Once upon a time, I was really into beatmixing. I never felt like investing in turntables and huge unwieldy record collections, so I was an MP3 DJ. I used the very affordable and incredibly good AtomixMP3 program.
However, now that I wanted to pick up the MP3 DJing once again, I noticed that the program hasn’t been maintained or upgraded in years. And the replacement has become pretty expensive for some one who is going to use this program once or twice a year.
So I was pleasantly surprised when I ran into Mixxx. It is a little more bare-bones, but it has all the features I need: output to multiple channels or soundcards and beatmatching. The BPM algorithm seems to be a little less sophisticated than the one Virtual DJ is using. But if you’re not happy with the automatic one, you can always tap your own rhythm.
It doesn’t do sound effects and some other fancy stuff, but I hardly ever used them anyway.
So I’m off to hook up my mixing panel and spin those beats.
photo credit: Alejandro Amador