Below are a number of OtsAV tips and tricks to help make your DJing life a little easier. This section will grow as OtsAV evolves and as we collate more tips and tricks from our DJ customers.
Note: We have provided the Professional DJ tips Browse Sequence, see above, which will walk you through a number of DJ related topics. If you are unable to view the Browse Sequence toolbar click on the links at the bottom of this topic.
The latest version of OtsAV is able to play MP3 and Wave files directly (without converting them to the Ots file format). This compatibility enables you to quickly get OtsAV up and running with your current media collection (if you have MP3 and Wave files). Ultimately though we believe that you will find that the Ots Album file format will provide you with greater flexibility and functionality. Click here for details.
If you have organized your media collection in folders on your hard drive you can easily map what you have created on your hard drive in the Media Library. For details click here.
Do you utilize the Work Area during a gig? The Work Area is an area where items can be temporarily stored for easy access. You can simply drag and drop, or copy and paste, items to and from the work area as required. DJs often use this area to store pending song requests. For details on the Work Area click here.
Have you considered creating predefined lists for your gigs? By predefined we mean a list you create in advance for a specific purpose. For example, you may have a Rock & Roll gig you are DJing on the weekend. You can prepare during the week a basic Rock & Roll list that you can start the gig with. For details on manually preparing a list for this purpose click here. For details on saving and loading a list click here. Once you have built your list file you can simply double-click on the file when you arrive at your gig to have OtsAV automatically begin playing the list.
OtsAV's Search Media tool provides instantaneous search results so you can quickly find songs that you need to add to the playlist. You can search by title, artist, length, and album information, click here for details. You are also able to quickly search within a displayed list using the Find In List search tool, for details on this tool click here.
Have you considered using the OMQL language to query the Media Library to obtain songs which meet a certain criteria? Here are a couple of scenarios of how the OMQL language can help you:
If you are playing dance music and you would like to find songs in your Media Library with a similar BPM you can query the Media Library for songs with a close BPM.
If you are after a song that is a Rock song that was released in 1980 you can query the Media Library for items which are in both the Rock and 1980s categories to find a list of items that meet this criteria.
If you want to retrieve a list of songs which you played the night before at a gig you can query the Media Library, with the lastplay keyword, for these songs. For example, you can retrieve a list of songs you played 24 hours ago.
You can query the Media Library to display only Video clips.
For instructions on how to query the Media Library click here.
A common playlist directive that DJs use is the Stop & Re-cue directive. This directive is great for preparing a break in the music so you can talk to your audience. The Stop & Re-cue directive will stop at the insertion point in the playlist, that you specified, and will load and cue the next item into a deck, ready for you to restart by pressing Ctrl + Spacebar. For details on the Stop & Re-cue directive click here.
It is important to backup your Media Library file periodically, to avoid losing all the hard work you have put into building your Media Library. Click here for instructions.
There are a number of OtsAV functions available via keyboard shortcuts. For example, you can manually mix between tracks with the software cross-fader keys. For a list of keyboard shortcuts click here. For instructions on manual mixing click here.
You are able to turn off the start up message in OtsAV. Click here for instructions.
You are able to turn off the displaying of your name in the OtsAV titlebar. Click here for instructions.
You are able to configure OtsAV to integrate with some Winamp 2.x visualization plug-ins. Click here for instructions. We have provided instructions on how to configure dual monitors for visualization output. Click here for instructions.
You are able to hide Items which have a rating of zero from view in the Media Library and Search dialog box. This feature is handy if you do not want Items available for play, e.g. Items with explicit lyrics. Go to Options -> Media Library & Search Dialog -> and select the Hide Items which have a rating of zero option.
You are able to toggles between displaying the Playlist on the left-hand side or across the full Playlist/Media Library area by right-clicking on the Playlist title bar.
You are able to toggles between displaying the Media Library, Work Area, or History List in the Media Library area by right-clicking on the Media Library title bar.
We recommend that if you are serious about your audio that you optimize your computer for audio. For instructions click here.
Playlist generation and options
How to manually build a playlist
How to query the Media Library using OMQL
How to insert a Stop & Re-cue directive
How to backup your Media Library
Optimizing your machine for audio