riding the pitch whilst in the mix

[Orhan Deniz]

Hello,

I've been struggling with vdj to get more breakbeat, jungle and electro tunes to sit comfortably in the mix. Even when I find the first beat, set it, sooner or later a phase drift occurs, and although it is hardly noticeable for the audience, I can notice it in the mix and if I were  to use this set up at gigs I would need to be precise. Sometimes it can be enjoyable and riotous when the beats go ever so slightly out of time but on a well calibrated system that can jar people out of the groove. I have tried to ride the pitch whilst in the mix using the shift+T tempo mode, with the pg up+down shortcuts, but it feels like I'm involved in a game of cat and mouse and by the time I hear them locked, they already seem to be drifting. Is this a limitation of using the qwerty keyboard, or have others used pitch bends or nudges to sort this problem out?

for reference, here is one of my mixes where you can occasionally notice this phase drift. Skip to the 10m 30 second mark to hear a good example of what I am talking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnDf_SeYAD4

Best, Orhan.

[Zenek]

Hi, you've hit the nail on the head with using a keyboard. You can't do the same thing with a slider and a high-resolution knob by pressing buttons. Leaving aside the possible shortcomings of the BPM-counting algorithm, I can only suggest what else you can do.

Use Ctrl+Alt+b to align the BPM according to the VDJ algorithm.

Ctrl+Shift+p and Alt+Shift+p can do the same.
You can also adjust the nudge length to 10ms with Ctrl+Alt+up/down or F10, and then move the corresponding deck forward or backward with Ctrl+left/right or Alt+left/right. The jog wheel can smoothly adjust the track offset, but the keyboard only adjusts it in 10ms increments.
If aligning the BPM with Ctrl+Alt+b doesn't produce identical values, you can try re-analyzing the tracks or using the advanced analysis action. My experience shows that VDJ algorithms only match the beat grid of the next track to the end of the previous track. If a track has tempo changes or is produced with a bit shift, VDJ will only match the end of the current track and the beginning of the next track. Advanced analysis calculates the BPM of the entire track and aligns the beat grid to the changing tempo.
It's also possible to perform a "sync to beat at the current moment" action. This differs from regular synchronization in that it detects 8 beats around the current moment and matches the second track to them.
All of these methods are unreliable depending on the track's structure. If it's not perfectly built to the metronome tempo but rather floating, the algorithm will lose its way.

I also remembered that in the VDJ configuration file, you can set the number of decimal places to indicate the BPM. This is important when two tracks play together for a long time, ensuring that the BPM values ​​are perfectly even. Perhaps displaying only one digit after the decimal point would help; then 145.0 would be perfectly equal to 145.099, but I'm just guessing. A 0.99 BPM difference like that would quickly create a horse-rattling sound. I don't rule out the possibility that the number of digits after the decimal point might have no effect on the beat and is only helpful for displaying on small screens. 

Best regards, Zenek

[Orhan Deniz]

Hello Zenek,

    Yes, I assumed this is an inherent limitation of using the keyboard. I can adjust the nudge rate indeed but it does not have the tactile feel of a backscratch on vinyl or I suppose a jog wheel (although I never used cdjs in the past, only vinyl).  What controller would you recommend that works best with the malmuzik software and gives good jog sensitivity/ability to scratch?

Best,

Orhan.

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[Orhan Deniz]

Hello again Zenek,

Also, I was wondering if you knew why the pitch fader doesn't lock into place. Say if I set it to 6% in the vdj config, when I press shift+t to go into the tempo mode, I can easily exceed that. It's as if there is a pitch range when engaged in sync, but for everything else it's on wide pitch. This is not how it is on vinyl or cd at all.

[Zenek]

Check if you have the autoPitchRange option disabled; right? Sometimes VDJ can load the configuration file differently, so try enabling this option in malmuzik, confirming the changes, and then disabling autoPitchRange again after confirming the changes. I would still check how it's written in the settings.xml file to be sure.
Although it's also possible that the range limitation applies only to the slider, and the keyboard is executing a PageUp=pitch +0.1 bpm or Shift+PageUp=pitch +0.5 bpm action, it could simply be adding BPM according to the value regardless of the limit.
It seems to me that the PitchRange ranges in the software are simply a mathematical counter of MIDI signals sent by the slider, and the 6% range divides the number of MIDI signals from the entire slider length by 12. Similarly, for other ranges, the divisor increases or decreases, so for the limit to work, it requires a finite slider or knob. Alternatively, you could try to see if the +0.5% pitch keyboard action will only work to a limited extent. Unfortunately, these are my theories, without confirmation, but it's obvious that the mechanical slider has a limit, and key presses can still be repeated.

To answer your second question, I don't think I can help you choose a controller. I think it's like advice on choosing a wife. Everyone praises their current wife, but objectively speaking, no one is perfect ;) The more compromises you're willing to make from your ideal controller, the longer the list of devices you can choose from will be. Controllers come in various sizes, large and small, with and without built-in screens. Screens are the least necessary for us; the more buttons and knobs, the more controls are readily available. The larger the jog wheels, the more comfortable scratching, but at the same time, the larger the controller, and some people look for a compact, small form factor. Some companies offer the privilege of a cheaper VDJ license, but I wouldn't worry about that. Unfortunately, you'll have to do the market research yourself, and don't worry about working with MallMuzik; there aren't any restrictions. Best regards, Zenek.

