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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes Apps
iTunes lacks two things when you want to use it to DJ: the ability to preview the songs, and a way to prevent changing song by mistake when selecting a song to add to the playlist. There is a way to solve both problems.

Log onto your Mac on your regular account; the one you'll use to prepare your playlist. Open iTunes and create a new playlist for the party. Put some songs in it. Share your iTunes playlist. Log on as another user and open iTunes. Select the shared playlist from the first account and play it. Switch to the first user. The Mac keeps playing the songs from the second account. You can now update you playlist without having to fear a mistake when selecting song while the second account is playing it.

To be able to preview the songs, you need two soundcards (I use a Tascam US 122 USB external interface). Simply choose a different sound card in the System Preferences for each account. Voilà!
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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes | 25 comments | Create New Account
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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: osxpounder on Jun 09, '04 11:37:43AM

Wow, quite clever. I love it.

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osxpounder



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similar technique without an additional account
Authored by: blech75 on Jun 09, '04 11:50:21AM

i recently DJ'd a friend's party with an iBook, my external firewire music drive, a roland USB audio in/out, a pair of headphones, and Detour. i assigned the default audio out to be the headphone out and then iTunes to be output via USB audio. then i used column view in the finder to navigate and preview the songs and then drag the albums/songs into itunes to create the playlist. it worked fairly well, although something like Traktor would have worked better. :)



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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: wackazong on Jun 09, '04 11:54:38AM

well, well, well, and tomorrow itunes will make me some coffee for breakfast... why are some people always trying to get everything out of one program? why dont you use a dj program like dj-1800? it is so much more comfortable and integrates very well with the loved itunes. ok, dj-1800 costs some bucks, but i think its really worth it.



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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: maddys_daddy on Jun 09, '04 12:17:43PM

OOH! Make mine a triple espresso mocha latte crappucino! With cinnamon hazelnut amaretto irish cream french vanilla flavoring! And would an omelette be too much to ask?
Now if I could just figure out how to plug the toaster and coffee pot into my Powerbook. Hmmmm...



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Not quite a coffee pot
Authored by: saint.duo on Jun 09, '04 06:59:52PM
Sorry to go off topic, but I couldn't resist this one.

A beverage warmer for your powerbook...

http://www.tomatochip.com/servlet/ProductView?command=cp&supplierID=473&commodityID=3693&searchIndex=4

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duo

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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: Anonymous on Jun 09, '04 12:38:52PM

Sure, but I am not a professional DJ. I bring my PB to my friend's parties once in a whilem why would I invest in a soft I am not gonna really use. iTunes is perfect for what I do.
I just don't like when people scream because I change song by mistake and this is a nice workaround.



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Don't be a pooper
Authored by: MJCube on Jun 09, '04 01:31:08PM

And in addition, wackazong, Cedalex's clever hint informs us all about how apps can work with multiple accounts. You may not care about this iTunes idea, but maybe you'll want to do something like it with another app someday.



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Agreed
Authored by: Chevron on Jun 11, '04 04:49:04AM

I agree with MJ, the whole point of the hint is that it's simple, fun (any chance to use fast user switching is) and effective, but most of all doesn't cost anything, or require additional programs...

Don't waste time saying how there are better alternatives...it really doesn't actually matter.



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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: kirkmc on Jun 09, '04 12:51:25PM

Why not just use the Party Shuffle, which is designed for this very purpose? You add songs to it as you want, reorder them, and the sit in a queue until it's their turn.



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Why not use party shuffle
Authored by: paulio on Jun 09, '04 02:38:54PM

Because party shuffle is designed for Rock music. You don't mix House music or Techno the same way.



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Why not use party shuffle
Authored by: drauh on Jun 09, '04 10:48:36PM

I'm not sure I understand. Neither the Party Shuffle, nor the method in this hint allow for proper mixing of beats (or whatever you call it: I'm no DJ). Given that, how is it different if you already know what the songs sound like?



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Why not use party shuffle
Authored by: SteamSHIFT on Jun 10, '04 08:28:04AM

I do some djing of a sort - playing some tunes in a nightclub. I don't beat mix, and at the moment I use iTunes. This is a fantastic hint for being able to preview a song before you play it - I know the songs quite well, but I am prone to forgetting the beginning or end of a song.

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Andy Bennett
SteamSHIFT



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"Detour" instead of 2nd sound card
Authored by: sjonke on Jun 09, '04 02:43:14PM

The software "Detour" could also be used to send the sound to two different places. Set Detour to send iTunes sound to the built-in speakers in one account, and to the USB audio box in another. Or at least I presume that will work. I haven't actually tried Detour with multiple accounts. It's worth a shot, though, and a demo of Detour is available to test it out.

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"Detour" instead of 2nd sound card
Authored by: Chevron on Jun 11, '04 04:51:21AM

The whole point of switching user is that you dont need to buy another audio output (which of course is the ideal solution)



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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: sickandwrong on Jun 09, '04 11:31:16PM

This is a great hint. I DJ like this all the time. I do it in a pretty bare-bones way, too:
iBook with 2 accounts, turn on fast user switching (i set up 2 separate accounts without passwords to speed up the switch), Griffin iMic ($20, i think), and SoundSource (free... Detour is great, but SoundSource gets this particular job done, and is free). I also bring 2 RCA-->1/8" cables with me.

