My radio station is holding a comp for who can make the best set using their computer, or in other words mp3's. I want to use some recent tracks that arent very common on vinyl yet, or some great tracks that are hard to find on vinyl. That way i will be providing a set that no ordinary DJ using vinyls could produce. What tracks should i choose??

Also, what program would be best to use for mixing the tracks. I have been using atomix mp3 just as a start, but i find the quality of that is too shit when it records, especially when you beat match, some of the bass hits are hard and some are soft...its awful!

Please help me out here.

cheat and use Acid

mixmeister, da best

atomixmp3 actually isnt that bad... but to do anything decent with it you need the latest full version, 2.1. 2.0 and before are all terrible.

2.1 (with a special skin) adds low, mid, and high crossfaders, just like a redsound mixer... it also adds improvments to the sound engine and a headphone crossfader - atomixmp3 2.1 is actually pretty tight with the right skin!

interesting competition.. i wish our local station would do this, i can lay down some good sets with atomixmp3.

one thing you really need to be aware of with atomixmp3 is the beatgraph is only a starting point - almost never, do the beats really become matched when the are on top of eachother.. it's always a bit to either side, you just have to use the headphone monitors to get it right... but the graph is great for a starting point!

-mer

oh yea.. and another thing i should add - 2.1 adds *working* automatic level control - the auto-level in 2.0 wasnt worth a thing, but during the beta testing of 2.1 i ragged on clavel hardcore to get this working better. make sure you analyze all your tracks before you start dropping them...

another thing that really helps digital mixsets is an audio compressor... whenever i do live digital mixing I use a MDX2200 and drive that ****** hard - even if the level is 6db of to the next track, the final output doesnt really change - and the compression actually gets rid of a little of the MP3 roughness...

but MP3 mixing will NEVER sound like vynil.

I wonder if using an external mixer is allowed - you could hook a nice mixer up to your PC w/ 2 soundboards and do it all on the external mixdeck... that helps.

I will also send you an private message with a link to my website - you can find 2500 tracks, almost all 4/4 trance and hardhouse... im sure you can find enough goodies there to make at LEAST a good two hour set!

another tip: don't use atomixmp3's record function - it's not really very good. use an external recorder or another PC - i record most my digital mixsets onto high bias cassettes... this takes even more of the digital edge off the mix (yea, i'm old school.. i still like tapes :P)

-mer

I've got a crap load of music that I can suggest, just tell me what style you want. Pure trance, epic trance, hard trance, female vocals, etc? Be specific with what you are looking for and I'd be more than happy to help you out with a setlist and track ordering. Some examples of tracks you like would help out. Also, I'd try to stay away from really popular or overplayed tracks that have been around for a while.

I would use VTT with an external mixer if I were you. It's the most true to life.

I haven't tried these new versions of atomix, the one i tried was realy crappy.

could you hook me up mer?

I use Atomix, but it would be sooo much better with an external mixer. It's too difficult to use the EQ's with the mouse.

if you have atomixmp3 2.1.... check out this skin:

http://meridian.servehttp.com:9969/jnclassic.zip

JN Classic second edition - it only works with the latest (2.1) - it provides regular up/down EQ's, but it adds fader-style EQs (three crossfaders above the regular crossfader) similiar to the red sound mixers - makes it much easier to deal with versus the seperate EQs... i used atomix with an external mixer for a while... then got decks so the mixer sits there... but i can actually pull of some decent stuff with just a mouse and 5 keyboard shortcuts using those eq faders

Dang, I only have 2.0.

Could somebody possibly provide an upgrade? Let's just say I don't have a serial number.