Rob Francis

If you can, try to use a section of the track that has no beats or percussion to increase the tempo. I find it less noticeable that the tempo is changing. Most people won’t notice anyway.

I believe there are ways around it by using a proxy service – never done it myself though.

I was in a similar position recently, so (as I work in IT) I logged onto a remote server in the US and downloaded it from there!

+1 for Natalie Faith.

Female DJs are v. cool so you should make it obvious. DJ Elixr doesn’t do that.

You can set the range of BPMs that Traktor will attempt to work within – its buried in the settings somewhere. Then you could restrict to a smaller range.

Also there are /2 and *2 buttons that will halve or double the tempo – try those out for a quick fix.

I would say a MidiFighter is for serious controllerism – you may want to see whether this fits you by trying out cue point juggling, samples, etc. Controllerism always looks impressive for 10 minutes or so but then I think “just play a good tune!”

A similar point for the F1 really. I think to use one of those you have to be really dedicated to manipulating lots of samples on the fly. Both the Midifighter and F1 move you from plain DJing to more of a performance – this is good but the learning and preparation curves are steep.

I would get a better sound system – one that has a really good sound so you can appreciate the music better.

You could still throw in a much cheaper MIDI controller like an Akai LPD8 – they’re only £60. That would allow you to experiment without committing all of your funds.

I’ve got it recorded on Sky+, looking forward to watching it soon