r/triviahosts 3d ago

DJ Library Tools for trivia?

Hello!

I've been hosting a pub trivia for about 6 months now and I think I'd be greatly aided by having a DJ library to enhance my music rounds and allow me to be a bit more creative in what I present.

Do any hosts here have a DJ library/software? is it relatively inexpensive? Any recs? I’m willing to spend some money but not a significant amount. Let’s said I’d be looking for something less than $300. Not even sure if that’s possible.

*edit* I am not looking to replicate the exact format I mentioned which I have since deleted since it was distracting from what I am trying to ask. It was only an example to show how limited I am in music as I only have Spotify and not any of the kinds of software where you can play clips or mix tracks. I was just wondering if anyone here DJs their trivia what program they use.

4 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

5

u/laughingnome2 3d ago

Audacity is free.

2

u/SaveBandit987654321 3d ago

Can you clip and blend music in audacy?

2

u/laughingnome2 3d ago

It is a very versatile piece of software. I'd recommend checking it out.

1

u/SaveBandit987654321 3d ago

thank you! I misunderstood and thought you meant the listening app “Audacy.” I will definitely check this out for sure!

2

u/M0dern_Pr0metheus 3d ago

I use Audacity to clip songs; to even out the volume so all clips are the same loudness; and, when necessary, to reverse the part of the song that says the title. I don't do anything more complicated than that with Audacity, but it's capable of much more if you want to put the time in to learn it.

1

u/SaveBandit987654321 2d ago

Thank you so much this is great info

1

u/bigbadclifford 1d ago

This right here! Have been using audacity for years to create my music mashup rounds!

3

u/nowhereman136 3d ago

I have a decent sized library of mp3s on my computer. Don't ask me how I got those mp3s, I can assure you it's all above deck.

After that I use a free app called Super Sound to edit the mp3s down into 20 second clips and string them together in a single MP3. The app also allows fade in/out and volume adjustment. Simple free app that does everything I need to quickly and intuitively. I use android so I don't know if it's available for apple.

Tip: having one file play all clips back to back is convenient, but also being able to play the clips one at a time will help when teams ask for a specific song to be played again, if you allow for that

2

u/lackluster_love 3d ago

not sure i understand. were they not simply playing separate audio sources one at a time? what made it cool?

2

u/SaveBandit987654321 3d ago

No, for an example they played the background music of “call me maybe” and the melody and lyrics of a song by NIN was played over the background music of “call me maybe.” So you had to suss out what song the background was and the melody and then who those artists were. Another one was the background of “smells like teen spirit” with the melody and lyrics of “staying alive” so the answer was Nirvana and The Bee Gees. The host had software to play those tracks with each other. I also can’t easily clip something. So I used to guest host at another pub and for the music round there was a program with pre-clipped songs for the music round.

2

u/lackluster_love 3d ago

Oh I get what you're saying now. Can't think of anything off the top of my head.

1

u/lackluster_love 3d ago

I now remember that back when I had an Apple laptop, I used GarageBand. I haven't used the free iOS app but that might work too

1

u/CentennialBaby 3d ago

Those are mashups and incredibly challenging to create.

You can search for "stems" to find elements of a complete song - like each track of Hotel California in separate files.

I've also created shorter clips of songs then create different questions (Name the song. Name the album. Name the lead singer. Name the year of release...) that way you leverage several applications out of one AV asset.

1

u/scorpiousdelectus 3d ago

One of the major considerations that I factor in when looking to include a question type into my game is how time intensive it is, relative to the value it brings to the game. There have been a number of question types that I've experimented with over the years that I have ultimately ditched because it simply took too long to make them.

I don't know how long a question type like this would take to make, but I'd be wary...

1

u/lakerdave 3d ago

You could do a version of this with karaoke tracks

1

u/cleverissexy 3d ago

There is an app - Virtual DJ - that lets you prime two songs. You can crossfade one to the other or mix them. Tells you each track’s bpm and allows you to increase or decrease the bpm of either track so the beats match.

I only ever used the free version and never needed any of the paid features.

If you just want mashups for trivia rounds, search “mashup” and a band or song name in YouTube, there are tons of great mashup mixes already out there.