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'djay' Application for iPad Released

Flowbee said:
LOL at people arguing about what a "real DJ" is. The Mac vs. Windows debate of the music world.

I'm old enough to remember when "real DJs" didn't use CDs.
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So am I (old enough) and it has come around full circle. Programs like Serato (that I use) use a actual vinyl (control) records that need to be used on 2 technics (any turntable) for them to work. I actually stopped DJing when CDs became the dominant DJ tool. When Serato came - I fell back in love. Best of both worlds, have vinyl emulation without the need of lugging to crates of albums! Pulling music you don't have at the event and on the fly from Amazon or itunes. Love it!
 
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sanford said:
This is what I meant about the term DJing becoming so Balkanized as to be difficult to define. The type of DJing you refer to is a type of artistry, not music creation artistry per se, but still just as much artistry. Playing complementary tracks out of a large collection, like a wedding DJ, that's more of a skilled profession than an art. But in common language we use the same term, "DJ."

That said, don't you think djay is more of a DJing toy than it a tool for DJing artistry? It's cute and fun, but it's automation is too great and its limitations too strict to meet the standards of DJing artistry. You can probably impress your friends and neighbors with it, but you can impress you friends and neighbors just by fading, manually or automatically, between tracks that sort of go together and have like BPMs at the end of one and beginning of the next.
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you are correct on both counts. I didn't want to use the term artistry and have the whole macrumors start debating what is art and what isn't. That's really what I was getting at.

This program is fun, maybe even a nice way to work on scratch (not the action) mixes while on the go but that's about as far as I would take it, but there will be some youtube DJ claiming, "You don't have to spend money on hardware and software. All you need is this app, an iPad and music you stole off of X-wire"

At least the people that hire me understand the difference between this kind of DJ and a professional.
 
sanford said:
That said, don't you think djay is more of a DJing toy than it a tool for DJing artistry? It's cute and fun, but it's automation is too great and its limitations too strict to meet the standards of DJing artistry. You can probably impress your friends and neighbors with it, but you can impress you friends and neighbors just by fading, manually or automatically, between tracks that sort of go together and have like BPMs at the end of one and beginning of the next.
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What's disappointing to me is that microwave DJ's will use tools like these to land gigs when they rely on an automix to do all the work. As much as I would laugh at a singer who can't hit pitch without Autotune, I laugh at guys who use automixes and call themselves DJ's.

I'm 31 and grew up in the Mobile DJ era where my friends would haul 1200's and vinyl crates to house parties. If you mixed, you had to know how to beat match by ear. You also had to know how to move the crowd as opposed to just queuing an mp3 collection and running off to the bar. If you were a turntablist, you watched ISP, X-Ecutioners, etc to learn how to master the scratch and your speed was limited by your fader hand. Knowing you can't even crab on a virtual fader makes this thing nothing more than a toy.
 
It's amazing that so many "DJs" come in a thread to berate an app that simulates two turntables and should pose no more threat to them than a dude at party with a laptop and iTunes. Why would a real DJ even bother to comment on this, are they trying to edumacate the masses? :D

Makes you wonder if there is a real threat with apps like this getting more powerful in future versions which would make the traditional "DJ" a proverbial dinosaur.

This app is great for small parties, backyard barbecues, anywhere you have some people, some food and drink and don't want to shell out bucks for a "DJ", or where a DJ would just be a burden. After all you have to feed them. LOL

People at house parties, basement parties etc don't give two $@!# about wav vs mp3, just keep the music, food and drink flowing.

Remember the floppy disk? LOL:D:D:D
 
Universal Translator: Active

Liquorpuki said:
I'm 31 and grew up in the Mobile DJ era where my friends would haul 1200's and vinyl crates to house parties. If you mixed, you had to know how to beat match by ear. You also had to know how to move the crowd as opposed to just queuing an mp3 collection and running off to the bar. If you were a turntablist, you watched ISP, X-Ecutioners, etc to learn how to master the scratch and your speed was limited by your fader hand. Knowing you can't even crab on a virtual fader makes this thing nothing more than a toy.
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Translation: Get off my lawn, you punks!
 
sinsin07 said:
It's amazing that so many "DJs" come in a thread to berate an app that simulates two turntables and should pose no more threat to them than a dude at party with a laptop and iTunes. Why would a real DJ even bother to comment on this, are they trying to edumacate the masses? :D

Makes you wonder if there is a real threat with apps like this getting more powerful in future versions which would make the traditional "DJ" a proverbial dinosaur.

