Hands-On With djay Pro 2 for Mac's New AI-Driven DJ Mixing and Beat-Matched Photo Slideshows

[MacRumors]

Algoriddim's djay lineup has been a mainstay in the DJ app market, getting its start on the Mac over ten years ago, becoming one of the early iPad hits, and over the years expanding to also include iPhone, Apple Watch, Windows, and Android.

Throughout that time, djay has proven extremely popular with professional, amateur, and aspiring DJs alike for its powerful yet intuitive tools that make it easy to replace physical media and turntables with a single computer or mobile device, making djay the world's best-selling DJ app with over 30 million downloads while also winning a pair of Apple Design Awards.

Three years ago, the Mac version of djay became djay Pro, gaining a revamped interface, integration with Spotify, and a host of other new features, and Algoriddim has continued to make improvements in the app since that time, most notably with an on-stage demo at Apple's October 2016 media event where Algoriddim showed off Touch Bar support for djay Pro on the redesigned MacBook Pro.

Today, Algoriddim is launching djay Pro 2 for Mac, a major update bringing quite a few features that not only improve the user experience today but also set the stage for more advancements down the road. We met up with Algoriddim's Michael Simmons and Christoph Teschner last week for an in-person demo and overview of the new features, and we came away impressed with the update.


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Article Link: Hands-On With djay Pro 2 for Mac's New AI-Driven DJ Mixing and Beat-Matched Photo Slideshows

 

[Envo]

'Photobeat' and 'Automix AI'... But there's no Ableton Link. I'm sure it's for Pros.

 

[qawes]

'Photobeat' and 'Automix AI'... But there's no Ableton Link. I'm sure it's for Pros.

Yup! Serato is trembling right about now! This is as fun as watching that DJ scratching on the nMBP's Touchbar in it's introduction keynote.

 

[Envo]

Yup! Serato is trembling right about now! This is as fun as watching that DJ scratching on the nMBP's Touchbar in it's introduction keynote.

I don't know... i have a controller for Serato, and i tried with it, but the latest Serato DJ software was buggy as hell, didn't recognized my controller's knobs and sliders very well. I'm thinking about Traktor Pro 2 right now, since there isn't more option, but i have to hack my Pioneer DDJ-SB2 to it.

 

[qawes]

Not trying to sound smug by any means, but I gave up on using computers at gigs a long time ago. Way to buggy for my taste and some events tend to get really crazy to risk a laptop near my decks.

I've played with Serato, Torq and Native Instruments and they all have their quirks and benefits, but nothing beats the simplicity of just laying good-old wax and some USB sticks into CDJ's, without risking your personal equipment.

As far as working with a laptop, I see it being needed only on live performance occasions, where I can play my own projects 100% using Ableton clip triggering and a good midi controller.

 

[Envo]

Not trying to sound smug by any means, but I gave up on using computers at gigs a long time ago. Way to buggy for my taste and some events tend to get really crazy to risk a laptop near my decks.

I've played with Serato, Torq and Native Instruments and they all have their quirks and benefits, but nothing beats the simplicity of just laying good-old wax and some USB sticks into CDJ's, without risking your personal equipment.

As far as working with a laptop, I see it being needed only on live performance occasions, where I can play my own projects 100% using Ableton clip triggering and a good midi controller.

Yeah i totally get it. I used to play from vinyls.

 

[ChpTrk]

"The item you've requested is not currently available in the U.S. store."

 

[JustinKent]

Big fan of DJay for a long time now. Hoping they add support for Apple Music. Anybody know why it hasn't been added? API limitation? Also, would be nice to get a direct confirmation that Apple Music isn't supported, as the article does mention iTunes. Thanks.

 

[69Mustang]

Big fan of DJay for a long time now. Hoping they add support for Apple Music. Anybody know why it hasn't been added? API limitation? Also, would be nice to get a direct confirmation that Apple Music isn't supported, as the article does mention iTunes. Thanks.

According to 9to5Mac, Algoriddim says that Apple is the reason for the lack of support for Apple Music.

 

[Big Bad D]

Djay Pro is great - only using it for family and friend events. But not going to upgrade to new version 2 until overdue Apple Music integration. Seems a shame that having showed off the app at Apple event, this is not resolved between Apple and Algoriddim. Not going to pay or switch to Spotify Pemium.

 

[bigjnyc]

For those who use this. Where is your mix saved if you create one off your Spotify songs?

 

[djbuddha]

Serato doesn't care lol let's get that out of the way ... they have an auto mixing software they sell and the market for their other products isn't even in the same realm as that of the Algoriddim guys. Nothing wrong with either software to be honest.

Regarding not using serato or buggy software ... it's not the whole 'computers aren't stable' argument ... I've been playing every week on a computer / DVS (digital vinyl system) since 2004. I've crashed TWICE. Both times were admittedly completely my fault too lol ... Came from records and now use whatever the hell the venue has or a controller and here's what I learned (I also do live to air radio... been playing about 20 years now). Here's what it is lol:

1. The main issue isn't computers, its maintenance and updates.

Example: don't clean your computer fans / manage / maintain music backups and carry another source of music is a recipe for disaster and one that is COMPLETELY on you (Apple's thin and light sales tactic to me means- I now carry 2 MacBook pros with all my music cloned on each other's internal drives plus 2 externals)... my controller supports dual usb. Even without this extreme issue, I've almost never had to use it and when I did it was either because vibration destroyed an old HDD (this is why you carry 2), a club was too hot (computers overheat) or I stupidly didn't fully test an update.

