I saw a post about a new DJ app for Macs over at TUAW. It looked interesting, and I downloaded it immediately, but I wasn't expecting a whole lot. I've used plenty of DJ apps and I've even started coding some crappy ones of my own. I had low expectations.
Boy, was I wrong. Djay is well done. It has a lot of potential. I kept looking for reasons to dismiss it, but it usually came out the winner. 
At first, I figured, ehh, it won't pitch shift, even though the announcement says it does. It does, and it works pretty well. The sliders are set way too high. I'd prefer a more traditional +/-10%, not +/-100%.
Next, I was ready to throw it away forever because I didn't know how to cue anything in my headphones, while still outputing the main sound. A trip to the help file told me I needed at least a 4 channel external sound card. Well, I ain't getting one of those, but wait...you can aggregate channels with an iMic? I have an iMic (runs to studio to grab it). Follow instructions, bam, cueing in the headphones, main sound out the internal speakers. Nice!
The effects are crap, right? No, those are good too.
The iTunes integration is fantastic. I love when apps tightly integrate! It just multiplies the benefit you get from the hardwork you put in to organizing and tagging your data.
I do have some complaints. The "magnetic" tempo sliders are nice, but it's nothing like feeling a spinning platter. The beat counter does the best it can, but I learned early on to never trust beat counters. You just have to hear the mix. I was also a little upset that you can't play any iTMS purchased tracks. FairPlay my ass. FairPlay is fine when you stick to Apple's garden. Once you try and leave, you get smacked in the face with low hanging branches.
So, while I sell my turntables and switch to software? Never. However, I can see myself doing some prep work for a mix with this, and this is great software for those that want to try djing without investing a lot (any) money. It would also work well for preparing mixes that might not need precise beat matching, especially with the built-in recording. Overall, I'm liking this and plan to spend more time playing with it.
2006-08-24
Spin it djay
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I'm glad to hear the app was mostly useful. I was interested in both of the DJ apps I saw this week, perhaps at some point I will try out the one that runs on Windows.
The tight integration is really where its at though, so without that I will probably be less than impressed.
I sense that somebody is starting to fail the pain of people not "playing fair". First GarageBand, now this... Come on over to the dark side, we've been waiting.
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