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Author Topic: DJ Use -- simultaneously playing and previewing  (Read 10762 times)

Chavall46

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DJ Use -- simultaneously playing and previewing
« on: February 10, 2009, 07:21:55 am »

I'm a DJ. Since now I'd worked with playing lists. But for flexibility, from now on, I would like to work "on the way" pre hearing and choosing the music "on the fly". I suppose that MC 12 should drive two sound cards, one for the real output and one for the pre-hearing  headphones.
Is it possible to do this with MC 12, and if so, how?
Can anybody help me?
Thanks in advance!
Carlos
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JimH

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Re: MC 12 for, simultaneously, playing and pre hearing
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2009, 07:38:19 am »

Explore zones in MC.
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Alex B

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Re: MC 12 for, simultaneously, playing and pre hearing
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2009, 09:00:18 am »

The zones feature works fine. You can configure one or more additional zones that are configured to play on your second sound device.

You can build a separate Playing Now list in one zone and send the files to be played on another zone. MC has several different play commands under the right-click > Send menu.

You can quickly switch between different zones by using the shortcut commands. In addition, you can add a "Zones" button to the top toolbar.

If preferred, you can also open a second instance of MC and drag files from one MC instance to the Playing Now list in another MC instance. (You must enable the "Allow Multiple Instances" option to do this.)
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Chavall46

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Re: MC 12 for, simultaneously, playing and pre hearing
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2009, 06:52:43 am »

Thanks you both Jim (even if a little laconic)  :) and Alex B.
In purpose of Alex indications I configured two zones and enable and open a second instance with a different skin, as to clearly differentiate one instance from the other. 
The problems that I face now are three;

a) how can I add a "Zones" button to the top toolbar

b) I found not easy to "plug" each instance to their respective sound card because I would like to connect the instance with playing now to my external card, and leave the one in the laptop for work with the "preview"

c) Should I do this operation of recognition from MC instances of the sound cards, each time I open MC or can this be fixed to become automatically done, each time I open the program, or even the second instance
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JimH

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Re: MC 12 for, simultaneously, playing and pre hearing
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2009, 07:01:22 am »

Thanks you both Jim (even if a little laconic)  :)
I thought the link was verbose.
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Chavall46

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Re: MC 12 for, simultaneously, playing and pre hearing
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2009, 07:49:12 am »

Oh JimH, quite too much eloquence! :)
Possibly you may deal with MC even with your eyes closed, but I feel a little handicapped in dealing with the enormous potentiality the program has (beside of the terminology, and the language barriers), and my few neurons have sometimes problems to agree for a meeting. So leading me by hand to the specific area is possibly a better solution for the urge of my needs and (I suppose for the capability you surely have) not such a big deal. But I will put my best good will in mending the situation...nevertheless if you can drop me some tips in merit of my questions I'll be thankful once more and without irony.
Carlos
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JimH

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Re: MC 12 for, simultaneously, playing and pre hearing
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2009, 08:02:09 am »

Right click on the toolbar to customize.  Double click on Zones to add it.

Ctrl-T toggles (switches) from zone to zone.

Did you read the post that was linked from the Wiki article on Zones?

Under "Tools", you can switch the program language.
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Alex B

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Re: MC 12 for, simultaneously, playing and pre hearing
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2009, 10:28:27 am »

Here's screenshot of a "DJ" setup (it's from MC13, but MC12 is almost the same.)


Click to enlarge.


The first MC instance is on the left. It is set to use a zone that outputs to headphones. The split view option is set to two splits. The top split shows the library and Playing now is in the bottom split. I can drag files from the top split to Playing Now for previewing them. I can also double-click a file to do the same because I have set the "jump on play" option to none and double-click to add to Playing Now instead of directly playing the track. I have added the Playing Now and Zones buttons to the top toolbar, though I don't need to use them with this setup. I have hid the tree by double-clicking the divider.

The second MC instance on the right is set to use a zone that outputs to speakers. I add tracks to its Playing Now list by dragging them from the first MC instance. In addition to playing audio I can detach the display and show a visualization on a TV or projector that is connected as a secondary display.

This setup works fine with the common 1280x1024 display resolution. I selected the Z skin because it allows a quite narrow MC window (the minimum width varies from skin to another).
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gappie

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Re: MC 12 for, simultaneously, playing and pre hearing
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2009, 05:17:13 pm »

that is nice alex.  a week ago i tested some software with a friend (a dj) we also included mc. but i did not think about opening two instances. and it works great. i just sended him an email...

 :)
gab
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JimH

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Re: MC 12 for, simultaneously, playing and pre hearing
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2009, 09:26:04 am »

Thanks, Alex.  I've added your post to the Wiki:
http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DJ_Use
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imugli

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Re: DJ Use -- simultaneously playing and previewing
« Reply #10 on: February 13, 2009, 05:07:38 pm »

That's a pretty cool setup Alex  ;)

1 question, how do you go about 'mixing' using MC, or do you not?

I like to play around with mixing a bit (so amateur it's not worth mentioning) but use VirtualDJ as I didn't think MC could handle this...

Alex B

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Re: DJ Use -- simultaneously playing and previewing
« Reply #11 on: February 06, 2010, 05:15:09 am »

1 question, how do you go about 'mixing' using MC, or do you not?

Here's a "bit" late reply. (I referred this thread on another site and noticed your question now.)

I just use cross-fading. If I start a new track in the middle of the currently playing track the automatic cross-fade works fine.

I think you would need to have some kind of hardware volume sliders for manually controlled mixing. It would not work with a single mouse.
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