Basic iPod DJing tutorial
Assuming you’ve chosen not to use some of the iPod DJing units available, there are still ways to take advantage of the iPod in a DJing context.
By treating the iPod as a deck, you’ll need two iPods, preferably with screens but you can opt for an iPod Shuffle, from a cost perspective, the ipod mini or iPod nano, are the best compromise between the needs of iPod DJing and price.
First you need to organize your music on your iPod as shown here.This will help you to overcome some of the challenges DJing on an iPod will present, i.e. Beatmatching.
you need a mixer of some sort, if your on a budget, any basic mixer with two or more channels will do, however if your looking for portability there are mixers that will help you check them out here. Connect up the iPods to each channel.
Select the track you wish to play from one channel, move the cross fader to that channel. in the second channel, select the incoming track, make sure your headphones are hearing that channel, use the pause button, to set the start point. (assuming you have chosen two tracks with the same BPM or the same BPM smartlist on your iPod) once you’re ready, wait for the Beat on the first track and press play on the second track, listen in your headphones and make sure the two are aligned…then move the crossfader accross.
Once the two tracks are aligned you are in the mix, so thats when you can start to doing interesting stuff with the EQ or cross fader. As you can see once you have smartlists of the BPM of tracks and only mix tracks with same BPM, there’s very little difference between iPod DJing and other DJing. No doubt soon there will be an add-on to iTunes and the iPod that will allow you to alter the pitch of your music, this will make the iPod far more DJ friendly and allow DJs to beatmatch properly and with songs of different BPM.