“With TIDAL music streaming gaining popularity I'm wondering whether they would ever bring lossless streaming to DJ software like Traktor, Serato or rekordbox.”
The latest rekordbox update (ver. 6.1.1) brings the new Edit mode and TIDAL support. Create your own edits of tracks and play high-quality music from an additional platform. Step 4 Import Spotify songs to Rekordbox. Transfer the downloaded music files on any device and use them with Rekordbox for Djing. Open the local folder that contains Spotify files and make sure the ‘Collection’ icon on the left is highlighted. Now drag the converted Spotify songs into Rekordbox’s track window. TIDAL is the first global music streaming service with high fidelity sound, hi-def video quality, along with expertly curated playlists and original content — making it a trusted source for music and culture. Image source: www.rekordbox.com. Software release: Rekordbox 5.8. Starting its life as THE solution for preparing and organising your music on a USB for use with Pioneer DJ equipment, Rekordbox has evolved very quickly over the past few years. Now with Recordbox DJ it competes with the giants in live DJ Software. TIDAL (v6) Check out more information here to understand the most common FAQs. Sample recording & playback. Rekordbox allows for you as a DJ to record samples and play them back live. This is great for DJs out there that want to play around with vocal samples, DJ drops and even percussive sounds. Recording DJ mixes.
A DJ can play seamless music for hours straight that fits the audience. What’s the best source for DJs to get DJ music? Tidal is the answer! Tidal is a popular music streaming service offering a vast music library with various genres. By signing up as a Tidal member, you have a wide selection of what to mix to match the atmosphere of the DJ events. If you are a Tidal HiFi subscriber, you can even stream Tidal music in lossless CD quality, 4 times the bitrates of the standard audio quality.
The only catch is that there are some annoying limitations on DJ Tidal music. For example, Tidal can be used as a music streaming provider for use with Serato DJ Pro, and it's a rather simple process. However, it requires an active and stable internet connection to play Tidal music tracks in Serato DJ Pro. There may be a sudden stop or distorted sound under unstable data or WiFi. Is there any way to download Tidal music to DJ offline?
In this article, we are going to show you an easy yet efficient way to download Tidal music as local files so that you can DJ Tidal music offline. All you need is a music tool named Tidal Music Converter. It's an amazing app to convert Tidal music to MP3/AAC/WAV/FLAC/AIFF and keep up to HiFi audio quality and ID3 tags after conversion.
Tool Required - Tidal Music Converter
The Tidal Music Converter we are going to use in this article is a 100% safe & clean program. It requires no need to install any extra apps, including the Tidal app.
Key Features of Tidal Music Converter
Tidal Music Converter
- Download Tidal music to the computer.
- Convert Tidal tracks to MP3/AAC/WAV/FLAC/AIFF format.
- Convert music at 10X speed.
- Keep ID3 tags after conversion.
- Free updates & technical support.
Tutorial: How to Use Tidal Music to DJ
As mentioned above, we are going to use the Tidal Music Converter to download music from Tidal to the local drive and then import the downloaded Tidal music to a DJ software. Here's the step-by-step tutorial:
Step 1Launch Tidal Music Converter and Login to your Tidal account.
Update Rekordbox
Step 2Choose Output Format and Customize Output Path
Click the 'Settings' icon on the upper right corner. Here you can select the output format (MP3/AAC/WAV/FLAC/AIFF), customize the output path and how you'd like to sort out the downloaded Tidal music (by Artist, Album, Artist/Album, Album/Artist or simply save all the songs in one folder), etc.
Step 3Add Tidal Music to Tidal Music Converter
Does Tidal Work With Rekordbox
Open a playlist, artist or album, then click on the 'Add' button and select & confirm the songs that you'd like to use for DJ.
Step 4Export Tidal Music to the Local Drive
Click the 'Convert' button to start downloading the selected songs to the local computer. Once the conversion is done, you can click the 'History' icon to find the well-downloaded Tidal music. Also, you can go to the output folder you customized in Step 2 to check the Tidal downloads.
Step 5Import the Downloaded Tidal Music to the DJ Software
Since you've got the Tidal music on the local drive, you can easily import them to a DJ Software for further work.
Most DJ software now flaunt their own streaming offerings. DJ’s who are looking to embrace the music streaming revelation should consider Rekordbox DJ as a serious option. Rekordbox might just steal your hearts (bit dramatic) with its Beatport Link streaming integration.
Now choosing your set up has become a 2 stage process. Is this software right for me? And is the streaming service attached to it going to fulfil my needs? First let’s look at the numbers and do the pros and cons..
