working with selected content providers to keep NetSearch catalog as extensive as possible.

MusicGroups
Next is MusicGroups. MusicGroups is actually two features in one.
First, MusicGroups let you show to the world what music you play.

When you DJ with VirtualDJ, your playlist will automatically be sent, to your MusicGroup. Your friends and fans will be able to follow what you play, and vote for you or leave comments.
You can also get together with other DJs who have the same musical style as you, and try to create one of the best generic MusicGroup, and become a reference.

But the true power of MusicGroups lies in the feedbacks it will give you. While you are DJing with VirtualDJ, MusicGroups will constantly analyze what you are playing, and will make suggestions of what other DJs would have played next. The suggestion is based on what other DJs around the world play, with a stronger weight to the ones from the MusicGroups you subscribed to.

Unlike existing music matching solutions, MusicGroups suggestions are not based on automated music-likeness. MusicGroups gives you real advices, based on what millions of real DJs are playing every day in clubs.

You will find out that MusicGroups is a very good way to discover new tracks, and expend your sets.

New Timecode Engine
For those of you who like the touch and feel of vinyls, you will love the new Timecode Engine of VirtualDJ 6.

Rewritten from scratch, it brings a much better accuracy and responsiveness to timecodes.
The new Timecode Engine has been optimized with the traditional VirtualDJ v5 records, but can now also run in noisemap mode, and bring VirtualDJ's myriad of features while still using competitors' timecode solutions.


New skin engine
VirtualDJ 6 got rid of one of the annoying limitation of VirtualDJ v5: You can now resize your window on-the-fly, without worrying about which skin is in which resolution.
The Skin engine also brings many new elements, like ScratchWaves, ResizeZones, etc.


Improved video engine
More and more video codecs are now being played by the internal video decoder.
The video engine has also been optimized and is now 15% faster than in version 5.


Unicode compatibility
VirtualDJ 6 is now fully Unicode compatible.
From USA to China, from France to Russia, all your files and songs written in foreign languages will now play and display flawlessly in VirtualDJ, both on PC and on Mac.


Various improvements and bug fixes
Version 6 also brings a long list of small improvements and bug fixes, thanks to the reports and help of hundreds of users who helped us to make it the most flawless software we ever released.

[JAMdisco]

I'll probably download it and have the old version on my spare laptop just in case there are any 'bugs' that haven't been sorted. I'm sure it'll be fine as all previous releases have been ok but I'm a bit of a sceptic when it comes to new software, especially as it's a new version i.e. 5 to 6 and not 5.x to 5.x.

Has anyone used it in a disco situation yet?

I'll give my review as soon as I've had a play around with it.

[kjdiscos]

Darren, Whats the quality of the video it finds ? , Are they free of any banner ads and logos mate ?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Has anyone used it in a disco situation yet?


It only got released Sunday night!


Darren, Whats the quality of the video it finds ? , Are they free of any banner ads and logos mate ?

:confused:

The quality of the video is as good as you ripped it.

Banner ads and logos?

[kjdiscos]

. You can then instantly stream the song or video directly off the Internet. You will never again have to turn down a request because you don't have it, or be frustrated because you can't find a file.

Was refferring to this darren ?

[JAMdisco]

Banner ads and logos?

Yes, that confused me too. VDJ has never had banner ads or logos has it? Not that I've seen anyway.

[edit] Unless he means the ones it searches for you if you don't have it (but I think that only applies to music from what I've read)

[edit 2] Just read the previous post and see that it can do video. I'm sure it will be free of ads though.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

In that case, I don't know. When I have been searching for songs I don't have, it hasn't come back with a video.

I'll try later.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Just had a quick play and the video quality generally is not that good if you put it on a larger screen. It is hit or miss again though. Some are better than others.

[kjdiscos]

Yes, that confused me too. VDJ has never had banner ads or logos has it? Not that I've seen anyway.

[edit] Unless he means the ones it searches for you if you don't have it (but I think that only applies to music from what I've read)

[edit 2] Just read the previous post and see that it can do video. I'm sure it will be free of ads though.

Incorrect mate,

you can have a logo on or of withing virtual dj, So it has had logos, And this comes on by default however you can turn off in the options.

And im reffering to the search as darrens above post

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Darren, the search and streaming of songs.... Is it pretty much any song or is it just music that can be legally downloaded for free? Still not sure how that can be legal if its mainstream popular music?

