Now, I have a clear bias for the disk jockey software I was used to before, and I really think that it’s still the best way of smoothly transitioning songs with one another.  I am specifically fond of the program OtsDJ from OtsLabs but unfortunately only the trial version is available online and they come with annoying OtsDJ stingers that I can’t remove.  So that alone eliminated the prospect of my using it for the party.  Its full version is obviously minus the stingers but cost about a whopping USD 999.95.  But that price is good for professional Radio Broadcasting companies, without going through the trouble of renewing their license for the use of the product.  Clearly, Ots targets a niche market but if ordinary people could get their grubby paws on this thing, it’d top ordinary party music players.  It has its own audio leveling initiative, that even if you transition songs manually, it gives you a hint of where to start off without the songs sounding weird next to each other.  Radio networks try to cheat this awkward transitioning by putting on stingers in between say for example, it’d be strange to put a JayZ song next to something from…Josh Groban.  So you put something in between that cleverly inserts your station ID “Killerboop FM, your music priority” blah blah.  (Which reminds me, I have yet to write about HOW to make a good music compilation since the same principles apply). With the case of Ots, it crossfades the songs smoothly next to each other with or without anything inbetween.  You can continuously play music and it’ll fix things for you automatically.

Since I wrote off Ots from my list, I had to come up with a FREE alternative.  And I chose from four different softwares, namely: Virtual DJ, iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Rhapsody.

Virtual DJ probably has the nearest features to Ots but again it’s not for free.  I  managed to buy an installer from a shop in Manila and have the full version installed on my laptop.  The great thing about Virtual DJ is that, as the name implies, its really made for a DJ.  Not the kind of DJ I used to be, but DJs who play for clubs and are technically playing club music.  I didn’t want to play an all club music playlist for the party because of the moderately “behaved” crowd, if you don’t mind me saying.  But had I intended to play for a crowd more open to House music, this would be the most excellent software to use.  It features an Auto Sync beatmapping thing that lets you match the tempo of a song automatically.  It also gives you an option to transition the beats by the number of bar counts in between.  Okay, that’s DJ talk already.  Mind you, this is ALSO another niche product which hits a happy nerve among its enthusiasts.  Plus, if you really get in to the mixing thing, you can record your entire mix via the program, leaving out the hassle of recording hardware that can burn a hole in your pocket. The next thing you know, you can burn your own music mix straight from the desktop.

Moving on to the poor man’s media players?  I hope not.  We all know how GREAT the almighty Apple iTunes is, but let’s measure how functional this player can be for parties.  First of all, I love its crossfade effect.  It’s as smooth as the visual transition interface used for the iPod, hard to explain really.  But by the sound of it, its the best among cheap downloadable music players.  I’ve also noted that building a playlist with iTunes is by far the easiest to deal with.  I like the idea that I can organize all my playlists in a viewable area at the left sidebar, and drag and drop music files from anywhere: even from other media players!  And some music software won’t let you do that.  My big problem with iTunes has more to do with its rather bland aesthetics.  If it’s music and functionality you’re looking for, you wouldn’t mind playing it on a software that looks like a spreadsheet.

I hardly want to talk about Windows Media Player since it’s practically a local software but I considered it because of its really familiar interface.  The newest version out there, which I use on Windows Vista is one that eliminates the standard row of functions, only to appear if you press ALT.  What I don’t like about Media Player is its rather juvenile Visualizations that come along with the package, which the newest version of Winamp has already beat.  (Note: I didn’t include Winamp in this review because I think it deserves an entire post, to follow).  Where was I?  Yes, WMP is so uninteresting these days.  What I do like about it is NOT the fact that you can change the surface colors but that you can incorporate it in such a stylish way on the taskbar.  It’s not on the system tray it’s on the left side of the bar when minimized as you can see in this picture:

Never mind the product placement there.  Anyway, it’s posited at that side of taskbar you get what I mean?  You can set it up via the taskbar properties.  It’s a great way for Windows to monopolize features all over again!

Last but not the least is the most elusive Rhapsody.

My friend uses this for their bar and it’s a great software to use if you want to attend to everyone’s request. Why?  Because it’s powered by no less than the internet!

Real Rhapsody has iTunes’ playlist building flexibility whereas you can access the internet for full albums from your favorite artists.  Its dashboard is intuitive that it makes an artist suggestion for you based on the kind genre of the artists that you look up on Rhapsody.  And because you can access songs so easily from the internet, it’s likewise more accessible when it comes to building a playlist from a database larger than the ones you have on file.  Unfortunately, it comes with a catch: you have to pay.  At least for either a monthly subscription of USD 9.95 or a yearly sum worth USD 20.00, and those are the last prices I checked before the oil hike, yikes. The software itself is downloadable for free and is fairly respectable when it comes to archiving your music without getting confused.  It’s just that, you can get away with other music players that uses less memory for local music playing.

Out of all of the poor man’s category, I’d say iTunes wins this one and I’d recommend this for an easygoing mp3 player experience. As for the other players, most features I liked are superficial ones, and among those who’ve I’ve lauded for their systematic depth of function, it’s such a drag having to dole out so much cash so that you can appreciate some music.  You’d rather burn a CD.