Skip to:
The Software
The integrated streaming services
Software release: Rekordbox 5.8
DJ software price: $14.90 per month or $129 purchase (or free with compatible DJ controllers)
Free trial available: ✓ 30 days
Streaming Services & price:
– Soundcloud Go+: £9.99 per month (Recommended package)
Free trial available: ✓ 30 days
– Beatport Link: $39.99 or $59.99 per month (recommended plans)
Free trial available: ✓ 30 days
- Software includes many features others don’t have
- Industry standard brand in DJ equipment
- “Locker” storage for offline playback
- Great selection of DJ controllers available
- A few library organisational issues need improving (Rekordbox 6 hopefully coming soon!)
- Beatport streaming service can seem a bit pricey to non Pros.
If you think you are not going to use streaming, well… think again. If not now, then in the future you probably will. And you may as well get attached to the right software from the start.
I have split this review into 2 parts; The DJ Software and The Streaming Integration. Let’s kick things off…
The DJ Software
Software release: Rekordbox 5.8
Starting its life as THE solution for preparing and organising your music on a USB for use with Pioneer DJ equipment, Rekordbox has evolved very quickly over the past few years. Now with Recordbox DJ it competes with the giants in live DJ Software.
Firstly, it needs to be said that Rekordbox comes from Pioneer DJ, who are the leaders in all DJ equipment. So being a Rekordbox user you know your are a VIP in the DJ software / hardware integration relationship.
Rekordbox DJ offers some great features such as an ability to preview tracks in your headphones without loading them into the decks. This “Preview waveforms” feature is incredibly useful when quickly scanning through your music libraries and playlists. There is also a great function to help with track selection and choosing the best track to play next. Both of these are features not found in any other DJ Software.
As Rekordbox is really the only option for preparing USBs for DJ’ing with Pioneer DJ equipment, we have to also take this advantage into account. An easy export of your library onto a USB drive is useful for many scenarios. Perhaps your laptop laptop is playing up, or you’re DJ’ing somewhere a laptop set up is not suitable; you’re covered. You can plug your USB drive into any supported Pioneer equipment (found in most DJ booths). Pioneer CDJs are also becoming far more advanced and far more accommodating for the “USB DJ”. So the leap from Laptop to USB might become inevitable and with Rekordbox DJ you’re ready for it.
A few minor criticisms…
However, during my conversion from Serato to Rekordbox (v5.8), I encountered a few issues in the library set up within the software;
Rekordbox 6.1.1
You cannot mix video files with MP3 files. If you previously Video DJ’d, or you DJ and VDJ and you want to organise all your music in the same playlists then this can not be done. So if you used to VDJ this would be the time to convert all their Video files to MP3 and re organise your collection, at the same time saving on a ton of hard drive space! But if you still VDJ then Rekordbox might not be the one. * UPDATE- This has now been fixed in Rekordbox 6 along with full library management for all integrated services. More info here
The other issue with the library is with how you view playlists inside folders. Tracks can only go into playlists and only playlist go into folders. However, you can not view all the music inside a folder. This means that viewing the contents of a collection of playlists together is impossible. Perhaps you have a collection of different warm up playlists and when playing out you want to view them all together and sort by key or bmp. You would not be able to do this. *The same issue still remains in Rekordbox 6.
These library issues may be due to Rekordbox’s dual capability with exporting to USB, so therefore your library organising is limited to the capabilities of a Pioneer CDJ.
Perhaps a future update will fix these issues*
Rekordbox DJ has moved very swift since its release a few years ago. At this rate it seems it will be a flawless DJ software solution very soon.
The Integrated Streaming Services
Rekordbox and Beatport Link streaming service.
Now this is where Rekordbox DJ wins it. With Beatport Link they provide a streaming service that is actually suitable for Pro DJs. You have the ability to download up to 100 tracks for “offline locker storage” But it does come at a price. For a 50 track offline locker it is $39.99 per month, for the 100 track offline locker it is $59.99 a month. It might seem pricey but for House and underground DJs, where DJ Record Pools just don’t cut it, Beatport is an expense they are used to and this solution might just work out cheaper.
This ability to store tracks offline brings a few major benefits. It could mean that you can basically “audition” tracks in venues before purchasing them if you want to keep them in your archive. Or, for example if you are a resident DJ at a venue 4 days a week you can rotate your tracks in your locker to keep things fresh at no extra cost to you.
Rekordbox and Soundcloud Go+ streaming service.
The Soundcloud Go+ streaming service offers the biggest music library available to DJ’s. But it does not allow any offline storage. This may be good for DJ’s practising at home, but for the pro, Beatport Link is where it’s at.
Summary
Rekordbox is really the only choice for Pro DJ’s who are looking to make the most of music streaming. This is due to Beatport’s offline “Locker” storage. The Rekordbox software has a few creases that need ironing out on the library side of things. But still, the benefits and added features this software brings puts it ahead of the other software and music streaming packages available. And of course, it is from Pioneer DJ, who is improving this software at a rapid pace. Rekordbox is a strong recommendation for any DJ.
Rekordbox Performance Mode
You can do a free trial of Beatport’s most expensive subscription and try it out. You can also free trial the Rekordbox DJ software and see if it’s for you.
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