Basic playlist help, please...

[V-JCB]

Typical newbie error:
I posted this in the wrong forum chatroom, so I copied it here.
I have already been advised to try the 'Cross' demo ( thanks, Daniel Clark ), which I will download next - Do I have to uninstall the 'Home' demo first btw?

Anyway, here is the original post:

Help please, on a couple of really basic questions.
I am trying to help a friend who DJ's for dance classes.
No effects.
No fancy transitions (apart from fade-outs)
No scratching. No dubbing.
'K, if there is anyone still reading this: (sorry to all who fell asleep with boredom... )
All she really needs to be able to do is save the tracks with the cueing info attached (i.e. where to start play, where to fade out) so that when she is playing a set, and gets a request for a track, she can just grab a pre-edited track, and drop it into the active playlist without stopping the music. A nice extra would be to be able to do a quick edit on a track on a second virtual turntable, previewing it in her headphones while the playlist is going out over the speakers. (but not absolutely required)
I downloaded the free trial version of MixVibes Home, because it looked from the website, like MixVibes Home could do that for her. But having wasted money on MixMeister Express, which can't do any of that, I wanted to see MixVibes Home in action before shelling out again!
Trouble is I can't see how to save a playlist (export is greyed out)
I can't even see how to save a track with the editing information attached, so that it is ready to drop into a playlist.
Does she need a different version of MixVibes?
Or is it just a restriction on the free trial version?
Or am I just being dense.
( I can't even figure out how to make the start cue work, so density probably has something to do with it! ...but, I am not a DJ)
Thanks in advance - V.
p.s. - now I am off to try and remove my misplaced post ; sorry about that.
- erm - where do I find a moderator...?

[daniel clark]

dont worry about the posting they will get it sorted gives them some thing to do read your post in both topic area , as you get info then the answers will be easer to understand. first what caliber of laptop she is using , the better the spec but the minuim should work ther are user manual avaible to give a idea of some of the funcionality of the software , also how to use it.as said the demo are limited by you post Cross fits some of the requirments but the one with the fade out point , not shure check out the vids on the U-Mix Control Pro

[V-JCB]

... but the one with the fade out point , not shure check out the vids on the U-Mix Control Pro

Gotcha - Thanks again - V

[daniel clark]

dont worry about deleteing the home it should interfere 2 am england, cant make a good choice with no sleep. , get more info as you can and some one should be avaible to answer your questions , giving info as to what set she would like to use will help us give good advice as to what avaible according as to how much monie is planned on accomplishing this

[Jim B]

I posted this in the wrong forum chatroom, so I copied it here.

No worries, I have removed the double post

[Blackbrook]

No effects.
No fancy transitions (apart from fade-outs)
No scratching. No dubbing.

It feels like as if Home could be the right choice BUT you need a soundcard with at least two outputs: one for the master, which the playlist uses and one for cueing so that she can hear her tracks while the master is playing. This you can do with ASIO4ALL, a programme that summarizes your different audio interfaces and puts it together as one BUT as you can read here Home does not support ASIO4ALL. So she would need a new (and maybe expensive) two channel audio interface.
That is why I would suggest Cross as daniel already did.

All she really needs to be able to do is save the tracks with the cueing info attached (i.e. where to start play, where to fade out) so that when she is playing a set, and gets a request for a track, she can just grab a pre-edited track, and drop it into the active playlist without stopping the music. A nice extra would be to be able to do a quick edit on a track on a second virtual turntable, previewing it in her headphones while the playlist is going out over the speakers. (but not absolutely required)

Fact is that:

- Cue points are saved
- You can configure in the "automix" feature when (in seconds) the tracks are faded out. Just in general, no configuration per track possible
- You have the possibility to preview a track (check the lower right corner on Cross, there is the preview section)
- She has the possibility to cue tracks

I am not exactly sure what you mean by "doing a quick edit on a track". If you provide more info for a non native speaker I am really looking forward to help you out.

Trouble is I can't see how to save a playlist (export is greyed out)
I can't even see how to save a track with the editing information attached, so that it is ready to drop into a playlist.
Does she need a different version of MixVibes?
Or is it just a restriction on the free trial version?

Exporting a playlist works for Cross and Cross DJ.

Editing information you think of manipulating the ID3 tags? Cross can read and manipulate the tags. If you have trouble doing it in Cross there are multiple programmes like media monkey or id3 tag that do the work for you

If you have any question feel free to post it in here.

Cheers,

Steve

[V-JCB]

Thanks Steve,
It took us a while to get through all the info, and test out the demos.
Not sure if it was a restriction on the demo version, or just not understanding the controls, but could not get the playlist autocue to work
Since the headphone preview would not be possible with the standard setup for Home DJ, didn't spend much time on the software after that.

Opened up Cross demo, and there was way too much displayed - screen crowded with stuff we didn't need, and the demo would not let me save a reconfigured display, to see if I could get a workable screen. Coralie lost patience, and went with Traktor. Although it only lasts 30 min. apart from not being able to save output, the traktor demo seemed to act like the live version.

Hey ho.

I did not like the way Traktor seemed completelyy tied into Apple iTunes playlists.

The demo of Cross looked a bit like it was the same, but I thought that I read that Cross can save its own playlists, without the evil Apple. Since the playlist output was disabled in the demo (fair enough), I couldn't tell...

Guess I had better duck out of here now - bought into the competition
Thank you for the help - very kind! V.

[daniel clark]

didnt try the hardsell, not needed good luck but keep making the music

[Blackbrook]

No reason to be ashamed of something. It is her choice, not yours. Display configurations can be saved in Cross 1.6.0 if you think of the collection. You can hide the effects and locators and all the stuff like that when you grab the line on top of the collection and pull it upwards. Then the collection is maximized. Also you can press F7 to switch between display modes.

Cheers,

Steve

[community@MixVibes]

Hello,

She could always go with Cross DJ, it is a very simple software that allows you to either do basic DJ functions or do advanced DJ functions.
Here is the description of the software:
http://www.mixvibes.com/content/cross-dj