[Michele Liuzzi]

Hello everyone and Happy Mix, I agree with what my friend Zenek said, the choice of controller is subjective, but as a completely blind person I recommend a nice Reloop Buddy, it is not very recent, but it does its job, it is comfortable and above all functional, it has a friendly interface, it is compact and above all it is portable... Greetings to everyone.

[AccessibleDJSoftware]

Hi Michele, I confirm that this Reloop has everything you need on board, but you know it's only for people with extremely limited desk space ;)
Thanks to its compact design, it's small, but this means the controls are placed quite close together, and the jog wheels are smaller than a CD. There's a Reloop version in a similarly small case called the Reloop Ready. It differs from the Buddy in that it lacks the library knob in the center. Instead of a dedicated slot holding the tablet, it has additional knobs that can be remapped to your own needs.
Some people need flashing lights built into the controller to create a disco atmosphere, so they choose a Numark model, while others go for Pioneer because they've heard rumors that it's the best.
The most important thing is to carefully shop around for different models before buying and not base your choice entirely on advertising or product descriptions. Manufacturers only write about what's programmed in the factory mapping, and that doesn't matter because everything can be remapped to your liking. Happy mixing to you 🎚️ and best regards, Zenek 🕺

[Michele Liuzzi]

Hello again, and sorry if I'm going off topic or asking a question that's probably already been asked. I'd like to route the screen reader's speech into the Reloop pre-listening. The controller only has two channels, and obviously it's impossible to send the audio to the line input because it would exclude the deck. Is there a way to do this? It's not that important, as I already solved the problem a while ago by sending the Reloop Buddy pre-listening to Windows Audio, where I have both the Reloop pre-listening and everything else, including the speech synthesis, without any problems. Thanks again.

[DJ Graco]

Hi,

The only method I know of is Equalizer APO, but I've never used it. My speech is routed to the audio interface. NVDA can't be forced to output channels 3/4.

Greetings :)

[AccessibleDJSoftware]

You shouldn't even start a new thread; use the search engine, as this topic was discussed in the thread below. Read all the messages carefully, and you'll find precise instructions on how to configure the audio settings you need. Best regards and have fun, Zenek.
https://groups.google.com/g/accessibledjsoftware/c/o8gaitdbHpM/m/JuJjC5F1AwAJ

środa, 15 października 2025 o 16:34:54 UTC+2 michele....@gmail.com napisał(a):

[Michele Liuzzi]

Ok Thanks, as soon as I can I will read the discussion you kindly attached, I could also use a more rudimentary and analog way with a splitter cable, but as I said before I am also fine with my current configuration with the reloop pre-listening in the PC, even so I have no latency problems or anything else, anyway thanks everyone for the valuable information.

[Orhan Deniz]

Hi all,

I think I'm going to purchase the Numark ns4fx. It seems to have what I need at a good price. I'll check the virtual dj website to see if they have the mapper, because I can't see it in the one drive directory.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/accessibledjsoftware/35d6d6e7-d783-4b20-864d-a80b01b47887n%40googlegroups.com.

[Burak Y]

Hi everyone,

As we are on the subject of pitch and tempo, could I please ask a question.

I have some Dj packs here, that have transitions from a starting tempo, transitioning to a different tempo as a track progresses. Virtual Dj does not seem to pick this up. How can I enable this and have it change as the track progresses?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many regards, Dj reál.

On 15 Oct 2025, at 15:34, Michele Liuzzi <michele....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello again, and sorry if I'm going off topic or asking a question that's probably already been asked. I'd like to route the screen reader's speech into the Reloop pre-listening. The controller only has two channels, and obviously it's impossible to send the audio to the line input because it would exclude the deck. Is there a way to do this? It's not that important, as I already solved the problem a while ago by sending the Reloop Buddy pre-listening to Windows Audio, where I have both the Reloop pre-listening and everything else, including the speech synthesis, without any problems. Thanks again.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/accessibledjsoftware/45950c2b-57ae-49ab-b444-f3e8b7248c23n%40googlegroups.com.

[AccessibleDJSoftware]

A customer from one store left a comment after purchasing that this controller was losing connection with Serato, but it worked perfectly with VDJ, so mapping to it should be possible.

I determined the following by asking the AI, but I don't trust it because it responds "usually that's how it is with controllers of this class" instead of accurately describing what's in the image. Best regards, Zenek

https://share.bemyeyes.com/pl-PL/chat/eBesKKhQHf

[AccessibleDJSoftware]

Hi Dj reál.

If you expect the BPM counter to display/tell you how many beats there are at any given moment during a song with a changing tempo, that won't be possible. At least, I can't achieve that. I've written about how to align tracks with variable BPMs before. That's all we can achieve with the keyboard, and a bit more can be achieved with a controller by manually aligning the beats.

You can try to perform a "browsed_file_analyze multi" by mapping this action to holding the load buttons, or on a keyboard with pads. 

Pad Page Mallmuzik press Pad5 and first read the description of this pad

There's also a BPM editor, but it's mouse-based only, as you have to select sections of the track. I've quoted the instructions below. Best regards, Zenek

https://www.virtualdj.com/manuals/virtualdj/editors/bpmeditor.html