[jamesh]

well having played around with it all day it seems pretty stable to me... I've not been able to make it throw a wobbly at all... So things are looking good for adding it onto the main gig machine. The only down side i don't like at the moment is the new skin isn't very touch screen friendly :( I still have to use the Full video skin to get buttons big enough for my fat fingers to be able to use :(

Here are the changes from v5 log for anyone that's interested :):):)

VirtualDJ 6.0 (31 May 2009)

New features:

* New powerful script language called "VDJscript" (for skins, keyboard shortcuts, controllers' mappings,...)
(see documentation: http://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/VDJscript.html )

* New controller support (better integration of MIDI and HID controllers)
(see documentation: http://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/ControllerDefinition.html )

* New Timecode Engine (better accuracy and responsiveness to timecodes)
* New Internet features: NetSearch & MusicGroups
* New skin engine (skins can now be resized in real-time)
* New sampler (with half/double loops on the fly, and automatic jingle or loop mode depending if the rec_out point is almost a loop)
* Full Unicode compatibility (can display Japanese/Russian/... characters without problems)


Timecode:

* Timecode detection is now adapted to the signal in real-time
* New timecode mode "relative 2000Hz"
* New option 'noise LP filter'


Skin changes:

* New VirtualDJ6 skin (using the new script engine)
* Skins without a "version=6.0" in the header will continue to use the old syntax
* New skin element: <onload action=""/>
* New skin element: <scratchwave>
* New skin option: <tooltip>blabla</tooltip> inside <button> and <slider> elements on skins xml


Improvements:

* Improved video engine (more video codecs are now being played by the internal video decoder)
* New v6 database using UTF-8 (for Unicode compatibility)
* Bigger settings window with new options
* New tooltips in settings window
* Can change the language on the fly (in the skin window)
* Can now pick an action directly from a button in the skin, when you are in the mapper window.
* Progressive pitchbend (limited to +/- 25%)
* 14-bit MIDI support
* New video options "keep_ratio (crop)" and "keep_ratio (full)"
* New video transition: "grid"
* Read tags from .mov and .mp4
* Reduced range of equalizers (to prevent saturation when put to max)
* Gain knob now goes up only to +7.5dB (new action "power_gain" can goes up to +30dB like v5 gain).
* BPM analysis now sets up bitrate
* Registry entry: iTunesFolder
* Added new decoder for codec: "General Internal Audio". Should be used instead of quicktime for .m4a
* New columns in browser: "Bmp Diff" and "Key Diff", usefull to sort by more compatible to less compatible songs.
* New filter-folder options: "insearchdb", "ispresent", "bpmdiff", "keydiff"
* autocrossfade-length setting used in automix if not tempo or cut
* Got rid of the infamous smiley face


New actions:

* 'get' + ...
* 'fader_start' (starts the song when crossfader or volume fader is moved)
* 'gain_slider', 'volume_slider', 'crossfader_slider'
* 'slider_relative', 'gain_relative', ...
* 'param_invert', 'param_add', 'param_multiply'
* 'set_bpm': "set_bpm 123.4" or "set_bpm 200%"
* 'headphone_gain'
* 'crossfader_curve'
* 'loop_double', 'loop_half'
* Check the action list in the mapper window (or look in english.xml in Languages/) for more.


Bug fixes:

* fixed m4a with foreign characters
* fixed serato crates
* fixed video jump on directX 11
* fixed genre tag on m4a files
* fixed freeze on some nvidia cards (needs to put nVidiaFreezeBug to 1 in the registry).
* fixed automix silence if bad tempo endpoint
* fixed droping in virtualfolder from search
* fixed auto_crossfade in safe mode

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Darren, the search and streaming of songs.... Is it pretty much any song or is it just music that can be legally downloaded for free? Still not sure how that can be legal if its mainstream popular music?

That's what I thought! It seems they have it covered though. I'm trying to find where it says where they find the music etc. Nothing illegal though - all through promos and catalogues etc

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Sounds very handy as long as your connection speed is fast enough or lets you buffer the song before you play it.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Sounds very handy as long as your connection speed is fast enough or lets you buffer the song before you play it.

You can download it to your cache.

[JAMdisco]

That's what I thought! It seems they have it covered though. I'm trying to find where it says where they find the music etc. Nothing illegal though - all through promos and catalogues etc

I've just checked on th VDJ forum and someone asked where the tracks and videos come from. This was the reply:-

It crawls the net ... no 1 particular place ... think of it like a google like search ... no way to guarantee any quality or content ... just like when you get the info back from a google search you need to sometime view the actual content to see if it was what you were wanting.

[welby]

OK enough is enough!

You just rubbing salt in my wounds!

I purchased PCDJ VJ and Atomix (Virtual DJ) ceased with their distributor agreement with PCDJ so that has left me with a piece of software at over £200 with basicallly no upgrade path and little support.

There is talk about getting a crossgrade to the new virtual DJ but Im told by Atomix that is down to PCDJ actually giving Atomix permission to do so.

So PCDJ why dont you do the honourable thing and allow this to happen?

Yes I am angry! :bang:

[JAMdisco]

Sorry to hear that Welby.

You could always fork out $299 (about £180ish - a couple of gigs should pay for it) then you will have an excellent piece of software that has NEVER let me down yet and excellent support.

