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I'm a hobby DJ myself and do a monthly (former weekly) event for about four years now together with a friend of mine who has about seven or eight years of DJ experience, and this is my opinion on this topic (I'll first rant about DJ'ing itself and then about the software/hardware we use):

I think the most important thing for DJ'ing is to know your music. You must know the bands and names of your songs and vice versa you must know how your songs sound like when you hear their names. And you must learn how to combine them. The bigger your reportoire the better. Be prepared to buy a lot of CDs over time... my collection is currently about 400 CDs right now and that's not very much, IMHO: other DJs I know have more, some have MUCH more. Most DJs I know could have bought a car with the money they've spent into CDs. (Yes, there are P2P nets, bla bla, but I like to hold something in my hand; and I also know some DJs which still only use vinyl)

We do a gothic event and that means to know a lot of different music genres, from medieval to gothic rock to 80's pop and wave to industrial. In short: all kind of different rock and electronic genres from the 80's to now. DJ'ing for those events is probably different from DJ'ing a techno or hip hop event, but you haven't said which music you're into so I just assume my opinion could be useful for you ;-)

Our concept is to do blocks of one genre and try to slide into another genre and only sometimes do "breaks" where we change e.g. from noise into "heavenly voices" from one song to another. That means if I play a song from some band I have to come up with songs of other bands that fit in the same genre and are good follow-ups to former song. Other DJs have other concepts, for example another good DJ I know normally only plays songs one or two songs of the same genre and then breaks into a completely different genre. Those concepts depend on a few things, e.g. how many guests you have, how many people fit on the dance floor at one time and also your target audience, just to name a few.

Whatever your concept is doesn't matter though, what matters is that you can come up with songs that fit your concept and that people like, and that means you really have to know your song reportoire. And to do that you don't need any fancy software for that. I personally normally work with CDs, I need the inspiration from seeing the CD backs in my DJ cases. A simple list of songs is not very inspiring for me... other DJs think otherwise, like my co-DJ.

But my co-DJ used AtomixMP3 and now the successor (AFAIK) Virtual DJ. Both are very easy to use and affordable. While I rarely use the computer for DJ'ing myself I think they're very good. They also have automatic beat mixing and stuff which may be more important to DJs for electronic music (for non-electronic stuff beat mixing and effect are quite useless, IMHO...).

We also have a console for Virtual DJ which includes a sound card and generally makes the software usable like DJ CD players. It's very nice, IIRC we paid 200 Euro for the console including the software but it's much cheaper now, I think 100 Euro or something. Together with an USB 2.0 harddisk and a notebook you're set.

Ah, and some other important advises: Have fun ! Don't let others stress you. Especially don't listen to song requests from annoying guests, you'll see that the dance floor will be empty when you play that damn song and the annoying guest is nowhere to be seen. And remember that a DJ creates trends, if you only play the songs on the current top 100 you'll probably bore your guests...

Try the dj audio player called Atomixmp3 with a Pioneer skin. AtomixMP3 provides instant bpm beat matching, live recording, dual soundcard output, master tempo and plugins.

http://www.atomixmp3.com/

Check out AtomixMP3. I didn't notice any limitations in the trial. A local DJ I talked with uses this software.

May I enquire what you, as a DJ, do with these Ogg files? Traktor doesn't seem to support it and as far as I know there aren't any other viable computer-DJ-solutions out there. Traktor does support the iPod, incidentally, but maybe it will support that Dell thingy (or other players) at some point in the future.

I do nothing as DJ with Ogg Vorbis... I still find my CDs way more inspiring than just some lists with names. I just wanted to highlight the audiophile part ;-)

My collegue uses AtomixMP3, which really is a very nice DJ program and has really intelligent GUI, but I just like my CD cases better, although they are now becoming a space problem and are far heavier than a PC. Besides, AtomixMP3 also doesn't support Ogg Vorbis so sometimes when my friend wants songs from me I have to recode them. No problem, shell scripting rulez, but still annoying.

The thing was that last year I decided it's way easier for me to leave my CD cases in our disco and have copies of them in my office (where I listen to music the most), I read a detailed article about music formats and since all players under Linux I know off support Ogg Vorbis I decided to go the Ogg Vorbis way since it seemed that they offer a better sound at the same bitrate than MP3... and now that I have finally encoded my collection I don't like to recode them, which is why I will buy an iRiver even though I'd like to get an iPod instead.

Fair point, but it's not the same as a pair of decks. It doesn't have the hands-on feel to it, and it certainally doesn't hold the same mystique for the fans of the art.

Plus, let's hear some scratching on those CDs... ;-)

The only reason that vinyl is still alive is because most dance/underground/techno is released on vinyl FIRST. That's why.

Not strictly true, the whole scene is dominated by vinyl, not just the releases. Fans don't get excited by someone pressing buttons!

Don't get me wrong, I love all the new tech here, I for one have never owned any vinyl, despite being old enough to have had it available. The apps like Atomix and Trakor really interest me as all my media is digital, but when I show them to my DJ friends, they are curious, but uninterested. DJs get the girls, nerds don't.

You'd laugh at Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva? I doubt it. They're some of the original pioneers. Richie is famous for his sets that mix songs, effects, and drum machines. He made the switch to Final Scratch (maps mp3's to a special vinyl record) so that he can carry the 3000 or so tracks that he wants with him around in his notebook, rather than having to tote 3 refrigerator box size crates around with him. Final Scratch and similar systems combine the portability of mp3 with the vinyl handling ability you traditionally think of when you think of djs (you can even needle drop the mp3s).

The one disadvantage of mp3 or cd is that you can't see the breaks in the vinyl, and the more intimately you know the track the less of a disadvantage that is. And if you're going to choose anything other than vinyl, why go with cd? Cd's have the disadvantages of mp3s (can't see the vinyl grooves) and the disadvantages of records (have to cart around all the physical media). If anyone's curious about mixing mp3's just at home for fun, check out this awesome software which has really advanced auto-beatmatching capabilities.