VirtualDJ is the latest state-of-the-art software in music mixing for DJs. Very easy to use and with a very smooth learning curve, it includes all the professional features a real DJ needs. Just one month after releasing its game changing new technology, VirtualDJ announces today a new version that significantly improves upon the quality of its real-time track separation technology.
In today’s update, VirtualDJ significantly improves the sound quality of the separated stems. It also gives additional control to the DJs to adjust in real-time a bleeding parameter, and to fine-tune even more the quality of each track. VirtualDJ is the only pro DJ software that allows DJs to access in real-time, on any computer, separated acapella, instruments or beats of any track. This new technology has been described as a game changer, and has long been the holy grail for professional DJs.
We caught up with Stephane Clavel, CEO and founder of VirtualDJ.
Electronic Groove: How has 2020 been professionally and personally, how have you dealt with all this?
Stephane Clavel: VirtualDJ has been COVID-ready since 1996. We already work remotely most of the time, our employees are scattered all around the world, so it didn’t impact our work at all. It just gave less distractions, so we managed to get more work done than usual.
EG: How has lockdown been for VirtualDJ? You’ve seen a real uptake in users, right?
Stephane Clavel: VirtualDJ is the only DJ software that was letting users easily broadcast to Facebook, YouTube, among others, directly from within the software. So when the whole DJing industry suddenly moved to broadcasting, we obviously saw many users who used to be on competitor software switch to VirtualDJ. And when in June we introduced real-time music separation, we got even more in the spotlight and saw even more customers switching over.
EG: How many people work on the development of VirtualDJ? Are you always working on new features?
Stephane Clavel: We kept the company very small, with around only 20 employees. We don’t have “middle management”, we only recruit people who are the best in the world in their field, and let them do what they do best as they see fit. Our philosophy is that we put all our effort into R&D, to get the best, most stable, and most innovative software on the market, rather than spending all our budget on marketing and endorsement deals to “appear” the best.
EG: What determines the direction these go in? Are you working with a bedroom or professional audience in mind?
Stephane Clavel: We don’t have calendars and milestones. Because we only work with very bright people, every few months a really amazing idea pops out, and then we spend the next months researching and realizing it. Every single person working at VirtualDJ is also a DJ, so they all know what would and wouldn’t be useful in real life.
And we definitely make our software for professional DJs first, while in parallel we strive to stay true to our initial mission, to make DJing accessible to everybody. So we get ideas that are useful for pro DJs, and then implement them in a way that can be used both by pro and beginners.
EG: You also cater to scratch DJs, right? And Mobile DJ’s?
Stephane Clavel: One of VirtualDJ’s characteristics is that it is extremely versatile, and is used by a very broad range of users, from bedrooms to scratch battles to weddings to gentleman clubs to hotels to bars to clubs to festivals. We keep VirtualDJ simple and accessible for first-time users, but the more time you spend with it, the deeper you can dig and discover thousands of customizations options to adapt it to your particular needs.
“Our philosophy is that we put all our effort into R&D, to get the best, most stable, and most innovative software on the market”
EG: How do you test the features? Do you have a team of pro DJs who use demos? Do they feedback to you?
Stephane Clavel: We have a few very-high-visibility DJs who are friends and get to test new features during the development when we need feedbacks from that level of DJs. Otherwise, we have a very active community that helps beta test all the pre-releases and report both, new ideas and issues.
EG: What are the latest new features to have been added, and what makes them so special?
Stephane Clavel: The latest technological innovation was the ability to separate the music in real-time, getting full control over the vocals, the instrumentals, the beats, among others. This was until now the holy grail of DJing and is now opening the door to a new era. It’s the first time that a technology in DJing is not just helping DJs mix faster or more easily, but is really having a profound effect on what is possible, and how artists will mix in the future.
EG: What’s next for you and the software?
Stephane Clavel: Both the lockdown broadcasts and the music separation technology have brought a lot of customers switching over from competitors. We’re already working on the next innovation, to make sure we keep making these new customers realize that advanced technology really helps them mix better, and there’s no going back.
EG: And what have been some of the hardest challenges to overcome?
Stephane Clavel: Because of the popularity that we got, it has been hard for a time to convince pro DJs to continue using VirtualDJ. They didn’t want to be seen using the same software that their girlfriend or little brother was also using. And the older established DJs didn’t like that our technology made new kids mix as good as them in half the time, so they contributed to give us a non-pro reputation. Thankfully, this was 10 years ago, nowadays most of the established DJs started themselves with VirtualDJ, all the professional press has been praising our technological advances and professionalism for years, and top DJs are using it.
EG: What are you most proud of with VirtualDJ? What gives you the biggest joy?
Stephane Clavel: I’m not going to lie, having so many DJs using VirtualDJ that I can now travel everywhere in a private jet and party on mega yachts, is not without satisfaction. But it still doesn’t come close to the satisfaction of seeing how what we are doing is shaping the whole DJ industry. This APP made DJing accessible to everyone 20 years ago and has continued to make profound impacts on this industry since.
