DJ-1800 - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Buying and Registering DJ-1800

My v2 serial code does not work with DJ-1800 v3.

Unfortunately, v3 isn't a free upgrade from v2. The upgrade cost is $20, and really only came about because we chose to license some (very good) BPM calculation libraries for DJ-1800 v3, as BPM calculation was one of our most-requested features. Unfortunately, this license carries a cost, which is reflected in the increased price of v3 (it now costs $80, rather than the v2 price of $60). The upgrade cost is simply the difference between the two.
As a result, we have introduced a new serial code format for v3, which is why your existing code does not fit. If you would like to upgrade, please follow the upgrade instructions below.
You can check which version of DJ-1800 your serial code is for by looking at the format of the code.
v2 serial codes have this format: DJ10-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
v3 serial codes have this format: DJ3xx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Please note that you cannot upgrade to v3 if you have a serial code for "DJ-1800 for Mac OS Classic". Serial codes for "DJ-1800 for Mac OS Classic" have this format: DJ1C-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx

How do I upgrade to DJ-1800 v3?

To upgrade to the latest version, you need to:
1) Download the latest demo of DJ-1800 v3.
2) Purchase an upgrade.
The link on this page will take you you to our online reseller, "Kagi". You need to purchase the "v2 > v3 upgrade", which costs USD $20.
The upgrade is valid for any DJ-1800 v1 or v2 serial code. You can check if your existing code is valid by looking at the first four characters of the code. If the code begins with "DJ10-", then you can use it to upgrade to v3.
Once you have completed your purchase, you will receive an email containing your v3 upgrade serial code.
3) Launch DJ-1800 v3, and follow these instructions to complete your registration.
Enter your registered username in the "Username" box. Your username will be the email address that you use when you purchase the v3 upgrade. So, if you register with the email address "support@dj1800.com", you would enter:
Username: support@dj1800.com
v3 serial code: [the serial code from your upgrade order confirmation email]
Once you have entered this information, you will be prompted for your v2 serial code. When entering your v2 serial code, watch out for potential confusion between the number 1 and the letter i, or between the number 0 and the letter o. The best bet is to copy and paste the serial code directly from this email, making sure to remove any leading or trailing spaces.
You can now click the "Register" button and use DJ-1800 v3 without the 30-minute demo timeout.

I've just bought a Serial Code for DJ-1800, but it doesn't work when I try and register the software!

Serial Codes from ourselves will always work with the appropriate version of DJ-1800 - but it's always possible to enter a serial code incorrectly. We suggest copying and pasting the serial code direct from your original email into DJ-1800's Registration box.
When you first launch DJ-1800 v3 after registering, you should copy and paste your email address into the "Username:" box in the registration window. This will be the email address that you used when you purchased your v3 serial code. Then, copy and paste your v3 Serial Code into the boxes provided.

Can I have a backup of DJ-1800 on CD or DVD?

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a CD or DVD copy of DJ-1800 to give you a physical backup. However, if you should ever suffer a fatal hard disk or computer error, you can always re-download the latest demo version of DJ-1800 to your replacement hard disk or computer, and register it with the same username and serial code as before.
Additionally, you can always retrieve your username and serial code automatically from our web site.

Supported platforms

Is DJ-1800 available for Mac OS 10.3 or earlier?

As of November 2007, new versions of DJ-1800 are being developed for Mac OS 10.4 and later only. However, you can still buy versions of DJ-1800 for Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3, for the reduced price of $60. See our downloads page for more information.

Is DJ-1800 available for Mac OS Classic (e.g. OS 8 and OS 9)?

As of mid 2004, new versions of DJ-1800 are being developed for Mac OS X only. Sadly, DJ-1800 for Mac OS Classic is no longer available.

Is DJ-1800 available for Microsoft Windows?

At the moment, DJ-1800 is available for Mac OS X only. We do hope one day to create a Windows version of DJ-1800, but it's not something we're planning to do in the foreseeable future. This is mainly due to the fact that Mac and Windows audio environments are so different! For now, we'd rather concentrate on making DJ-1800 the best Mac DJ application there is.

Common problems

The Internal Mixer has disappeared. I go to the View menu, and both 'Internal Mixer' and 'Crossfader' are grayed out! What happened?

Chances are you've inadvertently switched to an output mode that doesn't use the internal mixer. To fix this, open the 'Output Preferences' window (under the 'Outputs' menu), and select a mode that does use the internal mixer (either mode 1, 'Mono + Mixer', or mode 3, 'Dual + Mixer'). The mixer and Crossfader should then be available.

I am hearing audio dropouts when using DJ-1800 v3 on Mac OS 10.5. The dropouts occur whenever I load a new track into a CD Player.

This is caused by a known QuickTime issue on Mac OS 10.5. This problem only happens on 10.5, with DJ-1800 v3, with Pitch Lock turned on, when playing live and cue through the same audio device.
This issue is caused by a bug in QuickTime and Mac OS X. We are working with Apple to help them fix this bug.
In the meantime, we have posted a detailed FAQ about this problem, together with several workarounds.

