DJ Software

DJ software compliments [and in some cases replaces] the traditional tools used by DJs. Essentially, DJing involves the blending of songs so that the music plays continuously and without breaks. It has become a popular artform and many different styles of DJing have emerged - from beatmatching which invloves matching the tempos of songs so as to blend them more seemlessly, and scratching which is a technique used to make rhythmic scratching and chopping sounds by moving a record under the stylus.

DJ software can be used to blend songs together either as digital audio files such as MP3 or from CD/DVD. DJing software can offer extended features that add to the creative process such as sound effects application or sampling. DJing software can also be combined with tradition DJ equipment or used with broadcast technology.

Although it is perhaps more straightforward to teach the essential concepts and skills involved in DJing by using vinyl or CD turntables and a DJ mixer there are advantages to using DJ software. The main example of this is that students will not always have vinyl or CDs of their own music but might have MP3s they can use. It is, however, recommended that students who are keen to learn DJing have the opportunity to use both traditional CD or vinyl decks and software. It is likely that courses in DJing would expect that students will have experience and skills with both.

There are opportunities linking to other curriculum areas with DJing such as Music listening skills, Mathematics [calculating percentage adjustments to song tempos for example] and history, sociology or cultural studies.