This app is great for small parties, backyard barbecues, anywhere you have some people, some food and drink and don't want to shell out bucks for a "DJ", or where a DJ would just be a burden. After all you have to feed them. LOL

People at house parties, basement parties etc don't give two $@!# about wav vs mp3, just keep the music, food and drink flowing.

Remember the floppy disk? LOL:D:D:D
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No one is berating anything. Just explaining facts to people who say misinformed statements like "This can replace a DJ". If you call the app what it is, which is a toy, glorified itunes with a beat matching algorithm, than it's fine. Oh and the simple fact that you keep putting "" around "DJ" tell me you have little respect for the craft. Not every DJ lives in their moms basement.

It's cool though. My clients don't seem to mind paying me for my services because I do something an app can't. I can look up and tell a crowd isn't responding to what I'm playing and I can make a change. Oh and they feed me because they aren't "cheap" and recognize a DJ that hasn't eaten for probably close to 4-5 hours will be worthless at their party.
 
geerlingguy said:
I think, though, that this could do, in a small way, a similar thing to the DJ marketplace as what's happened in the professional photographer marketplace.

Most people don't care about the utmost quality, or excellence in DJ'ing - just like they don't care about getting the best photographer with the most experience for an event/wedding.

They just care about getting something pretty good, for the lowest price. With dSLRs that can produce 'good enough' pictures without a ton of work on the part of the photographers (just a tiny bit of knowledge about lighting), professional photographers are getting edged out of the market for many weddings...

I think the same thing will happen in non-exclusive clubs, smaller events, etc. Apps like Djay will slowly erode this market.
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Dude, iPad is for leisure. Then be sure you will see many of those this weekend in New York, Miami, and LA... it just looks cool and is a fun toy for the crowd.

I am a VJ, I do visuals, no DJing and I would like to have that software to practice myself instead of spending loads more of money to do the same thing in another hardware or software. But I am going to get the next iPad any way.
 
Flowbee said:
LOL at people arguing about what a "real DJ" is. The Mac vs. Windows debate of the music world.

I'm old enough to remember when "real DJs" didn't use CDs.
Click to expand...

Real DJs aka battle DJs still only use vinyl. If you really want to DJ buy a set of used DD turntables and a mixer off CL. This app is like guitar hero imo.
 
Shoesy said:
Even battle dj's get to use Serato this season. Djing is evolving - change or die.
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Since serato operates almost exactly like vinyl and addresses its shortcomings I dont think negatively of it or towards DJs that use it.

Battle for World Supremacy is still all vinyl and thats where the pure turntablists will compete.
 
citi said:
No one is berating anything. Just explaining facts to people who say misinformed statements like "This can replace a DJ". If you call the app what it is, which is a toy, glorified itunes with a beat matching algorithm, than it's fine. Oh and the simple fact that you keep putting "" around "DJ" tell me you have little respect for the craft. Not every DJ lives in their moms basement.

It's cool though. My clients don't seem to mind paying me for my services because I do something an app can't. I can look up and tell a crowd isn't responding to what I'm playing and I can make a change. Oh and they feed me because they aren't "cheap" and recognize a DJ that hasn't eaten for probably close to 4-5 hours will be worthless at their party.
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Your opinion does not really matter. If people want to think this app can replace a DJ they will. You can't change that. The nature of parties, people and music has evolved. History speaks against you, all you have to do is look at how music was delivered to parties in the last century decade by decade and you will see how the delivery has changed.
You over estimate your value to people and parties. Your just a phase in the history of delivery to music to people.
If DJs suddenly did not exist, people will still have music and be partying down.
 
HLdan said:
I think you should be concerned about this when you start paying a monthly subscription for MR. Since it's free for you to be here........:p

Why is this webpage scrambled?
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It is scrambled for the same reason people send PM Spam ... thanks for the Spam Dan
 
OK, I found a reason why you would never use this app for professional use. Last night I was playing around with the app for about 20 minutes just having a blast mixing songs. I also had AirShare turned on and feeding the music to my Apple TV...then, BOOM! The app crashed. The music stopped and when I restarted the app it came up in a blank state (both turntables empty). That sort of thing can make you look really bad in a club or other event where you are getting paid. Easily forgiveable at a party however.

