A lot of these sets contain little-known releases and remixes from underground artists, and as such probably won’t ever make their way onto Spotify, Grooveshark or a similar service.

Whilst an MP3 download doesn’t quite replace the thumping bass and sweaty appeal of a live set you’re still bound to find something you like on one of these 4 websites.

EgoThieves.com

Featuring some face-melting mixes from right across the electronic music genre, EgoThieves is the collective name for Jenai and JC Adams, as well as a select number of other quality DJs. The website itself is a shining example of engaging webdesign, with lashings of JavaScript and AJAX as well as a quirky graphical style.

Regular mixes include Dubfluencial (dubstep and grime galore), Electzilla (anything electro and upbeat) and Pop! Dub! (commercial sounds meet rolling dubstep bass). If none of those take your fancy then there’s a decent variety of other mixes expertly blended for your listening pleasure. The website is also updated fairly regularly with new releases, happenings and events.

EgoThieves regularly attend club nights and live sets in the UK so if you’ve listened in and fancy coming along check the website for listings. The website operates an artist-friendly policy, whereby if the artist wants his or her song removed they simply request via email.

Random Mix: Dubfluencial 9 ““ Mixed by EgoThieves

A rude and loud awakening for anyone still unfamiliar with the genre of dubstep. Not to everyone’s tastes but if you’re into this stuff then you might want to check out the older mixes too!

The Mixing Bowl

The only torrent site on the list, The Mixing Bowl combines community spirit, a ratio system and an endless list of live mixes from every genre you can (pretty much) think of. The mixes are tagged, categorised and uploads are regular.

You’ll need to keep a good ratio to avoid getting banned, so remember to seed and not download beyond your means. There’s a ton of variety on offer, including live DJ sets, radio shows and sessions and regular big-name club mixes. As well as the usual dose of commercial, breaks and trance there’s plenty of choice including funk, chillout and tribal as well as video uploads to work your way through.

Tracker registration is open at the time of writing, but may close in future so act fast. If you’re reading this and registration is closed then keep trying as accounts will become available once inactive users are pruned.

Random Mix: DJ Kentaro Live at Ninja Tune XX (London)

An eclectic mix of electro, reggae, funk, scratching performed by DJ Kentaro, who won the 2002 DMC World DJ Championships with this blinding set. The set in the torrent was taken from a Ninja Tune gig in October 2010, featuring other artists from the same label.

Subnav.com

A quirky, edgy and awesome resource for anyone interested in lovingly blended beats and basslines. You’ve got the option of downloading the pre-mixed MP3 files or streaming them in a pop-up browser, so you can listen on the go.

There is plenty of variety of usual, with users submitting their own mixes for inclusion on the site. SubNav is a great way of discovering great DJs and free DJ mixes with a couple of quality hand-picked releases per week.

If you really love the site then you might be interested in the free stickers they’re offering too (they ship worldwide).

Random Mix: 27 45s in 61 ““ Anatoly Ice

27 funk 45rpm 7″ vinyl records lovingly arranged into 61 minutes of wonderful seamless funk. Download it now!

Livesets.us

For all you late night ravers, clubbers and Ibiza party animals there’s Livesets.us, a regularly updated source with regular live sets from DJs all over the world. If you’re mad about glowsticks and can get past the slightly bare website you’ll find a mountain mixes, with new sets added every day.

Featured artists include big name DJs like Paul van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold and Grooverider with a lengthy list of acts to create a heady mix of trance, dance, house, drum and bass amongst other electro offerings. Again, you can make the choice over whether to download or stream your chosen mix in your browser.

Random Mix: Fabio Live on BBC Radio 1

Fabio’s Radio 1 show is on at stupid o’clock over here in the UK so listening to it on the BBC’s iPlayer streaming service is a good option. Now others can enjoy his 2 hour long drum and bass set from anywhere in the world.

Conclusion

Whatever your taste in music you’re bound to find something here that takes your fancy when your favourite streaming services fail you. If you’re not feeling particularly inspired and can’t find anything to listen to why not take the strain out of it and let someone else decide?

Do you have any favourite mixes or related websites? Let us know in the comments.

Intro Image: Shutterstock

Fortunately, the barrier to entry is no longer so great. Computer software now makes it possible to DJ without all the stuff and arguably with less of the skill. But there was still the problem of cost; or at least there was until recently. Virtual DJ, a great piece of software, now has a free version.

The Basics

Although getting to know Virtual DJ isn’t too difficult, it is still a bit overwhelming at first to figure out how to mix your own music, particularly if you’ve downloaded it simply because you want to make use of a few basic effects like blending and fading tracks or inserting some basic effects and loops.

