DynamDJ provides four players which work independently from each other. In each player, an audio file can be opened and played. Individual players are graphically identified by a color in various parts of DynamDJ. Colors can be adjusted in the preferences. The graphic below this text depicts one player.
When no audio file is loaded in the player, which is the case right after DynamDJ is launched, the part above the 7 buttons contains an "Open Audio File" button you can click to open an audio file from the Finder into this player. This way, you can also select files from an Audio CD or from your iTunes Music Library, which can be found at ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music. However, note that songs bought from the iTunes Music Store cannot be used in DynamDJ (Apple's Protected AAC format is designed in a way that your music can be played only by iTunes, QuickTime Player and the iPod). Alternatively, you can use the library to choose and open a song.
Once a song has been opened, it's title, artist and album (if this information is available) are displayed, and the controller buttons become enabled. The third controller button from the right can now be clicked to start playback. The following one is the fast forward button, it will temporarily increase playback speed while the mouse button is held on it. The last button sets playback position to the end of the song.
The centered button, which is initially pressed, pauses playback. The three buttons left to it correspond to the right-side buttons except that they will play backwards, respectively set the playback position to the beginning of the song. Note that backwards playback works seamlessly in DynamDJ, and should be as smooth as normal playback.
The bar located under the song album text field shows the current playback position and can be used to change it, just like in iTunes and QuickTime Player. You can click the loop icon to enable or disable looping. If enabled, playback won't stop when the end of the song is reached, but will restart from the beginning (or the other way around, for backwards playback). The close song button closes the audio file and lets you open a new audio file for this player. This step is not necessary if you use the library.
The part located under the controller buttons provides settings for the audio output of this player. The first slider adjusts the audio volume. It does not replace the volume set using the fader, room placement and the master player; the actual volume is determined by multiplying those 4 factors.
The balance slider is most relevant for stereo output, if you have multiple channels, left refers to the left half of the room and vice versa, it is, however, recommended to use room placement in this case.
The pitch and speed sliders allow you to manipulate pitch and speed of the audio output independently. The speed parameter may also be adjusted automatically for rhythm synchronization.
The reverb parameter adds a hall effect to the audio, which gives the impression of it being located in a large room.
All of these parameters can be animated by clicking at some place on the slider using the right mouse button or while holding the ctrl-key. That way, the parameter will slowly be moved to that value in time. You can find more information on this in the parameter animation page. Moreover, you can click on the icon of any slider to reveal a keyboard-like window in which you can adjust the parameter in fixed steps, using your mouse or the computer keyboard. This is especially useful for the pitch parameter, where one step corresponds to one half tone. To read more about this, go to the parameter keyboard page.
The next part of the player is a 10-band equalizer, which is documented on the equalizer page.
Clicking the additional options button in a player's controller reveals the following controls:
The first row is used for rhythm synchronization. It provides access to, on one hand, an interface in which you can inform DynamDJ about the rhythm of the song, and on the other hand, an interface that visualizes the rhythm of this player along with another player's, providing the possibility of manual as well as automatic synchronization. See the rhythm synchronization page for more about this.
The second row provides four real time effects that can be used by clicking and holding one of the buttons.
Click the repeat button once of multiple times to jump back to the playback position of the time you pushed down the mouse button. The wait button pauses playback while you hold it, the mute button mutes the volume while doing so, the "rev" (=reverse) button temporarily switches playback position.
Finally, the third row consisting of circled numbers from 1 to 9 gives you the possibility to save up to 9 positions of the song. Click on one of the buttons to store the current playback position in it. Click it again to jump back to this position. You can also click on a button in which a playback position has already been stored using the right mouse button or while holding the ctrl-key to replace its saved position with the current one. These playback positions will be removed when you close the audio file.