The December 2008 edition of Mobile Beat Magazine is the traditional “Gear Guide” issue for the next year.  The best thing about this year’s issue is that it features more gear for computer DJs than ever before!  This year’s issue dedicates even more space to hardware controllers, mixing programs, DMX/intelligent lighting hardware & software, karaoke, video and a whole lot more!  There is also a pretty comprehensive list of dealers, an excellent article by DJ Dr. Drax - President of the ADJA - and even a ProDJ Publishing ad for my newest book nestled in there.  (more…)

Audio Grabber is one of the more popular programs available for ripping music and karaoke, especially among Mobile DJs. This is even more so the case since Audio Grabber has been freeware since February 9, 2004, meaning that you can easily visit the website and download the required software and codecs, all for free! But one of the few features that makes this program appealing over more stable and streamlined programs is the fact that it can also rip your karaoke CD+Gs digitally. Short-comings aside, Audio Grabber as one of the first utilities for ripping and encoding MP3s, has garnered an impressive list of awards from a variety of software sharing/download sites. (more…)

CDex is the quintessential software utility for converting your a CD collection into any number of computer file formats - the main two being either WAV or MP3.  This program is lean, it’s fast and it is very accurate producing flawless rips almost every single time.  That means adding tunes to your growing computer music library tends to be a lot less time-consuming than the other options out there.  And with it being an open-source project, the price is right too, which will make many a DJ giddy - it’s a free download! (more…)