More Info Manufacturer: OtsJuke Product: OtsDJ Website: OtsJuke Price: £210 Score:

OtsDJ is regarded as being in the “Top 3”, with regards to where it stands in the amount of people that use it. OtsDJ is aimed at the smart mobile DJ, the mobile DJ who wants to bring a minimum amount of kit yet produce stunning shows. Computers/Laptops are becoming more and more common in this day and age with more mobile DJ’s than ever moving to computer based setups. OtsDJ aims to cater for this area of mobile DJing; OtsDJ also is flexible with its uses, Radio DJs and mobile DJs will find this piece of software incredibly useful. The uses could even be stretched as far a uses in bars and department stores.

OtsDJ claims to be able to automate the DJing process, but is this really what the modern DJ wants… We seem to like the easy and clean set up but when it comes to automatically mixing the music, many companies have tried to perfect an auto-mix function but it seems all have failed.

OtsDJ is defiantly automated; it is by far one of the best pieces of software I have used in many respects.

Before using OtsDJ it’s recommended that you convert all of your MP3 files into .ots files. This might seem long and tedious but the included converter is simple to use, select the files to be converted and click convert. This conversion converts the files into OtsDj’s preferred format and results in better audio quality and superior audio mixing.

First of all we have the compatibility factor, OtsDJ runs on any machine you choose there have even been reports of it running stably on a 166 MHz machine, with only 64mb of ram. This is one of the defining factors that sets OtsDJ out from the crowd. Its one of the most stable programs I have ever used on windows… I have been trialing OtsDJ now for a week of non stop music playing. Yes 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It hasn’t crashed or hung once. This is what the mobile DJ wants; we can’t afford to get “the blue screen of death” during a gig.

Second of all we have the automated cross-fading feature, this is the best automated cross-fading software on the market. It even puts some DJs to shame … its that good!! OtsDJ uses a complex algorithm to decide exactly how and where the music should be cross-faded. We constantly see many software creators claiming that their software can auto-mix but this is the only one that actually does it well. This piece of software blurs the lines between computer aided DJing and “manual” DJing.

Its media library is once again one of the best systems of organising music that I have seen. There are categories for different styles of music, genres and on top of this you can sort by year. Finding a song during a gig need never be hard again, and with the added search feature you can just type part of the title or artist and it will scroll through the matches.

Ease of use, many mobile DJs aren’t looking for a complicated solution and I am one of the mobile DJs that loves things that just work, no messing around and no configuring settings. OtsDJ is so easy even my children can use it and get it to sound good. The interface is very simple relying on one window split into 5 main sections: Play list, Media Library, the 2 Decks and a small central window displaying album art. The OtsDJ creators got it just right with regards to the interface, not too little and not too much. Within about 20 minutes of playing around with the software I had gotten around 100 tunes imported and had crystal clear sound coming from my speakers.

Shoutcast Integration, it also has shoutcast integration which is a small program that many small (and large) online radio stations use to broadcast their music. All you have to do is enter the server settings and you are away. OtsDJ asks no more questions it just works. More info available at www.shoutcast.com

Integration with a controller, up until recently OtsDJ had no external controller to control the audio in a more manual way. OtsDJ now supports the Hercules DJ Controller. (A review can be found on Ukslc.org) Without having used the controller with OtsDJ I can’t comment on how good / bad it is. Even without a controller many of the well used commands have keyboard shortcuts almost removing the need for a mouse in the DJ console.

Now I have analysed many of the programs features that hit you almost the second you enter the program I am now going to go a little deeper into the workings of OtsDJ. OtsDJ has many features that can be more or less ignored, as they work without any user intervention.

Another quite amazing feature of OtsDJ is its dynamics processor; personally I think the dynamics processor included in OtsDJ is as good, if not better than some of the standalone units that cost £500+. It allows you to regulate the volume, increasing the volume during quite parts of the track and decreasing the volume when the music gets too loud. This is included as CDs tend to be recorded at different levels and obviously when ripping the tracks they will all be at different levels. The dynamics processor makes sure that you have a consistency with your music, no quiet bits and no extremely loud bits.

The resulting factor is music that sounds amazing… the first time I used OtsDJ I was gob smacked at the quality and consistency of the music. I had never thought my pc was capable of playing such clear and vibrant music. At last the bass was noticeable, something I thought my soundcard was not up to.

When I connected my PC to my sound system all I could say was WOW! My speakers sounded amazing even better than I had expected, this was without another processing just OtsDJ connected straight to my amp and speakers.

Another of the problems I have had with other PC DJing programs is latency; this is the delay between doing something on OtsDJ and it actually coming out of the speakers. OtsDJ has one of the lowest latencies out of all MP3 mixing programs. Anything you change on OtsDJ can be heard almost immediately which is something all DJs look for in a live situation.

As with all products there are parts of OtsDJ that I dislike, but I am happy to report that there is only 1 problem:

The graphical user interface, the colours of OtsDJ aren’t the nicest and they can’t be changed as OtsDJ is not skin able. Many people might not like this factor as you are stuck with what you get. The colours are not awful they just not seem very modern and might put many would be buyers off. The colours are a very small thing to sacrifice for a program of such quality. I’m sure many DJs would quite happily give up looks in exchange for a program that works and doesn’t crash.

The fact that .ots files do not work with any other media player is a slight inconvenience but I can assure you that after a few hours of using OtsDJ this sacrifice seems insignificant.

So overall I would recommend this piece of software to anyone that has an interest in digital audio, DJs and Radio Broadcasters alike.