DJ Forum

Below is a list of useful links for the best DJ gear, controllers & software. Please reply to this topic if you find any other useful links ... Year Links 2025 5 Best Pro DJ Controllers (Learning To DJ) Top 5 DJ Controllers Under $600 (Equipboard) Best All-In-One Standalone DJ Systems (Digital DJ Tips) Best beginner DJ controllers 2025 (Music Radar) Best DJ Controllers (The DJ Shop) Top 7 Best DJ Controllers of 2025 (Product London) 2024 Best DJ controllers 2024: Hands-on control for Serato, rekordbox, Traktor and more - our expert picks Best DJ Gear 2024: 11 best DJ software for mixing and playlisting in 2024 Best DJ plugins of 2024: Free software and apps for DJing…

All DJs get nervous – but when money gets involved, those nerves can go through the roof. I’ve been there more times than I can count. In this free lesson (an All-Access Pass exclusive), I share everything I’ve learned about dealing with nerves and getting through difficult DJ gigs. If you’ve got a scary event … Continued The post How To Handle DJ Nerves And Difficult Gigs appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

As the new closed-back studio flagship headphones, they provide accurate low-end performance and all-day comfort. Sennheiser is expanding its pro headphone lineup following today’s announcement (April 21) launch of the HD 480 PRO, a top-tier closed-back model designed for studio and live audio environments. Built specifically for engineers, producers, and creators who rely on isolation [...] The post Sennheiser Launches HD 480 PRO Headphones appeared first on DJ LIFE Magazine. View the full article

Serato 4.0 now has a proper ratings column with fully customisable emojis – and most DJs are either ignoring it or using it the wrong way. In the video above, we cover the reason star ratings are mostly useless for DJs; we also show you how to repurpose the emoji system for better library management. … Continued The post Serato’s Hidden Emoji Feature (And How to Use It Properly) appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

In our latest free training video, we walk you through the key specifications to look for in a DJ laptop – memory, storage, processor – but also the physical things most guides overlook: USB socket count, screen size and brightness, keyboard backlighting, and build quality. We cover the Mac versus Windows question (spoiler: there’s no … Continued The post Your Guide To Choosing & Using A DJ Laptop 2026 appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

We first wrote about Tracknack back in 2023, when it launched as a Spotify-only music discovery tool for DJs. It combined your Spotify data with deeper metadata from Discogs to build a personalised playlist that went further than Release Radar. Now its developer Viesturs Marnauza has been back in touch with a list of updates. … Continued The post Tracknack Adds Apple Music & New Pricing For DJs appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

Looping is one of the most important mixing skills in modern DJing, and this free lesson pulled from Mixing For Mobile & Wedding DJs breaks it all down. You’ll learn what loops are, the different types available (saved, active, and “mixloops”), and why they matter for smooth transitions. The post Understanding Mixloops: The Secret To Smoother DJ Transitions appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

In this tutorial, we walk you through the key specifications to look for in any DJ laptop – memory, storage, and processor – plus the physical things most guides overlook: USB socket count, screen size and brightness, keyboard backlighting, and build quality. We also tackle the Mac versus Windows question (our community is split exactly … Continued The post DJ Laptop Buying Guide: Specs, Tips And Our Top Picks For 2026 appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

Most DJs know what the EQ knobs are for – what they don’t always realise is that boosting them has consequences. Push them up too far and you’re effectively overriding the gain setting you carefully dialed in, pushing your signal into the red without even knowing it. Add a second track and the problem compounds … Continued The post Cut, Don’t Boost: The EQ Rule Every DJ Needs appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

Serato has updated its software to version 4.0.6, adding official support for three Pioneer DJ mixers: the DJM-250MK2, DJM-450, and DJM-750MK2. All three are now fully mapped by Serato, giving DJs plug-and-play access to Serato’s full feature set – including DVS – through hardware that was previously locked to the rekordbox ecosystem. It’s worth noting … Continued The post Serato DJ Pro & Suite 4.0.6 Add Support For 3 Pioneer DJ Mixers appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

In this free lesson from Laidback Luke’s Bootlegs, Re-edits & Mash-ups course, Luke shares ten practical tips for getting started with music production, covering everything from experimenting with DAWs to remaking your favourite tracks. Drawing on three decades of producing and teaching experience, Luke’s advice is as no-nonsense as it gets. The post Start Producing Music: 10 Tips For Success With Laidback Luke appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

When we reviewed the AlphaTheta XDJ-AZ, one of our biggest criticisms was that you couldn’t see all four deck waveforms at once when DJing with four decks. It was a strange omission on a unit that’s clearly designed for multi-deck performance, and it bugged us. Well, AlphaTheta has addressed it. Firmware version 1.30 has dropped, … Continued The post XDJ-AZ Firmware 1.30: The 4-Deck Update Is Finally Here appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

New compatibility for the DJM-250MK2, DJM-450, and DJM-750MK2 gives DJs more flexibility, expands Serato’s growing hardware ecosystem. Serato has expanded its hardware lineup with the release of Serato DJ Pro 4.0.6, introducing compatibility for three staple Pioneer DJ mixers: the DJM-250MK2, DJM-450, and DJM-750MK2. Officially mapped by Serato, the update allows DJs to seamlessly integrate [...] The post Serato DJ Pro 4.0.6 Adds Support for Essential Pioneer DJ Mixers appeared first on DJ LIFE Magazine. View the full article

