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Getting started

From sign-up to your first live tracklist in about 15 minutes. Follow the steps below in order - each one builds on the last.

The 6 steps

  1. Create a MakingWaves account
  2. Pick a plan (or stay on the free trial)
  3. Install the desktop app
  4. Sign in from the app
  5. Pick a track-detection source (DJ software / PRO DJ LINK / audio fingerprint)
  6. Connect publishing & OBS overlay

1. Create your account

Head to /account/register. Display name, email, password - no card required. You get a 7-day full-access trial straight away.

2. Pick a plan

Browse /pricing. You can stay on the trial as long as it lasts and only subscribe when you're ready. Tiers:

Annual saves ~12.5%. Cancel any time. See full comparison →

3. Install the desktop app

The desktop app does the live track detection and pushes plays to your dashboard.

The app installs as MakingWaves Now Playing and lives in your system tray. It will not start automatically on first launch - open it from the Start menu / Applications folder.

4. Sign in

Right-click the tray icon → Sign in. A browser window opens against makingwaves.live, you sign in with the email + password from step 1, the app stores a refresh token securely (DPAPI on Windows, Keychain on macOS) and you're set.

If the browser window doesn't open: check Windows / macOS allowed the deep-link handler. Re-launching the tray app usually fixes it.

5. Pick a track-detection source

The desktop app figures out what's playing one of three ways. Pick the one that fits your setup; the app auto-detects in this priority order.

Option A: DJ software watcher (highest accuracy)

If you're running one of these DJ apps on the same machine as the MakingWaves desktop client, we read the played-tracks log / database directly. No extra config needed - the app detects which DJ software is running and switches automatically.

Option B: PRO DJ LINK (Pioneer CDJ / XDJ network)

For setups using Pioneer CDJs or an XDJ-XZ on Ethernet, Making Waves Now Playing 0.1.30+ runs a PRO DJ LINK listener in the background. The laptop joins the same LAN (cabled, ideally) and listens on UDP ports 50000 / 50001 / 50002 for the broadcast. We pick up device discovery, BPM, and beat-grid state from the CDJs.

What you get today (0.1.30): the listener detects your CDJs, logs BPM and track-change events, and the app falls back to audio fingerprinting for track title + artist. Direct track-ID metadata from PRO DJ LINK is a follow-up release - we need the CDJ dbserver-protocol implementation for that.

Setup:

  1. Connect the CDJ / XDJ-XZ to a switch or directly to the laptop with Ethernet.
  2. Make sure the laptop and CDJ are in the same subnet (most CDJs auto-IP in 169.254.x.x; the laptop usually does the same).
  3. Open Making Waves Now Playing and click Start monitoring. The PRO DJ LINK listener runs automatically. Confirm via the diagnostic log (tray → Open dashboard → Diagnostics) - you should see [prodjlink] discovered device #N "CDJ-XXXX" within ~10s.
  4. If nothing appears: check that the laptop firewall isn't blocking inbound UDP 50000-50002. PRO DJ LINK is UDP broadcast and routed VLANs / guest Wi-Fi silently drop the packets.

PRO DJ LINK is also what enables tight beat-matching in Making Waves Collab (our remote-DJ tool, separate product).

Option C: Audio fingerprinting (catch-all)

If you're not running any of the above (e.g. you're using a controller into Traktor, or playing from vinyl), the app records short audio chunks from your default audio output, sends them to MakingWaves' fingerprinting service, and gets the track back.

6. Connect publishing & the OBS overlay

Publish your mixes

From Account Settings, connect any of:

Hearthis is not currently offered - it requires a different connection flow we're rebuilding.

OBS overlay (for live streamers)

The desktop app exposes a localhost-only overlay at http://localhost:9001/overlay. In OBS:

  1. Add a new Browser source.
  2. URL: http://localhost:9001/overlay
  3. Width 800, height 200. Transparent background.
  4. Position over your stream as you like.

The overlay updates in real time as tracks change. Customise colours / fonts / layout from your dashboard → Overlay settings.

Common problems

The tray app doesn't detect my DJ software.

Restart MakingWaves Now Playing while your DJ software is running. The app polls on launch + every ~10s. Check the tray icon's tooltip - it should say which source is active.

PRO DJ LINK shows no decks.

UDP broadcast is fussy. Confirm: same subnet (no router between laptop and CDJs), firewall allows UDP 50000-50002 inbound, no VPN active on the laptop. A direct Ethernet cable between laptop and XDJ-XZ is the most reliable setup.

Audio fingerprinting isn't recognising tracks.

Make sure the audio source you've picked is the actual playback device, not the microphone. Tracks under 30s into playback can be hard to fingerprint - allow a minute. Mashups / heavily-edited bootlegs may not match.

I get logged out of the desktop app.

Refresh tokens last 30 days. If you haven't opened the app in that window, sign in again. Tokens are stored per-machine - logging in on a second computer is fine, both stay signed in.

How do I cancel?

Account Settings → Manage subscription. That opens the Stripe Customer Portal where you can cancel, change plan, or update your card.

Still stuck?

Email support@makingwaves.live - we usually reply same day (UK hours).