Sandboxing comes to Virtual DJ 8

[yizzle]

For those not in the know about such technical things, sandboxing is computer speak for running software in a safe and secure environment that doesn’t impact on anything else around it. And this is a feature that’s being introduced in the upcoming Virtual DJ 8.

Here’s what we have from the horse’s mouth:

Sandbox is a new feature that will revolutionize the work of mainstream DJs.

For the last 20 years, the usual way for DJs to perform a simple mix, was to “cue” the next song, using the headphones, at the right position and pitch, and then start it at the right time to perform the transition. What it means, is that the DJ, while one song was playing for the audience, would use this time to listen to the upcoming song, in order to find the perfect “entry point” where he would mix from.

But unfortunately, this is only one half of the task. Finding the other half, the “exit point” in the current song, was really a hit or miss proposition, where DJs had to know their songs pretty well, to be able to know by heart when to start the mix in the current song.

Not anymore.

Now with VirtualDJ’s new feature “Sandbox”, Atomix Productions brings this second half of perfecting a mix, in a very easy and intuitive way. Just engage the “sandbox mode” while your song is playing, and you will be able to fast-forward or rewind not only the upcoming song, but also the current song, in order to find the perfect point”s” where the mix would sound the best. All this of course without disturbing what your audience is hearing. The seeking happens only in your headphones. When you’re ready, just put a cue point marker on the exit point, leave your next song cued on the entry point, and disengage the sandbox mode.

You’re now ready to wait for the current song to reach your newly-set cue point marker, and start your perfect mix.

To cut this down into easily digestible lumps — in sandbox mode, you can play the current and next track in a totally isolated environment i.e your headphones. Mess round with them, and when you have the perfect transition points, add an exit cue to the current track and an intro cue to the next track and wait for the transition to happen.

It sounds like one of those ideas that should have been invented before. I remember a scratch cue function on the Vestax PMC-007 that allowed you to audition your scratches with the crossfader, but this is different. It’s certainly ideal for those times when you get tracks thrown at you mid-set and have no idea what the music sounds like. Or perhaps those times when a mix is necessary but you’ve no idea if the tracks will work or not. It’s very much an emergency feature, but a very welcome one at that.

Source: djworx.com

[Mitch]

When I started reading this I had my tech mind on and went "vdj home is already sandboxed on os x". Then I read the whole article.

Seems like another feature skilled DJs would never use IMO.

[yizzle]

i agree, its not aimed at skilled dj's.

but in saying that i dont think Virtual DJ ever has been.

[Mitch]

Valid point.

[russell]

This is pretty much promoting someone to not give a shit about the music they play.

Why bother learning the tracks you play when you can just wing it with whatever zippyshare file you just got.

[Marcus963]

Who, in a live situation, actually has time to preview the end of the current track playing. In all the years that I have played I have rarely ever had time to be testing out exit points in a track. An experienced DJ just knows when they are as 99% of all dance-floor tracks are written to a formula. It is with this formula, the intro, body and outro that DJs use to program their mix. The only time you might add "cue points" is at home while previewing your tracks.

I can't see "sandboxing" being widely used by the professional DJ

[djvalandi]

At this stage I am stuck on using VDJ as my preferred midi software as my Pioneer XDJ-R1 is only compatible with VDJ.

Having said that though, the VDJ 8 videos i have been watching are showing some fantastic things!