I sometimes get audio dropouts when playing or loading songs from external FireWire drives.

When playing songs from an external drive, it is possible that the internal disk in your Mac can 'spin down' and go to sleep. If this happens, then you may experience audio dropouts when loading new songs, as the disk has to spin up to speed again before playback begins.
To avoid these dropouts, we recommend un-ticking the 'Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible' option in the 'Energy Saver' System Preferences Pane on Mac OS X.

I sometimes get audio dropouts when playing Variable Bit Rate (VBR) MP3 files.

Due to the varying compression in Variable Bit Rate (VBR) MP3 files, we strongly recommend that you do not use VBR-encoded MP3 files with DJ-1800, as they can occasionally cause audio dropouts or skipping. Instead, we would recommend compressing your audio files as Constant Bit Rate (CBR) MP3 files, or as AAC files.

DJ features

Does DJ-1800 play Protected AAC files purchased from the iTunes Store?

Yes! DJ-1800 is one of the very few DJ applications that can play Protected AAC files.
These files can be played with Pitch Lock and all of the usual features. The only thing missing for Protected AAC file is StartPoint, AutoGain and BPM calculation. Unfortunately, Apple don't allow us to get at the raw samples in a Protected AAC file, and so we are unable to calculate these values for protected files.

Does DJ-1800 auto-mix songs together?

DJ-1800 doesn't mix songs for you at the moment. Our primary aim has always been to make a tool which makes manual DJing easier and more enjoyable, rather than taking away the fun and skill of live DJing. However, we appreciate that there are some times in a DJ set when you really do have to get a beer (and as a result, some times when you really do have to go to the bathroom), and so we will include some form of auto-segue (most likely in a similar style to iTunes's 'Crossfade Playback' feature) sometime in the future.
You can always set a playlist playing in 'continuous' mode, of course. But the songs won't be mixed - just played one after another.

Will DJ-1800 feature a scratch wheel?

It's unlikely that DJ-1800 will feature a true "scratch wheel" interface any time soon. This isn't because it's hard to make the audio sound scratchy. Rather, it's because computer mice and keyboards don't make good interfaces for scratching audio. We figure that if you really want to scratch and mix file-based audio in a true vinyl DJ stylee, then you're more likely to use a vinyl-based digital solution such as FinalScratch or Ms. Pinky. Please do tell us if you disagree!

Can DJ-1800 record my mix to an audio file?

DJ-1800 doesn't include a record feature at the moment. However, there are two pieces of software which enable you to record DJ-1800's output (and indeed any other application's output) to a file. These are WireTap Pro from Ambrosia Software, and Audio Hijack Pro, from Rogue Amoeba Software. Note that we don't provide support for either program - but they're useful, so we like to tell people about them.
Using WireTap Pro v1.1.3
To record your mix using WireTap Pro, make sure that DJ-1800 is set to use the "Dual + Mixer" mode. Set the Master output device to be your built-in Mac sound device. Set the Cue output device to be something else (e.g. an iMic), and plug your headphones into this device. Then launch WireTap Pro, and set it to record "Mac Audio". Now, as you play mixes in DJ-1800, you can hit "record" in WireTap Pro to record them to file. WireTap Pro v1.1.3 costs $19.
Using Audio Hijack Pro v2.6.1
Audio Hijack Pro v2.6.1 will record the first two songs played in DJ-1800, and any mixes between them. However, it is unfortunately not able to record a third (or fourth) layered song too. This limitation is not always a problem in practice, and Audio Hijack Pro has a number of useful features which make well worth using with DJ-1800. Audio Hijack Pro v2.6.1 costs $32.
We have had a very useful workaround to the 'two songs only' problem sent to us by Richard Carron. First, download Soundflower and Soundflowerbed, both of which are free. Soundflower is a virtual audio device, for routing audio between applications. Soundflowerbed is a complementary application for Soundflower, to route its audio to a real audio device.
Here's how it works. Install the Soundflower extension first. Then, launch Soundflowerbed. It appears as a small flower icon in your menu bar. Click on this icon, and from the popup menu, change "Soundflower (2ch)" from "None (OFF)" to "Built-in Audio". Next, launch DJ-1800, and open the Output Preferences window. Select "Dual + Mixer" mode, and choose "Soundflower (2ch)" as your Master Output Device. Select something else, such as an iMic, as your Cue Output Device (as normal). Plug you headphones into the cue device.
Then, launch Audio Hijack Pro, and use it to hijack the System Audio. Start recording, and then start playing songs in DJ-1800. You should find that the 'master' (live) output of the mixer will be recorded by Audio Hijack Pro, 4 songs, crossfades and all!
Many thanks to Richard for this excellent tip, and to the lovely people at Cycling 74 for making Soundflower available for free.

DJ-1800 Interface

Since I upgraded to DJ-1800 v3, I am unable to drag music files from the Finder and drop them onto DJ-1800.

