Chuck Van Eekelen

If you want a very cheap (free) way to quickly just start playing with beats, give RemixLive from Mixvibes a spin. Available for iOS and Android and possibly even PC/Mac I think.

Even if you don’t like it, your kids will live it! In this case be sure to get some hearing protection though 😛

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Clearly this is a hard question. All kinds of factors play a role in that decision, like what you are trying to get it to do, what that is worth to you, what budget you have, etx.

Because the real question you need to ask is “is MiK worht it for ME”. And that is something we can’t answer for you.

As for RekordBox and cue points, at this time it’s only Serato and Traktor. That said, I think it’s fair to assume that soon they will add RekordBox to that list.

If you can “aggregate” both your built-in sound-card and the Focusrite, then in your software you should be able to use one for cue and the other for master.

On Mac aggregate is a built-in function, for windows I think Asio4all allows it.

+1 on that.

Does it happen when you have the speakers connected to the controller but the controller not connected to anything else?

You have hit upon the pinnacle of DJ-ing: “knowing what must come next”. It’s hard-earned experience that will give you these skills. Can’t be taught (altough there are great ways of music discovery that will help you gather the tracks you think you can and will use. Look for articles on both the main site and these forums).

So, there is no template or pre-fabricated list to tell you what to bring to a party, let alone what to play and in what order. Sure there are some general guidelines, many taught in the courses here, but at the end of the day it’s going out to play and getting the experience.

Effectively (general tip) the best combination is preparing for a gig by knowing what kind of theme/genre is expected (if any), what kind of crowd, what time slot, if you are not the only DJ what other DJ’s are coming and what are they playing, what is the venue like, if the venue has these gigs more often what is played there. Etx.
Once you know that, you can make a selection of tracks to bring. Typically you will want to bring about twice the amount of tracks you really need. Rule of thumb is 20 tracks an hour playable, so take 40 tracks for every hour you are playing.
Divide the tracks you are taking in mini-playlist (3-5 tracks) that go well together.

During the evening you can play something from a mini-playlist and if the crowd likes it, play some more without the stress of finding those next matching tunes. Again, much has been written about dividing energy and such, so not gonna go into repeat mode there. Most important is to watch the crowd.

Streaming is never a serious option imho. USB-connected laptop with RekordBox DJ on it would be much preferred.

I am not too familiar with your controller. Bit dazed by your remark that tags are in the comment field. In which case they are not tags, they are (duh) the comment field. I think RekordBox let’s you export whatever column you want, so if you export the comment column you should (this seems logical, but again from a theoretical point of view) be able to see the comments on your XDJ-RX.

Keep in mind that RekordBox and RekordBox DJ are two different things. In order to DJ with DJ software and the RX as a DJ-controller, you will need RB DJ (switch in the software from Export to Performance mode).

Other than that, I hope some of the RX-owning members here can help you out a bit further.