Just using 2 decks is sooo old now. Next week it'll be retro and the week after vintage. It seems it's all about running 4 decks now, and like lemmings people are chucking themselves at this weeks new controllers as if it's quite impossible to mix 2 songs together with just 2 channels. Perish the though. Unless you wanted to drop cash on an ITCH controller or Traktor Pro, you had little in the way of more than 2 deck control inside your computer - until now. Virtual DJ 7 was unleashed at the DJ Expo in Atlantic City yesterday, and technically has the ability to use 99 decks. That gig bag looks a little small now.
Detail is a little thin on the ground right now - Atomix are being understandably tight lipped about what exactly Virtual DJ 7 is all about, but I've managed to get this short list of features from them: - True multi deck (up to 99 decks). - New "advanced" sound config panel - Improved "advanced" timestretch algorithm - Support "linein" input in sound config, complete with waveform display, effects, bpm sync, on-the-fly record, etc - Support "microphone" input in sound config, with effects, record, etc - New soundengine with three timestretch modes: "pure scratch", "fast" and "advanced" - New "fullscreen" browser mode - Improved video engine, with optimized faster H.264 decoding - Support midi over firewire for controllers (IE Stanton DJ controllers)
Virtual DJ also has it's own Facebook page with a few picture from DJ Expo.
At the show, they're running various setups including one station with 2 CDJ-2000s and 2 CDJ-850s on a DJM-800, and another with with 2 DN-S3700s and 2 DN-S1200s routed through a DN-X-1600. Pioneer and Denon represent.
I'll be honest here - I've used Virtual DJ and Numark's rebadged Cue on and off for a while. But being a Mac user, stability was always an issue. It was only when v6 came out that it ran with any level of stability and not burn the processor out. And there are some killer features that Traktor and Scratch Live have only recently caught up with. The sampler/loop player has always been something that endeared Virtual DJ to me. Fingers and toes crossed that v7 will run crash free, and that it can at last be considered as a viable alternative to Traktor and SSL. My mind is very much open and actually a little giddy at the prospect of trying this out. VDJ is perceived as the underdog right now, which makes me want to like it even more.
So it looks like Virtual DJ is evolving into something worthy of attention from DJs craving more than 2 decks. Indeed, you'll note that the American Audio VMS4 and the new Denon controllers all ship with Virtual DJ LE as standard now. Not knowing exactly how the multi-deck will work, I really like the idea of 2 channels of audio and 2 of video. Or maybe the extra decks can be configured to run like sample banks rather than have physical decks wired to them. Exciting times.
No word on shipping. If they're sensible, it'll appear when it's ready and not before. Putting out a buggy release to hit a deadline is commercial suicide, especially when raising their game to be taken seriously as a player in a market pretty much set on the big 2. First impressions stick, so let's make it a good one OK?
This DJing lark gets more interesting and varied by the week. Clearly I'll have to get more decks to review Virtual DJ 7. Anyone got a 99 channel audio interface I can borrow? And a warehouse for all the decks?
virtual DJ 7 preview DJ Expo 2010
UPDATE: The above image shows 6 decks in use - 2 main decks, 4 smaller decks and 2 unused decks as well. Looks like a comfortable fit.
