Looking for a DJ Program

Mixxx is excellent and has pretty wide hardware support.

FYI the "limited" functionality of Rekordbox can be hardware unlocked with some Pioneer controllers.

https://mixxx.org/

https://rekordbox.com/en/support/hardware-unlock/

I found Mixmeister to be really simple and intuitive in the past. It was perfect for putting together a 2hr mix with bpm detection, tempo modifying while retaining pitch and cross fading

https://www.mixmeister.com/

Not open source, but free for "home use" https://virtualdj.com/

If you are just trying to make mixes for playing offline, you can use producing software like Reaper. You can be a lot more creative since you have more audio processing tools available, like adding compressors to equalize the volume to make it sound better everywhere.

If you are trying to dj in a performance sense, you really need a controller. When mixing songs into one another, there is often 2/3 things you have to do at once which is hard to do without dedicated knobs. But in this case, software really doesn't matter for basic functionality. As other said, mixxx is very good, and is very customizable - you can write javascript for any control. The paid software have a few more features, namely stems, which allow you to isolate vocals/instrumental/drums on the fly (whereas before you had to have separate tracks for each), which can make mixes sound a little bit clearer.

For complete info, if you are really trying to get into DJing from a performance standpoint, I highly recommend a standalone controller, namely Denon Prime Go.

I still preferred some of the functionality of atomixmp3 that was ruined when they turned into virtualDJ.. Sad since then they are mostly all the same to me and not much different than winamp and musicmatchJukebox (7.5 not the yahoo taken over version) once was.. (20 years ago?)

Recently stumbled into some info with "DJ Studio" I think they are branding as.. ( https://linktr.ee/dj.studio )and it's got enough interesting bits (from what I saw via youtube'd talk..) they are trying to do to make me feel it's actually modern/future tech.

Have not used it yet, but plan to give it try.

To "live DJ" there's the extremely famous https://virtualdj.com/

To create prerecorded DJ sets https://www.mixmeister.com/

Been using both for at least 10 years, love them both.

While Audacity dominates the conversation for open-source audio editing, less commonly discussed is Mixxx. It's an impressive DJ software, fully open-source, and provides tools you'd expect in paid products like Rekordbox, but for free. It's fairly intuitive, with active community support, if you hit a snag. Worth exploring for your mixing needs without financial commitment.

DJ Pro AI is really underrated. Frequently updated, extremely fast and good hardware compatibility. While it may not be as "robust" as traktor, everything else feels like going back in time.

https://www.algoriddim.com/djay-pro-mac

https://serato.com/dj/lite

I think you're confused about Rekordbox's pricing, pretty much every feature you need is free. The paid plan is only for advanced stuff that a working DJ would need.

VirtualDJ is another option and is extremely lightweight (opens in 1000ms)

And what are good square dancing calling dj tools?

Mixxx

Traktor.

If you're on HN it has to be Traktor. Nothing comes close in terms of configurability.

Assign any control to almost any function. (e.g. assigning loop out marker position to a knob then dialling the length down)

Set inc / Dec rates, static values.

Trigger / toggle / one-shot etc.

Define behaviours based on conditions (e.g. jog wheel when playing vs paused) Like many audio companies, it's now in the hands of psychopaths and so I can't vouch for recent versions.

I've been using Traktor2 for years and it's solid as these treacherous machines can be.