VirtualDJ Gets Fluid Beatgridding & AI Video Visuals

VirtualDJ has released another major update to its software, adding AI-generated visuals, improved lyrics detection, and – most interestingly for us – a long-teased “Fluid BPM” system with a BPM Stabiliser designed specifically for DJs who mix without the sync button.

Truly reliable auto beatgrids?

Reliable variable beatgrid analysis has been a hot topic since Algoriddim introduced a flawless version in Djay, and quite rightly so – their take blew away pretty much everyone who used it. Beatgridding for tracks with unsteady or shifting tempos has been a bugbear for DJs who’ve had to struggle with imperfect systems in their software up until recently, so this matters.

VirtualDJ has been teasing its own take on this for a while, and the new Fluid BPM feature is their take on an AI-powered variable BPM grid that is billed as handling perfectly old rock, disco, warped vinyl rips, megamixes, and anything else with a wandering tempo.

We tested this with some disco (Chic’s “Good Times” and Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Let’s Groove”), both of which it handled fine, and two other notoriously hard tracks to grid, The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?” and Dexy’s “Come On Eileen”, which it didn’t handle so well, handling the beats fine, but getting confused with both as to where the bars started (to be fair, so did Algoriddim’s Djay Pro on the Dexy’s track).

Read this next: How To Beatgrid Disco, Funk, Rock & Soul Music [Free Course]

Also, if you want to test yourself, know that you need to go into the BPM Editor itself to find this new feature, which is labelled “beta” – normal beatgridding still defaults to the old method.

Temporary grids for manual beatmixing

There’s also a surprise in the form of the BPM Stabilizer, which lets you lock a variable-tempo track to a fixed BPM during a transition so you can pitch and nudge manually without going all in on sync.

Of course, once a DJ ditches sync, they’re clearly serious about the craft – and arguably smoothing out BPMs for them isn’t quite in the spirit of that. But hey, time will tell if this finds an audience or a use case.

Sign up to Tuesday Tips

Free newsletter

Your weekly digest of the latest training, gear reviews, industry news, and exclusive tips and tricks to help you stay ahead in your DJing.

Enter your email address

Sign up

We collect, use and protect your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Video AI in DJ software

The update also adds an AI visual engine. Shaders generate audio-reactive patterns from text prompts, while AILoops generates beat-synced video loops (see main pic).

How many DJs actually want AI-generated visuals baked into their DJ software is a fair question, but VirtualDJ has a long track record of being first to incorporate technology that other software eventually follows. Some of the built-in examples do look like fun, and DJs with more of a visual flair than myself will no doubt see more merit in this than I do.

The update also brings improvements to VirtualDJ’s AI-powered lyrics detection, which now handles multiple languages more accurately. This feeds into the software’s existing word-play and karaoke features.

• As ever, the update is free to existing customers, and VirtualDJ is available as a one-off purchase or as a monthly subscription from the VirtualDJ website.