I went down once during a commercial break for 45 seconds because an update effed up my MacBook. My announcer at the gig saved me HARD and I was back up and playing before we came back from commercial (in a bigger radio market).

For the serato people, here's my current drama lol.

On my 2012 machines .. 1.9.1 was bulletproof. Bought a 2017 MBP maxed w/ touchbar and have to run at least 1.9.7. Will NOT install High Sierra on my main gig notebook ..... and there's an issue in 1.9.7 where if I flip to another computer on my Pioneer controller (DDJ-SZ) it loses all my effect settings so I'm constantly readjusting things when I switch laptops / DJs.

But that's the price of 'upgrading' .. my 2012 is perfect running Mavericks with 1.9.1 ... and I even mix video in HD for the venue while doing a radio broadcast. The computer is fine...... but it's also over 5 years old and if it's going to finally die after all the abuse it's been through (encoding video every day for those 5 years) it'll die at a gig. So- welcome to upgrade hell lol

That's why computers fail. It's just because hardware and OSes change. You gotta run a good 4-5 hour test at home and if it's bulletproof there, it's about 90% fine to use out in my opinion. You should be able to feel like you can do anything you want behind the decks and not have to worry that computer is chugging to perform. Focus on being creative with the technology you have- but only after you know your system is rock solid.

 

[qawes]

Serato doesn't care lol let's get that out of the way

They sure don't, I was just being sarcastic.

You are absolutely right regarding every aspect of computers you stated above, that's why a good CDJ costs as much as a MBP.

Using Serato as a DVS is allright by me, especially for turntablism, but when I see it along CDJ's, I just plain cringe. We have USB thumb drives now.

 

[djbuddha]

They sure don't, I was just being sarcastic.

You are absolutely right regarding every aspect of computers you stated above, that's why a good CDJ costs as much as a MBP.

Using Serato as a DVS is allright by me, especially for turntablism, but when I see it along CDJ's, I just plain cringe. We have USB thumb drives now.

I saw a beach ball at a gig knock a USB key out of a CDJ before LMAO. But you're right. To be honest, if I walk into a venue and they have CDJs, I hook up my laptop anyway to save time + I have all my cue points and my folders are organized.

I think a lot of DJs will setup CDJs and use Serato CDs not because they think it's better, more because they don't have nearly the technical acumen of us on forums like this one. They know it works, they just stick with it. Or just strictly out of convenience. I'll use whatever gets the job done at this point ... with as little hassle as possible.

 

[YanniDepp]

I think I'll give this a miss, after how unreliable the original Djay Pro was:

• Random audio dropouts and sudden speedups.
• When two songs were synced and one of them ended, the other song would sometimes speed up for no reason.
• Loops weren't always the right length. Sometimes I'd set an 8-beat loop, and it would only be 7 and a half beats, utterly ruining a mix.
• Shortening an active loop would sometimes cause the loop to be cancelled.
• No manual beatgrid tools - all you can do is set an initial downbeat marker and pray that it's detected correctly.
• Syncing doesn't just line up beats, it lines up the "downbeat". And you can't place more than one downbeat marker. So any songs with extra beats (Into You, Despacito, Hey Ya) need to be beatmatched manually.
• Sometimes, I'd load a track to find that the audio was a few seconds out of sync with the waveform. When I jumped to a cue point, Djay would jump to the right place on the waveform, but the audio would be three seconds before the right point. When I synced, the waveforms would line up, but the audio would be three seconds out (and usually about five and a half beats out of sync). This meant I couldn't jump to a cue point and hit play. I had to jump to a cue point, scrub back a few seconds to find the actual cue point, then hit play and beatmatch manually.

Every release seemed to fix a few bugs, and introduce new ones. After giving Djay Pro plenty of chances, I switched to Traktor. Sure, Traktor is a bit stale and isn't innovating any more, but it's reliable and does exactly what I tell it to.

 

[qawes]

I saw a beach ball at a gig knock a USB key out of a CDJ before LMAO.

That sounds like fun! A bit tired of the local techno/house raving down here in dark spaces, would love to play a gig like that!

We can find some pretty minimalistic thumb drives today though, which just stick out 4-5mm from the deck, those should be beachball-proof

I admire your dedication in keeping cue points organized. Personally, I'm way to lazy and just load tunes in folders from fresh/unreleased stuff to more popular ones. This does the job for me, because I keep stumbling on selections that work surprisingly well.

 

[djbuddha]

That sounds like fun! A bit tired of the local techno/house raving down here in dark spaces, would love to play a gig like that!

We can find some pretty minimalistic thumb drives today though, which just stick out 4-5mm from the deck, those should be beachball-proof

I admire your dedication in keeping cue points organized. Personally, I'm way to lazy and just load tunes in folders from fresh/unreleased stuff to more popular ones. This does the job for me, because I keep stumbling on selections that work surprisingly well.

Trust me it's not dedication LOL. I add cue points to tracks while I play. My folders are too general and every 6 months I do a reorganization of them lol.

The big gigs are too far and few between these days. The key is to make friends with promoters and play 'cool guy' half the time. No hate for that sort of grind, but to be honest I just don't have the amount of time that takes with the day grind.