Top 4 Free DJ Mixing Software

The next time you throw a party at home, you might want to create a DJ setlist of all your MP3s, rather than a boring playlist. Another cool thing would be to remix a Himesh track with Polefolder (imagine the ring modulation!). All this is easy today; there's even free software that can make you a good amateur DJ. This article is a small list of (very) elementary software available for mixing audio tracks, creating setlists, and of course, bobbing your head. Both Windows and Mac users have been kept in mind.

Basic Gyaan
Before becoming a DJ, you need to be familiar with the concept of timing in a song. The unit used is BPM, which stands for beats per minute. It is pretty self-explanatory: the songs can divided into a particular number of beats per minute (for the sake of convenience) and thus essentially the DJ must match the BPMs of songs for them to play properly, or the rhythm will go awry.

Next is the key of the song, which can be explained simply as a group of pitches used in music. When mixing two tracks, their keys must be ideally the same, or related to each other. The good thing is our ears can detect any mess-ups in beats or keys, and an aspiring DJ  must concentrate on developing a discerning ear. 

The software listed in this feature help in changing  aspects like keys and BPMs, with the simple use of knobs (or faders) in the GUI, thus making things simpler.

DJ Music Mixer v3.6 (Windows XP)
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This is a straight-up emulation of a Hardware DJ deck, with playlists on the left and right for selecting your two tracks. Features include MP3 and WAV player with two independent decks, and beat-sync display, pitch control, and fast-seek mode. There is a crossfader, which is the most important control for any DJ. It basically is a fader that moves to and fro horizontally, and plays the two tracks on the left and right deck depending on its position. If the fader is moved completely to the left, the left track alone will play. It also has an autofade function.