A Month In | Running Windows 10 On Your DJ Computer

On July 29th, the day Windows 10 launched we posted a warning about installing Windows 10 to your DJ computer.

While the PCDJ team collectively agrees if DEX 3 or RED Mobile 3 DJ software is running perfectly fine on your existing DJ machine that you shouldn’t fix ‘what’s not broke‘, Windows 10 has actually proven to run our mixing software very well for many customers – which does indeed make a lot of sense…

We’re Ahead Of The Game

Since our most recent iteration of our DJ mixing software platform, which both RED Mobile 3 and DEX 3 are built on, is quite new – launching only 35 weeks ago – it’s already optimized for the most recent versions of DirectX.  The new version 3 platform is built for Windows (and MAC) computers released in the last 2 years, and computers to be released in the next 5-10. Version 3 is the foundation for all features and updates to come.

Windows 10 has clearly been optimized for the recent versions of Direct X, as in my own personal experience after upgrading my Windows 8.1 machine to Windows 10 — things ran noticeably smoother. To be clear DEX 3 ran efficiently for me under Windows 8 too, but the on-screen visuals such as the waveform’s scroll visibly smoother now – and overall, even when pushing sound through my on-board sound card as opposed to a DJ controller (with built in ASIO supported Audio Interface) DEX 3 is happy and snappy.

We’ve been hearing the same from many of our customers that already took a leap of faith and installed Windows 10 from the jump. The feedback is overly positive, PCDJ is road-ready with Windows 10.  As with any computer used for Djing, you still want to optimize your computer for live performance.

If you’re currently running Windows 8 or 8.1 and you’re not 100% happy with your DJ computers performance I would strongly consider upgrading your DJ computer to Windows 10.  If you’re not happy with Windows 10, or run into any driver (lack there of) issues you can roll back to your previous Windows installation easily.

For Windows 7 Users You May Still Want To Wait, Or Not Upgrade At All

Now for the potential downside.  It seems that for quite a few Windows 7 users, the upgrade to Windows 10 hasn’t been without headaches.  Especially for those machines that shipped closer to the launch of Windows 7.   It’s not so much a lack of power issue, or system specifications not being met, but rather hardware being so dated the drivers are not playing nicely with Windows 10.

Some Windows 7 users have found drivers for their video cards and audio interfaces ready and available for them to download/install and use with Windows 10, while others are left with no functional drivers and no choice by to roll back to Windows 7.

If you’re utilizing a Windows 7 DJ computer that is fairly new, you will likely also have a great experience using Windows 10 with PCDJ.

A Parting Warning For DJ Controller Users

For our DJ mixing software customers using one of the 80+ supported DJ controllers be sure the drivers (if applicable) are Windows 10 supported.   You may want to visit the DJ controller manufacturers forums if possible and see what other DJs experiences have been with Windows 10.    Real-world performance testing is truly the only way to be sure all is functioning as it should be.

 

Are you using Windows 10 on your DJ computer yet?   What has your experiance been like?  Please share with the PCDJ community below!