The interface is broken up into two sides, each of which has a full set of controls for whatever music is loaded. You can load music by dragging-and-dropping files from the browser in the lower half or by finding them in Windows Explorer and dragging-and-dropping from there. Once loaded, the name of the track and its length will be displayed, along with one other handy and important stat – BPM, or beats per minute.

Once a song is loaded, you just need to press the play button under the virtual scratch table.

Fade Tracks Seamlessly

One common reason for looking into software like Virtual DJ is the desire to blend tracks together as they play. This basic improvement can be very handy if you’re playing songs at a party or you are playing songs as a background for a podcast or video podcast. While some music players make an attempt to offer this feature, it doesn’t always work.

Fading from one track to another is quite easy with Virtual DJ.  You just need to load two tracks and, once one is complete, use the crossfade tool in the center of the interface to move from one track to the other. Remember that the crossfade tool defaults at 50/50, so adjust it appropriately before playing the second song you have loaded.

Also, remember the BPM stat I touched on earlier? Taking a look at this will help you avoid a situation where a very slow track fades into a very fast one – often not optimal. Virtual DJ also has a sync button, which will automatically put the beat of a loaded track in sync with the second track you currently have loaded. This will change the pitch of tracks, however, so use your best judgement.

Mixing Tracks

I thought fading tracks was quite easy, but what really surprised me about Virtual DJ was the ease of mixing tracks. There are a lot of tools available, and they’re not difficult to use. The main obstacle in your mixing will be your skill (I have none) rather than the interface.

Creating loops, for example, is very easy. The loop tool in the lower left hand corner of a loaded track’s interface lets you automatically create loops of varying lengths, which can then be more subtly adjusted with the shift knob or locked down. Of course, this loop will continue playing for as long as you’d like, while the second loaded track will continue to play normally.

Another handy feature are the hot cue buttons. There are three, and pressing one sets down a cue at the place you designated. You can then press the cue button again to automatically return to wherever you set the cue, making it easy to return to a portion of a song that you want to revisit.

Conclusion – The Tip Of The Iceberg

Fading and mixing tracks is really just a hint of what you can do with this software. It also includes a number of advanced features that real DJs will appreciate. For example, the virtual scratch table has a variety of settings and skills; I am simply, to be frank, unable to get much use out of it because I’m not an actual DJ. This is the only criticism that can be thrown at Virtual DJ. While powerful, the more advanced features can be intimidating.

Virtual DJ Free is true to its name, but it does lack some features you’ll find in the paid version. The most important feature missing is support for hardware MIDI/HID mixers. The broadcast feature, which lets you share your DJing with others online, is also disabled in the free version. Virtual DJ Free is otherwise fully functional, however. If you have DJ skills, Virtual DJ has what you’ll need to keep a party entertained.

Rather than listen to music based on your mood, or based on your favourite genre, Playlistnow.fm is all about listening to music according to your situation.

Whether you’re at the office, relaxing, or partying ““ there’s a playlist for just about every situation you could imagine on the site. Playlistnow.fm is part social network, part online radio. Create your own playlists or listen to other people’s playlists. Playlistnow.fm is not only a great way to listen to music depending on your situation, it also offers a way of discovering songs and artists similar to those you already like.

Playlistnow.fm does not have a registration page, but rather allows you to connect either your Facebook, Twitter or Google account to access the site. It is worth mentioning though, that while they provide a method to revoke permission for access to your account ““ it doesn’t work. If you change your mind about using Playlistnow.fm ““ you will have to revoke permission directly through the account you connected to the site.

Once you’ve signed in, you will be prompted to fill in your name, email address and location. If any of your friends from the service you connected are on Playlistnow.fm, you can follow them, and if you want, follow some suggested members including Playlistnow.fm staff members and popular users.

Playlistnow.fm focuses heavily on the social network side of things, with collaborative playlists, allowing you to add songs to other people’s playlists. Another social network feature is a feed of your and your friends’ recent activities on the site. Other users can comment on and “˜like’ each other’s activity on the site.

There are two ways to search for songs on the site. If you use the search bar at the top of the page, the search results are accompanied by a wealth of information.

Song search results are accompanied by the audio track, similar songs, and a list of the playlists the song has been added to. You can “˜like’ the song, comment on it, or add it to your playlist. Artist search results are similar, accompanied by similar artists, a bio, and the available songs from that artist on Playlistnow.fm. If the song you want isn’t on the list, you can expand the search results to include YouTube songs.

You can also preview a song before adding it to your list, share the song via email, Facebook or Twitter. If you don’t feel like creating a situation-related playlist you can add the song to your “˜tiny playlist,’ a public list of your favourite songs, by clicking the heart icon.