Unfortunately, as of DJ-1800 v3.0, it is no longer possible to drag files from the Finder and drop them onto DJ-1800's CD players in order to load them into a CD Player.
In v3.0, we moved the whole library over to a very iTunes / iPod-centric approach, with the new "Library" rack device. This means that we don't (currently) have anywhere to store non-iTunes-managed files. We're also now using the iTunes / iPod libraries to get the metadata for any files, rather than importing the files and parsing the metadata ourselves (which was how we did it in v2 of DJ-1800). This further contributed to our decision to drop the drag-and-drop of files from the Finder.
We are planning to expand on the library in the future, for example to enable users to create a "requests" playlist which exists in DJ-1800, but doesn't need to exist in iTunes or on an iPod. Whilst this "requests" playlist will still just contain iTunes-y tracks, it might give us the opportunity to reinstate external file support too.
In the meantime, if the non-iTunes files are the exception rather than the rule for your DJ sets, we did add the ability (in v3) to re-sync with iTunes during a live DJ set, without affecting the currently-playing songs. So, this might enable you to import songs into iTunes as needed during a set, and then re-import from iTunes into DJ-1800 to pick up the new songs.

What do the "lock" icons next to my tracks in the Library indicate?

The lock sign indicates that the track is a Protected AAC file, purchased from the iTunes Store. We display the lock sign as we can't calculate StartPoints, AutoGain values or BPM values for these tracks, since QuickTime doesn't let us get at the raw samples of protected AAC files.
If you don't want (or don't need) DJ-1800 to display this information, you can turn this column off. To do this, uncheck the "Protection Type" option under DJ-1800's "Library" menu.
You can find more information about DJ-1800's support for protected files in Chapter 5 of the DJ-1800 user manual, in the section titled "Protected Files and the Protection Type icons". If you don't have it to hand, you can download the latest manual here.

How do I empty a CD Player?

Unfortunately, the answer is "right now, you can't". It's a feature we'll be adding in in the near future.
The nearest you can get at the moment is to drop a different track (or tracks) onto the same CD Player, whilst the player is paused or cued. If you do this, then the dropped track will replace the currently-loaded tracks in that CD Player.

Could you add more than 4 CD Players to the DJ-1800 interface?

In theory we could, but in practice we've rarely found occasions where (for example) 6 CD players would be better than using a playlist of songs in one or two CD Players.

What does the blue box around the CD Player indicate?

It indicates which CD Player is controlled by the channel-specific keyboard controls (e.g. 'space bar' for pause).

Hardware support

I don't have any audio hardware, but I want to play one song through my amplifier whilst listening to another song in my headphones. Can I still use DJ-1800?

You can still use DJ-1800 in this way without any additional audio hardware, as long as you don't mind DJing in mono. To DJ in stereo, you'll need to buy a second output device for your Mac, such as a Griffin iMic. These aren't too expensive. Alternatively, if you don't mind DJing in mono, you can use the 'Mono + Mixer' mode in DJ-1800.
For lots more info about the different output modes in DJ-1800, check out Chapter 6 of the user manual, called 'Output Modes + Output Preferences', which contains lots of info about the different output modes in DJ-1800. The user manual is available as part of the standard DJ-1800 installation package, or you can download it separately.

Does DJ-1800 support my audio hardware device?

We have made a list of devices we have tested ourselves. Although we have not been able to test DJ-1800 with every audio hardware device / card / box on the market, pretty much every hardware device for OS X should work with DJ-1800, as long as it has CoreAudio support which allows QuickTime playback.
If you want to test your own device with DJ-1800 before purchasing DJ-1800, you can do this by downloading the free 30-minute demo, and trying your device with the demo. The demo is exactly the same as the full version of DJ-1800 (apart from the 30-minute time limit), and so provides an accurate test of how your device will work with DJ-1800 once registered.

Can I use my AirPort Express as a second output device with DJ-1800?

Not exactly. First things first, the AirPort Express isn't made available to anything other than iTunes for audio streaming. However, the nice people at Rogue Amoeba have created a piece of software called AirFoil, which enables you to output the audio from any application to the AirPort Express.
At the moment, this doesn't quite work with DJ-1800. AirFoil hijacks the first audio stream from an application, and sends it to the AirPort Express. Since DJ-1800 plays several audio streams to several devices, AirFoil isn't able to hijack the full mix. We're working with Rogue Amoeba to see if we can find a workaround for this, and hopefully this should be fixed in an upcoming version of AirFoil.
There are two other considerations:
1) Even with AirFoil, the AirPort Express doesn't appear as an actual audio hardware device to DJ-1800, so you have to output to another device (such as the built-in device in your Mac) and hijack it. This means that the AirPort Express doesn't add an extra stereo output to your Mac - it just mirrors an existing one.
2) The audio transmitted over wireless networking to the AirPort Express has a very noticeable time lag (about 1 sec) from when you press 'play' on the Mac to when the audio comes out of the speakers. This makes it pretty much unuseable for beatmixing. This isn't the fault of AirFoil - it's just a general limitation of streaming audio over wireless. iTunes has the same limitation.
So, in summary, the AirPort Express isn't really a good solution to adding an extra output device to your Mac for use with DJ-1800.

Support: support@dj1800.com | Feature requests: features@dj1800.com | Bug reports: bugs@dj1800.com