One iTunes gets routed to Built-In Audio in SoundSource, the other gets sent to the iMic. Then they get plugged into separate input channels of an external mixer. Now each instance of iTunes acts completely independently, and you can manually crossfade and cue by switching back and forth between accounts and using the external mixer (your headphones plug into the mixer and you cue that way.)

You can't beatmatch or anything, obviously, but it beats relying on iTunes built-in crossfader, especially if you don't have the start and stop points set up for your whole library.



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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: Anonymous on Jun 10, '04 06:39:41AM

If you are using two differents users accounts you don't need SoundSource or Detour, the system can manage a different soundcard for each account by itself.



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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: senne on Jun 10, '04 05:46:42AM

well, i don't know where my previous reply is at, but this is what i said:

This trick won't work, because Shared Playlists are not set as "Live Updating". You have to disconnect and reconnect to see the updated playlist.



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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: Anonymous on Jun 10, '04 06:34:49AM

Well try it... The shared lists are updated across the network when they are modified and this applies to the differents users from the same machine as they behave like remote users.

You can use the same tip with two macs on the same network. You have to have two macs...



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Airtunes Express
Authored by: dan55304 on Jun 10, '04 08:16:14AM

Does the new Airtunes Express make this process any easier?



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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: SteamSHIFT on Jun 10, '04 08:31:54AM

Thinking outloud : A bit of AppleScript / Shell script wizardry and you could have a kind of baby version of itunes running along side your normal version in the same user account. So (assuming your other account is running) you could open iTunes for the other use in the terminal, then control it, all wiuthout leaving the account.... would this work?!

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Andy Bennett
SteamSHIFT



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Wireless DJ
Authored by: zane on Jun 10, '04 05:07:56PM
Slightly Off Topic, but imagine the DJ of the future (today!);

Equipment:
• Airport & Bluetooth Enabled Power/iBook
• Airport Express Base Station
• Sailing Clicker
• iTunes 4.6
• A Sailing Clicker compatible Cell Phone (Sony Ericsson, Nokia...)

With this equipment, you can turn up to a party and plug your Airport Express Base Station into the host's stereo/entertainment system. Then launch iTunes and Sailing Clicker on the PowerBook and pair up your cell phone. Then, safely lock your PowerBook away in a nearby cupboard, set up a playlist on your phone thru the Sailing Clicker client and voila, you've got roaming DJ functionality.

Now you can mingle and DJ, both at the same time. Someone has a song request? No problem, pull out your phone, cue it up, and watch your friends eyes bug out in amazement as the song starts up!

And all this can be done right now, with today's tech. Don't ya just love it? :D I occasionally DJ at a few clubs from time to time, I can't wait to try this out.

"Great club, but where's the DJ?"
"Over at the bar chatting up that girl"
"Huh? How is he..."
"Airport & Bluetooth dude... Airport & Bluetooth"
Just an idea...

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Wireless DJ
Authored by: zane on Jun 10, '04 05:30:37PM
Disclaimers:
• Just realized I spelt "Salling Clicker" wrong.
• Airport Express is of course optional; you can always connect the 'book to a stereo the oldskool way. ;)
• You can't monitor/preview tracks using the Wireless DJ method, but the awesome amounts of "über-cool" that wireless DJing provides certainly makes up for that.
• I forgot to linebreak the last line in my above comment :¬P

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Script to preview the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: PopularEthics on Jul 10, '04 08:05:15PM
OK, the above hints are all great, just a little time consuming. DJs have to make quick decisions ;)

Here's a simple script I wrote which simply opens the selected tracks in Quicktime. As per the above hints, the script allows powerbook DJ's to preview upcoming over their headphones without interrupting the floor music. Here's a recap:

1) You will need to purchase a second audio output. For instance:
  • a second sound card (for powermacs)
  • a griffin iMic or other usb sound card
  • a logitech usb headset
  • an airport express

2) set Quicktime to output to headphones and iTunes to output to speaker using Rogue Amoeba's Detour (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/detour/download.php).
OR
with iTunes 4.6, connect an airport express to your loudspeaker system and set iTunes to play to it.

3) Paste this script in applescript editor, and save it to your home/library/iTunes/scripts folder

4) Use this script to open selected files in Quicktime, which will now play in your headset while iTunes continues to play over the speakers!


tell application "iTunes"
	if selection is not {} then
		with timeout of 60 seconds
			repeat with eachTrack in selection
				if eachTrack's class is file track then
					set filePath to (get eachTrack's location)
					tell application "QuickTime Player"
						activate
						open filePath
					end tell
				end if --skip if incorrect type of track
			end repeat
		end timeout
	end if
end tell
Party on peeps!

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Preview the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: brianpod on Oct 20, '04 05:24:14PM

Thanks to Cedalex & PopularEthics! Both are very clever solutions to something I've been trying to figure out for awhile -- which is have iTunes play the music in Party Shuffle mode, but be able to preview songs in Headphones to add to the list. I let iTunes handle the crossfades...although it doesn't do a great job, it works, (does anyone else find iTunes crossfading wierd?)



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Cue the next song while DJing with iTunes
Authored by: pboehi on Dec 12, '04 11:29:57AM

This hint helped me to get uninterrupted audio over Airport with a shared library which was playing with one user and previewed using another user as described in this hint.

All other programs (MegaSeg, DJ-1800) produced lots of drop-outs when playing music over the network. The problem worsened when I tried to preview music (which meant two streams).

Only iTunes turned out to be really network friendly and performed rock solid playing two tunes from a shared library using the two user hint.



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