[edit] Just found this on the Virtual DJ website:-

Upgrade to VirtualDJ PRO, prices starting at $49 (36.35 €) *
If you own another product sold by Atomix Productions or one of its partners, you can upgrade to VirtualDJ Pro at a discounted price
(such products include for example VirutalDJ HomeEdition, Hercules DJConsoles, Numark Cue or VirtualVinyl, etc...)

You will then be a full member of the virtualdj community, and enjoy all the advantage of VirtualDJ Pro.
You will get the latest versions before everybody else, and benefit from the most advanced features and the broadest range of compatibility.

Does this apply to you?

[Adam_F]

[edit] Just found this on the Virtual DJ website:-

Upgrade to VirtualDJ PRO, prices starting at $49 (36.35 €) *
If you own another product sold by Atomix Productions or one of its partners, you can upgrade to VirtualDJ Pro at a discounted price
(such products include for example VirutalDJ HomeEdition, Hercules DJConsoles, Numark Cue or VirtualVinyl, etc...)

You will then be a full member of the virtualdj community, and enjoy all the advantage of VirtualDJ Pro.
You will get the latest versions before everybody else, and benefit from the most advanced features and the broadest range of compatibility.

Does this apply to you?

It doesn't.

There's some legal thing going on between PCDJ and Virtual DJ, so at the moment, no upgrade exists for PCDJ users.

[JAMdisco]

That's a bit of a shame.

I've downloaded and had a bit of a play with the VDJ 6 and I must say, first impressions are excellent. I also like the new look. :D

[welby]

It doesn't.

There's some legal thing going on between PCDJ and Virtual DJ, so at the moment, no upgrade exists for PCDJ users.

Yes...come on PCDJ do the right thing!

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Am I missing something here. If you have software that works on your current laptop and theres no issues with it. Why would you need support?

Ive only recently brought Cue and cant see any need for updates or patches because it works fine with my laptop and its spec.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

That's a bit blinkered Neil.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

The reason I asked is Ive never had any software issues using vista. Just the odd hardware driver issues. Cue works fine, gigged with it a few times and no issues. If I was to buy a hardware controller further on down the line and it didnt work then thats different? The software has been out for a long time so there shouldnt be any bugs with it outstanding at the time they dropped it?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

The reason I asked is Ive never had any software issues using vista. Just the odd hardware driver issues. Cue works fine, gigged with it a few times and no issues. If I was to buy a hardware controller further on down the line and it didnt work then thats different? The software has been out for a long time so there shouldnt be any bugs with it outstanding at the time they dropped it?

What about upgrades though?

[DeckstarDeluxe]

I guess it depends how you use it. It does what I want it to do. Half the reason I got it was with using mp3 cds and having an increasing amount of songs sometimes I think of a song and it could possibly be on different discs so having a laptop I can find it instantly. Plus it doubles up as my back up source. I dont do anything fancy with it.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I guess it depends how you use it. It does what I want it to do. Half the reason I got it was with using mp3 cds and having an increasing amount of songs sometimes I think of a song and it could possibly be on different discs so having a laptop I can find it instantly. Plus it doubles up as my back up source. I dont do anything fancy with it.

Why did you buy Cue then? There are a lot cheaper products on the market without all the bells and whistles.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

I just loved the look of it. Yes there are cheaper products on the market and belive me I had alot of trial djing programmes on my computer but cue was the only one I really liked. Virtual DJ wasnt bad though.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I just loved the look of it. Yes there are cheaper products on the market and belive me I had alot of trial djing programmes on my computer but cue was the only one I really liked. Virtual DJ wasnt bad though.

Virtual DJ is Cue! (or the other way round)

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Yeah it was pretty similar from memory. Think virtual had the turntable graphic and tone arm etc... Cue doesnt

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Yeah it was pretty similar from memory. Think virtual had the turntable graphic and tone arm etc... Cue doesnt

Yes, but the script is the same. It is essentially the same bit of software written by Atomix and put out under different names.

There are hundreds of skins for VDJ - surely you must be able to change the skin on Cue?

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Not looked..... :D

I am thinking of getting a rack mount kit and naturally a control too like the Dac-3. At the moment its on the bottom shelve next to my amp so I hardly see the screen!

[welby]

Not looked..... :D

I am thinking of getting a rack mount kit and naturally a control too like the Dac-3. At the moment its on the bottom shelve next to my amp so I hardly see the screen!

Well I gigged with v6.01 at the weekend at a private party and it froze! :eek:

Must admit I was chucking 60mb vobs and uncompressed cdg files at it and I was also using the clipbank for promo videos so I guess it got a good hammering.

I must look at the crash log sometime - yes you actuualy get a report although Im told its meaningless unless you have a degree in computer engineering! lol

The interface to the dac3 is very good. In fact ALL the buttons on the dac work a treat, just watch out for the sync button as I accidently hit this and had people trying to dance at rave warp speed! lol

Just as well I had my Cortex 1000 as a back up player.

I think it will take a few more bug fix versions before it settles down.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I went back to 5.2 a few weeks back after the deck stopped playing twice when it was on autoplay. I can't be having that....