I do find this app quite amazing though. For parties, all you would have to do is create a playlist of songs. Set the app to auto-mix and synch beats and leave it alone. Gotta love this technology.
 
I am loving this app. I dont know much about Dj'ing or Dj equipment but this is a blast. And I thought baby scratch was fun!?? lol My goal is to make a complete Grateful Dead remix with some nice hip hop/jazz beats. Easy to use, very fresh looking, and since already near top of charts, I can see them updating it on the reg. From a noob perspective and from someone looking to have a good time, I highly recommend this. Best $20 i have spent on my iPad (besides my macally bookstand case)
 
Has anyone managed to crash the app yet from extensive scratching? I've crashed it 3 times last night from over scratching...

**i obviously didn't read the comment above me***
 
Chris Blount said:
OK, I found a reason why you would never use this app for professional use. Last night I was playing around with the app for about 20 minutes just having a blast mixing songs. I also had AirShare turned on and feeding the music to my Apple TV...then, BOOM! The app crashed. The music stopped and when I restarted the app it came up in a blank state (both turntables empty). That sort of thing can make you look really bad in a club or other event where you are getting paid. Easily forgiveable at a party however.

I do find this app quite amazing though. For parties, all you would have to do is create a playlist of songs. Set the app to auto-mix and synch beats and leave it alone. Gotta love this technology.
Click to expand...

The idea of anyone using this for paid gigs is laughable. Nice app though for just messing around
 
Help? - Audio Splitter

Wow, I love this. Arguements aside about whether this is for pro use or not, I am having great fun with it :D I used to DJ at parties and clubs, but it was more of a hobby really, and I haven't done it for years. This has reminded me how much I used to enjoy it!

I have one problem though. I bought an audio splitter today so I could plug it into my amp at home and monitor with my headphones. I bought it from Maplins here http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=43086 I plugged my headphones into the right channel, and amp into the left channel. However, the audio only came out of my left speaker? Any ideas? I used a mini jack to 2 phone cable to plug into my amp.

Many thanks
 
sinsin07 said:
It's amazing that so many "DJs" come in a thread to berate an app that simulates two turntables and should pose no more threat to them than a dude at party with a laptop and iTunes. Why would a real DJ even bother to comment on this, are they trying to edumacate the masses? :D

Makes you wonder if there is a real threat with apps like this getting more powerful in future versions which would make the traditional "DJ" a proverbial dinosaur.

This app is great for small parties, backyard barbecues, anywhere you have some people, some food and drink and don't want to shell out bucks for a "DJ", or where a DJ would just be a burden. After all you have to feed them. LOL

People at house parties, basement parties etc don't give two $@!# about wav vs mp3, just keep the music, food and drink flowing.

Remember the floppy disk? LOL:D:D:D
Click to expand...

I don't care about BBQ's or small parties. But there are a ton of DJ's in the clubs now that rely on an automix to make their set work but still get their name on fliers, still get street cred for zero effort, take away gigs from DJ's that have put in work, and get paid off doing nothing but queueing an mp3 collection. It cheapens the profession. Instead of paying your dues by learning how to do it, you're buying software that does the work for you and spending 99% of your time running around marketing your DJ name. It's like telling people you're a singer when all you did was spend a few hundred bucks on Antares Autotune. The DJ subculture has a word for these guys - Microwave DJ's. Don't be one.
 
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sinsin07 said:
You over estimate your value to people and parties. Your just a phase in the history of delivery to music to people.
If DJs suddenly did not exist, people will still have music and be partying down.
Click to expand...

lol. ok. I keep that in mind. I guess I shouldn't quit my day job. Oh wait. This is my day job and it pays me very very well. As I said before, when you can show me an app that can read the crowd (and look out and notice there are 20 year olds and 50 years olds) and spin accordingly, I will walk away from this. Until then... wik wiki

DJing artistry is harder than it looks. Don't trivialize it.

Come to think of it, why even you this app? Just plug in your DJ hero. The commerical looks like everyone is rocking!
 
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