To create a playlist, click on the “˜Create a playlist’ button at the top of the page and fill in the fields ““ the situation, tags, and the category.

On the playlist page, you can then search for songs to add to your playlist.  These search results are not accompanied by the information included using the first search method, allowing you only to preview and add songs to the playlist.

If you’d rather browse other people’s playlists, there are several ways to do so. You can browse playlists by tag, by categories, or even through the entire list until you find something that appeals to you.

Playback is controlled by a player at the bottom of the browser screen. Through the player, you can skip and pause songs, set the playlist to play on shuffle or repeat, or share what you’re listening to on Twitter or Facebook, watch the video, or add the song to your tiny playlist.

If there is one major criticism to be made of Playlistnow.fm, it’s that you won’t always find the song or singer that you’re looking for. If your taste in music is less than mainstream, you will struggle to find songs to create your music playlists, despite the fact that the music is partly powered by YouTube videos. If the artist does not have a page on Playlistnow.fm, their YouTube songs won’t show up in search results.

Have you tried out Playlistnow.fm? Let us know what you thought of it in the comments.

Jeffry described how you can put together a party iTunes playlist with DJ Song Lists, and Angelina reviewed a couple of cool free apps that you can use to mix up tunes. All of these apps are great, but they don’t provide that DJ look and feel – wouldn’t it be cool to download a virtual DJ studio you can run on your laptop that gives you a couple of turntables and lets you perform realtime effects on the music as it plays?

Enter OTS Turntables, a very cool, free DJ app that not only gives you the ability to create a playlist of music with professional fading and effects, but it lets you have a little fun with the music as it plays, rotating the turntable for that track and scratching it up a bit – or performing a variety of other effects that would keep the party fluid and high-energy.

Your Own DJ Turntables

The best part of this application is the awesome design. The skin makes it feel like you’ve got your own personal mixing board right in front of you – complete with two turntables, an equalizer, processor, digital effects and much more. It offers the level of mixing features that you’d only expect with paid software.

The bottom of the window is where you load in all of your tracks in the order that you would want them to play. They won’t necessarily play automatically unless you enable the Auto DJ feature. Otherwise, you can drag any of the tracks in this window onto one of the two turntables. Then, you can play one or both of those tracks, adding effects as they play if you want to.

You can load in tracks from anywhere, whether it’s a folder or an audio CD. Once you’ve loaded the track onto your turntable, you can use any of the effects on the turntable to alter just that track, while the other turntable remains unaffected by those changes. These include changing the pitch, tempo or the direction of play (yes, you can play the track in reverse at high speed if you want to).

In the center of the turntables, you’ll find the volume controls where you can perform any form of fading that you like.

When you click on the “FX” button under the turntable, you’ll find different ways that you can alter the playback of that track. Most of the effects are different scratch techniques that you can record and then utilize for any track that you’re playing.

When you click on the devices that make up your DJ mixer board, a pop-up window opens so that you can modify your overall output sound however you like. Another cool feature of OTS Turntables is the fact that there are preset settings for different “themes” you may be looking for.

For example, click on “Bass Boost” and the Equalizer automatically configures to maximize the low frequency end of the range for each channel.

The same goes for the “Dynamics Processor,” where you can alter each of the settings to get just the sound that you’re looking for. Or click on one of the theme buttons at the bottom, such as DJ, Lounge or Party – and the settings all adjust to the levels that you need.

Best of all, you aren’t tied down to performing your amazing feats of special music effects during the party itself. If you want to perform your magic and record it for the fun later, you can do so by clicking on the program icon in the upper right corner and clicking on “Output Configuration.”

Here, you can set up any output device that you may want to feed your music to (such as an amp or some other hardware), or you can feed the entire mix that you’re creating to an output wave file, which you can then burn to an audio CD, or convert to an MP3 and post it online (just be careful with copyrights!).

Overall, OTS Turntables is one of the most functional and high quality free DJ mixing apps that I’ve seen yet. So download a virtual DJ studio for yourself, give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Image Credit: Jannes Glas

Genius Mixes creates playlists of songs based on the songs it finds in your iTunes library. It also recommends other songs and albums by the artist or group of a selected song, as well as music by other artists in the iTunes Music Store that match the currently selected song.

How It Works

It’s fairly easy to set up a Genius Mix. Open iTunes and start playing a song that you want your mix based upon.

Now, click the Genius Mixes button at the bottom-left of the iTunes interface. iTunes will create a playlist that includes 10 artists similar to the current song you’re playing. The list is based on the songs you have saved in your iTunes library.

If this is all that Genius Mixes does that would be great, especially because it saves you the time of having to go through your library and select songs yourself to make up a playlist. But it does more.

