laptop assisted DJing question

hi, i just wanted to ask if there are any veterans of laptop-assited DJing here who could lend a little advice on how to do this "for real". i have good taste in music and a fairly good record collection, but i do not have traditional DJ skills. i would train-wreck if i tried to do a proper mixing-intensive set with only records and a mixer. i have seen a lot of more modern DJs who use laptops and seem to focus less on traditional beatmatching and more on using clever timing and the element of surprise in presenting their next track, and this gives me hope that i could do this too!

i have toyed around with making mixes in the form of making a big long MP3 in sound forge. in place of actual beat-matching i have glitched up tracks and managed to cut-and-paste loop some iterations of the beats/vocal-hooks and/or dropped in samples and things, relying on being clever to transition from one good track to another. if i were to get a chance to play "live' i figure that i could pre-fabricate edited mp3 files of individual songs and samples and play them in a mp3 player and then using a mixer i could simply go over to actual records on a turntable and go back and forward between records and my laptop. but a part of me thinks that this would be "fake" or "cheating" because i have listened to alot of good djs for a fre years and i know i am not even close to being on their level.

what i wanted to ask is two things: 1) these days, how much focus is there on actually matching beats and being more of a "traditional" dj and 2) is there any easy-to-use software that would allow me to quickly match beats and allow me a good 20-30 seconds of "hey look guys i matched beats" and then switch out? i am a fairly quick learner it's just that i don't have enough money to buy two dj turntables and a dj mixer (how much do they cost?) and until then i would love to be able to dj somewhere. i am just nervous about trying to seek a chance to play live because i am afraid that i would be laughed at or frowned upon and considered a joke if i did this differently from the kind of DJing i heard when i first got into electronic music.

thank you!

Hi. I am just answering to the second question.

Of course you need traktor: it works just like two dj turntables and a dj mixer but it's a software. It is a strong synchronastion tool plus you add effects and samples. It is what aphex twin uses if it is to any intrerreset to you. You will need to control that thing with a dj interface via midi, which is something like this (i picked one but it's not the best one at all):

It cost approx. 200 euros.

I think it would be cool to see someone do a dj set with the techniques you're talking about instead of traditional beatmatching. Maybe if you got a little sampler or a looper, software or hardware, you could do that kind of thing live and develop a style out of it. I've seen breakcore djs who just used software with a drum trigger pad, and lots of djs using ableton or traktor aren't beatmatching for real anyway. Rob Hall said he doesn't care.

the traditional way of DJing with simple beatmatching is slowly disappearing. nowadays DJs and artists use traktor, ableton etc to perform. it offers much more artistic freedom and chance to experiment. if the software does the beatmatching for you, you can then concentrate on the creative side of mixing. richie hawtin is one of those who seemingly creates new tracks from loops and beats with traktor.

yeah i wouldn't worry about beatmatching... not only is it an "old" skill but it's much less exciting (as has already been mentioned). don't count yourself out.. live is pretty fantastic for doing this kind of stuff... it will match beats and make it super easy to align them. i've heard lot's people use live really effectively. when i saw flylo he performed with live and fuckin knocked my socks off.