The post A complete guide to multi-deck mixing appeared first on Pioneer DJ. View the full article

Switching from a DJ controller to standalone gear? Making that leap opens up a whole new way of DJing – but there are a few things worth knowing first. At the school, we never want the gear to hold you back, so this All-Access Pass exclusive covers everything you need to know – including a … Continued The post How To Switch From DJ Controller To Standalone Gear (Without The Pain) appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

A routine Windows 11 update has been silently breaking DJ controllers for thousands of DJs since late January 2026. Microsoft’s new “Windows Midi Services” – an overhaul of how Windows handles Midi, adding Midi 2.0 support – rolled out via automatic updates and is causing DJ controllers to appear completely dead in DJ software, even … Continued The post A Windows Update Is Breaking DJ Controllers – Here’s What To Do appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

Key sync and real-time stems have completely transformed modern DJing – but not all DJ set-ups have them. In this tutorial, I walk you through why these two features matter so much, which DJ software and hardware actually has them, and what to do if your gear doesn’t support them (yet). We also talk about … Continued The post These 2 Features Changed DJing Forever (Do You Have Them?) appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

The echo out is one of the first DJ tricks everyone learns: kill the track, echo it, then drop something new over the top. It works, but it’s also a dead end. The moment you trigger that echo, you’ve lost control of it… In this tutorial, I show you a simple alternative that gives you … Continued The post Stop Using Echo Out – Do THIS Instead (Way More Fun) appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

When you’re planning a set, it’s tempting to jump straight into mixing – which tracks blend well together and how. But what actually shapes a great DJ set happens much earlier than that, and it all starts with the music you choose. In this free lesson from Ferry Corsten’s Trance DJing Masterclass, Ferry walks through … Continued The post Choosing Tracks For A DJ Set: Start With The Story, Not The Mix appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

Ever set a hotcue you’re never meant to press? Sounds weird – but it’s one of the smartest ways to use your performance pads. In this quick tutorial, I show you how to use “marker” hot cues to flag safe points in long tracks where you can jump to the outro and shorten a track … Continued The post How To Use Marker Hotcues For Better DJing appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

The post The women who shaped the genres appeared first on Pioneer DJ. View the full article

If your DJ sets bore YOU, then how can you expect them to thrill anyone else? This lesson will give you ideas about what makes an unforgettable DJ set and how you can start having more fun both preparing for and playing sets people will talk about for days after. Get the TRANSITIONS TOOLBOX course … Continued The post How To Make Your DJ Sets Unforgettable appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

The post What do you wish you knew before you started DJing? appeared first on Pioneer DJ. View the full article

If you use hot cues to navigate your way through DJ transitions, you’ve probably hit this problem at some point: there’s a track that works in multiple transitions, but you’ve already used up all your hot cues setting it up for one of them. What do you do? You can’t add more cues, you can’t … Continued The post The Rekordbox Trick That Gives You More Hot Cues on the Same Track appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

AlphaTheta has withdrawn Rekordbox 7.2.12 from distribution after discovering a bug that can prevent tracks exported to USB from loading correctly on Pioneer DJ and AlphaTheta hardware – the third USB-related headache for the company in the space of just a few months. The version, which was only released on 17 March, has already been … Continued The post AlphaTheta Pulls Rekordbox 7.2.12 Over USB Export Bug appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

You’ve been practising your transitions, working on your technique, and hopefully things are starting to click as a DJ. But here’s the question nobody tells you to ask: how do you know if what you’re doing sounds any good? How do you know that you’re improving? The answer is to record your practice sets and … Continued The post Recording Your Sets: The Single Best Way To Improve Your DJing appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

If you’re a Rekordbox user who doesn’t own a DDJ-GRV6 controller, you’ve probably got a load of stock drum loops cluttering up your library. Delete them, and they just come back on restart – it’s a known headache. MixMasterG (the man behind DJCU and DJ Touch 1 Deluxe) showed us the fix, and we’re passing … Continued The post Why Rekordbox Drum Loops Keep Coming Back (And How To Stop Them For Good) appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

We’re putting the finishing touches to something we’ve been working on for a long time – and we think you’re going to love it. Transitions Toolbox is a brand new course built around one simple idea: a “cookbook” of 50+ done-for-you, ready-to-use DJ transitions, tricks and routines that you can drop straight into your sets. … Continued The post Our Brand New DJ Transitions Course Is Nearly Here… appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

Here’s a question: what do you do if your DJ software has real-time stems separation, but your controller has no way to control it? Maybe you’re running a DDJ-FLX4 with Rekordbox, and you can see the stems sitting right there in the software, but there’s nothing on your hardware to grab hold of them. Your … Continued The post Add Stems To Any Controller With DJ Touch One Deluxe appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article

The idea behind Rekordbox’s Cloud Library Sync is brilliant. Your whole music collection – cue points, loops, playlists – all synced to the cloud, accessible from any laptop, any CDJ, even your phone. Prepare a set at home, finish it on your studio laptop, walk into the venue, log in, it’s all there. That’s the … Continued The post Should DJs Use Rekordbox’s Cloud Library Sync? Our Honest Advice… appeared first on Digital DJ Tips. View the full article