Other Selections

After looking over your list, you might decide that the mix is not exactly what you want. Well, first you can select a song(s) you don’t want in the list and simply delete it. It won’t delete it from your iTunes library, but it will remove it from the Genius playlist.

You can also click the Refresh button which re-mixes the list.

You also might want to increase the limit of songs in the list. For the most part I have found Genius Mixes to be pretty good about matching songs, which seems largely based on the genre of music.

And finally, you can simply manually add songs that you would like to be included in the list. But you can’t add them to the Genius list itself. You need to turn that list into a regular playlist (File>New Playlist from Selection) and then add the songs you want.

Save Playlist

You no doubt will want to save your Genius Mixes playlist once it’s set up the way you like. Apple has set up the left side of the iTunes interface to include a section just for your saved Genius Mixes playlists.

Also if you click on the Genius Mixes icon in the left column of the iTunes interface, iTunes will deliver up a bunch of random mixes, based on your iTunes library.

Other Recommendations

In the Genius Sidebar you will notice that when you select and play a song, iTunes will recommend songs and albums not in your library by the currently playing artists or group. Above that list will be a link to the artist page, if there is one, in the iTunes Music Store.

Below artist recommendations, you get other Genius Recommendations that are based on an algorithm of songs and albums similar to your selected song and played by other iTunes users throughout the world. These songs and albums are also ones found in the iTunes Music Store.

These recommendations are a great way to discover music new to you, even if you don’t purchase your music in the iTunes Music Store.

If for some reason Genius Mixes are not delivering good recommendations, you might try selecting Store>Update Genius, in the iTunes menu bar. This will send your iTunes library data to Apple so that it can in turn make better recommendations.

Finally, if you prefer, you can turn off Genius Mixes all together by also selecting Store>Turn Off Genius in the menu bar.

On occasion you may have songs in your iTunes library that are not available in the iTunes Music Store, and in that case Genius Mixes won’t work. But for the most part, I have found that the Genius Mixes feature creates a good playlist of songs – many of which I forgot I had.

For other iTunes related tips and features, check out MakeUseOf’s Big Book of iTunes Guide for free.

Let us know if you use Genius Mixes. What do you like and dislike about it?

If you don’t mind becoming the source of constant giggles behind your back, that’s fine. But you can easily turn the embarrassment into awe by making use of your songs collection and iTunes – with a little help from iTunes DJ feature.

The DJ Is In The House

The DJ feature is located at the top of the playlist’s list. If you don’t see it there, you can turn it on by going to the “Preferences“, choose the “General” tab and check the iTunes DJ box.

After clicking the iTunes DJ on the playlist, you will get the iTunes DJ front menu. To start, just click the “Continue” button.

Then you will get the basic iTunes DJ song list. At first glance, it’s similar to other random playlists. But this DJ song list has unique features that makes it different from the rest. All you have to do is dig a little bit deeper.

The most noticeable feature is the ability to choose a source of music from the already available playlists.

Other features are hidden inside the “Settings“. Click on the button to reveal them.

You can choose how many songs that you want to display, and whether you want to play higher rated songs more often.

But the coolest feature is the ability to allow guests to request songs from your DJ song list from their iPhone or iPod Touch. To enable this feature, check on the “Allow guest to…” checkbox.

Then you can write down the welcome message, restrict the song source, allow guests to vote for songs, and – if you want to limit the request song feature to only selected guests (or to yourself) – enable a password.

Twinkle-Twinkle Little Stars

It’s already mentioned above that you can play high rated songs more often. But what if your songs have not been rated?  What is the easiest way to go from this :

To this?

Should you go through each and every song on your library and assign a rating one by one? The party will be finished long before you are done with the list.

There’s an easier way to rate your songs: use AutoRate (Mac only). This app will automatically assign stars to each and every song on your list based on how many times they’ve been played before.

Open the app and click Start. It will analyze your library and assign the rating. You’ll have your rated library in only a few seconds.

Play It Smart

You can make your iTunes DJ smarter by choosing “Smart Playlist” as the source of your songs. But before you can do that, be sure to create and customize one that suits your needs.

To create a smart playlist, go to “File – New Smart Playlist” menu (Command + Option + N).

Add rules to your smart playlist by clicking the plus button and delete the ones that you don’t need by clicking the minus button. There are so many customizable factors that it’s impossible to explain them one by one. Experimenting is the key.

For example, you can make your playlist consists of only songs that has been played at least once, and you can also limit the total playlist time to a number of hours that you prefer.

You can create several DJ song lists for different parties, so choosing songs for the next party is as easy as choosing the playlist source for your iTunes DJ.

Have you tried iTunes DJ? Do you know other alternatives to liven up your parties? Share your thoughts and opinions using the comments below.