An hour and a half. That’s how long one DJ told me it took him to get 5,613 tracks onto a USB stick using Rekordbox. Then he did the same job, on the same computer with the same stick, in a minute and a half – using software he wrote himself.
He’s far from the only one. My inbox is full right now of DJs and developers building their own fixes for the official software and gear we all use, and some of it goes a lot further than faster USB sticks. There’s unofficial firmware doing the rounds for the CDJ-3000X and the XDJ-AZ, for instance, that adds features the manufacturer never gave them, including onboard stems.
Why now? AI, of course. One person with a good idea can now build in weeks what used to take a team of programmers months. So should you use any of it, especially if you’re just starting out?
(To be clear, I’m not talking about the well-respected independent DJ apps that have been around for years and have big user bases. This is about the wave of new stuff springing up right now.)
First, the good stuff
These tools fix things the big companies don’t. That USB app, according to its developer, beatgrids better than Rekordbox, detects keys better, exports in the background while you carry on working, and can fill several USB sticks at once, so making a backup for a gig costs you no extra time. The big companies have lots of users and products to look after, so smaller annoyances can sit on their to-do lists for years, and sometimes their software needs rewriting from the ground up, which costs a lot of money. One person scratching their own itch can fix one thing well, and fast.
Unofficial firmware can also make gear you already own do more, without you having to buy the next model. Stems on a CDJ-3000X, the top player in the club booth, is a big deal.
And even if you never touch any of it, you’ll probably benefit. All this independent development shows the big companies what DJs want, and we have to hope the best ideas end up in the official software one day.
So why aren’t we shouting about it?
We get asked this a lot. Mainly, it’s because half of this stuff never gets released. Getting something working on your own computer is a lot easier than turning it into software thousands of DJs can rely on – releasing software takes more than a bit of vibe coding.
Also, we’ve been running a DJ school for over 15 years, with thousands of students through our courses, and most of the questions we get every day are about the official software. Why won’t my tracks show up on the CDJs? Why is my beatgrid drifting? Where have my playlists gone? DJs struggle enough with software that’s been tested by millions of people, never mind untested alternatives.
There are the risks
Your music library comes first. Every cue point, every beatgrid, every playlist lives there, and an app built and tested by one person hasn’t been through anything like what the official software has.
Then there’s firmware. Unofficial firmware will almost certainly void your warranty, and if an install goes wrong, you could be left with a very expensive box that won’t switch on. On top of that, official updates tend to wipe out unofficial ones as you move forward.
And what about the future? If the developer gets bored, gets a day job or gets a letter from a manufacturer’s lawyers, it’s all over. And if an app has been written mostly by AI, can you trust its creator to fix it when it breaks?
The final risk is the big one for beginners: you don’t know what normal looks like yet. We see it with our students all the time. Something goes wrong, and they can’t tell whether it’s them, their settings or the software. Add an unofficial app into the mix and that gets much harder to work out.
Remember, too, that all the impressive numbers in this article come from the people who made these things. Until they’ve been properly tested by others, they’re claims.
What we’re telling our students
If you’re just starting out, leave all of this alone for now. Learn to mix first! But keep an eye on it, because some of today’s unofficial fixes might just be tomorrow’s official features.
Here’s our general advice:
- Learn on the official software and firmware first, so you know how things are meant to work.
- Back up your music library before anything new touches it, every time.
- If you do try a third-party app, pick one that only reads your library and exports from it, rather than one that changes it.
- Leave unofficial firmware alone unless you’re happy to risk your warranty and there’s a solid community already behind it.
- Never install it on gear that isn’t yours – and that includes the club’s CDJs.
- Before any gig, test your USB stick on the actual gear you’ll be playing on, and carry a backup made with the official software.
We’re watching too, and when these projects are ready, we’ll review them properly.
