Getting Started as a Tango DJ

Overview

What is in this guide:

• Files for downloading a free version of Virtual DJ
• A curated set of songs to get you started DJing
• A getting started walkthrough (what you are reading now)

There are a few steps you want to take to set yourself up for success:

1. Download your audio player
2. Get good quality tango music
3. Organize your library
4. Create tandas

This document quickly covers each.

Terms, Conditions & Requests

1. The resources here are free for you to use. You can pass along the link or files to other aspiring tango DJs as you see fit. But please do not post the link or any of these resources online, and please do not sell any of the materials.
2. The music provided here is good quality. But the gold standard of tango music comes from groups doing tango transfers and restorations such as Tango Time Travel, Tango Tunes, and Tango Sparks. Their work offers a huge service to the tango community. If you find the music here helpful, I ask you to purchase at least one album to support these efforts to improve the quality of sound in the milonga.
3. These resources are a work in progress. Please let me know your thoughts and feedback so that I can make this a valuable resource. You can reach me at sericson0@gmail.com.
4. I am working on additional resources for tango DJs and tango dancers, and am working with artists and experts to build them.
   • If you are simply interested in supporting, please reach out.
   • If you are willing to offer expertise, you can reach out at sericson0@gmail.com.
   • You can make a financial contribution to support tango learning resources — Venmo: @Sean-Ericson-1 (pin: 5227), Zelle: sericson0@gmail.com. 100% of proceeds go towards building tango learning resources.

Audio Player

A good DJ software should:

• Be stable
• Work with all audio file types
• Not result in any sound issues
• Be easy to work with and have as few “gotchas” or temperamental issues as possible

Different DJs use different software. The website Tango DJs for Good Sound shows what a range of DJs use.

I am definitely biased in which audio player I recommend, given I created TigerTango, a Virtual DJ interface designed specifically for tango DJs. It is free, and tango DJs around the world are using it, including several of the most respected tango DJs, so I feel confident that you would be in good hands using it.

You can find the documentation and user guide at github.com/sericson0/TigerTango, which also has images walking through the setup.

Setup Steps

1. Install the 2025 version of Virtual DJ

   Download the .mac (Mac) or .msi (PC) installer for the pre-2026 version and run the executable.

2. Turn off automatic updates
   1. Open Virtual DJ
   2. Go to Settings (gear icon in upper right)
   3. Select Options
   4. Type checkUpdates
   5. Select No
3. Get TigerTango
   1. Go to Interface (in Settings)
   2. Click the Get more button
   3. Search for TigerTango
   4. Click Install on TigerTango
4. Select TigerTango
   1. Go back to the Interface tab
   2. Select the TigerTango option
5. Turn off any warning lights

   If there are any warning lights in the upper right box, click them to change settings to those appropriate for tango DJing.

Sweet! You now have a great free interface!

Music

Most tango music we dance to is from the 1930s to the 1950s. It is helpful to understand a quick history of how music from that time period is with us today.

When a song was recorded, it was saved to a metal “master,” which serves as the official recording. This master is used to create the other steps to produce records. In the 1960s, many of the tango masters were destroyed, so there is no official recording of many tango records.

Important: Not all versions of the same recording are of equal quality!

When tango became popular again in the 1990s, the record companies wanted to re-release albums. In some cases, they had the original master. In other cases, they collected old records to transfer the sound from, i.e., to serve the place of a master (technically taking the place of the “mother”). This transfer process resulted in several problems:

• The records they collected were not always the best quality
• The correct pitch was not always maintained
• The transfers were not always done correctly
• Effects like reverb were added
• Equalization to reduce the hiss dulled some of the musical dynamics

A few tango collectors, aficionados, and organizations have created their own transfers, some of which are the best quality versions available. More recently, a few groups have been going through the meticulous process of restoring tango collections, with the goal of preserving sound quality and dynamics. The ones most commonly mentioned are Tango Time Travel, Tango Tunes, and most recently Tango Sparks.

For a deep dive into the full history, read our article: How Many Tango Recordings Are There? Stories on the History of Tango Music.

Music Quality Overview

Eventually, you may want to purchase some of the recent transfers. But to get started, I have put together a collection of tracks to get you started in the right place.

Music Provided

I have curated two starting sets of around 250 songs total (I have a lot more music, so please reach out whenever you want more).

Once you find a few songs to use as cortinas, this is more than enough for you to DJ your first milonga.

Organizing Your Music

You want to take a moment to think about how you want to organize your music on your computer. Taking a few hours to set yourself up well will save many hours in the future.

If you want all the nitty gritty of how to do this best, my friend Eric Heleno has a whole lecture about the best approaches to organizing your tango library. He also does tango consults, and you can reach him at erichetango@gmail.com.

One basic but important decision is how you want the general folder structure of your tango library. One example would be:

Genre → Bandleader → Singer / Time Period → Tracks

For example:

Tango/
  D'Arienzo/
    Instrumental 1935-1937/
    Echague 1938-1939/
    Maure 1941-1944/
    Instrumental 1950-1952/
  Di Sarli/
    Instrumental 1939-1941/
    Rufino 1939-1941/
    ...

But there are many other valid approaches as well. The important thing is to be consistent.

Building Tandas & Exercises

The music provided is broken into sets of approximately 8 tracks. Each set consists of tracks of the same bandleader, same singer, and same general period. The idea is to create one or two tandas from each set. This will give you a good starting set of tandas to work from.

Exercises

1. Build out a list of potential tandas.

   You can make lists in Virtual DJ by right-clicking “My Lists” to add a list. Have a list for Tango, Milonga, and Vals tandas, with orchestras underneath.

2. (Optional) Create tanda break markers.

   It can be helpful to put a tanda break line into your organization. You can do this by:

   1. Recording a small snippet of silence (see the recording button in the Access area)
   2. Renaming the title as a series of em-dashes: ———————
   3. Using this file as your tanda break between sets
3. (Optional) Color code songs by genre.
   1. Click the color and filter options in the Access area
   2. Set a color rule for each genre (tango, vals, milonga)
4. Fix metadata.

   Some tracks in the starting sets have incomplete or incorrect metadata. This is also a useful exercise for learning to manage your library:

   • Some of the Donato milongas are incorrectly tagged as tangos — update the genre tag to Milonga (you can use Virtual DJ, or a program like MP3tag)
   • Metadata has not been added to the Canaro tracks — tag them with the correct dates and singers
   • Metadata has not been added to 2 of the Fresedo tracks — tag them with a consistent filename and date

Additional Resources

• Notas De Oro — We have been putting together information about tango songs and curating discographies. Come check it out!
• Tango-DJ.at — A great resource for tango DJs
• Tango DJs for Good Sound — A list of software and hardware tango DJs are using
• DJ Michael Plaks’ 500 Tango Songs — A great resource of 500 tango songs that work well in the milonga
• Tango Sparks — Has a Discology tab that provides valuable information about artist discographies and orchestra information
• Michael Lavocah’s books — Invaluable resources for tango DJs
• El Recodo — A large discography of tango music information along with other useful resources
• The History of Tango Music — Our deep dive into how 12,000 tango recordings survived a century of history

This guide is a work in progress. Feedback, questions, and suggestions are welcome at sericson0@gmail.com.