DJay was the first app I purchased which emulated 2 turntables and a mixer not only functionality but visually as well. Initially it felt to me a little bit gimmicky, the turntable representations were (and still are) very small and quite difficult to scratch with and more often than not the app would crash during a mix or glitch during load of a second track. That was
back in November 2010.
Since then it has seen a few updates (now at v1.2) and has won a
2011 Apple Design Award (in the iPad Developer Showcase category). Algoriddim have also released
DJay for iPhone which does offer a single deck view among other key features.
Version 1.1.1 brought us multiple cue points, looping (Auto, Manual or Bounce)
Version 1.2 brought us some iPad 2 only features - such as key locking (ie real-time pitch bend) and beat-synchronised scrubbing. All great, but only iPad 2 due to processing consumption. Interestingly, if you go to the Settings section on your iPad and scroll down to DJay, there's an 'Advanced' setting to turn on/off 'High Precision Analysis' - which is used for the iPad 2 features. This is present regardless of iPad version, I've tried and it doesn't seem to make any difference on iPad 1!
Update! Version 1.3 - brings a stack of feature improvements (including the much needed preCue split option) as well as the MIDI compliance mentioned
previously, in readiness for the release of the
Numark iDJ Live device in August 2011. This is the first example of USB MIDI with a DJ app?
+ Quick Track Load Time:
To load a previously unloaded track (4 mins, Face to Face by Daft Punk) took about 13s to complete - to load the same track again took about 1s (much quicker!)....compared with 35s on
Sonorasaurus Rex.
+ Platter Responsiveness:
Difficult to describe, but I'll try. As the platter is spinning, if you put your finger on it, the track stops immediately. If you lift your finger off, the track continues immediately - there's no slow start up...it's like the turntable has a good high-torque setting (if you were on a real turntable). This does make scratching more likely than in other 'scratch-apps'...which implement a slow start up back to normal speed. This is just my personal preference, but I think it makes things easier.
+ Loop Options:
Nice to have 3 different options to choose from when looping. The Bounce Loop is most fun for live mucking about on the fly. It would benefit greatly from being able to store any Manual loop points though.
+ BPM Half/Double Quick Edit:
Quite a few times, the track I've loaded comes up at the wrong bpm, however mostly it can easily be corrected to a bpm in the right area by pressing on the bpm figure above the pitch slider. A neat feature and provides a very quick way of correcting a bpm.
- Lack of PreCue Options (Update - no longer an issue in v1.3!):
If you're familiar with the DJay forum, then this wont come as a surprise to you. There is no means of splitting the cue signal between the deck you're cueing and the master output - it's all or nothing, unlike other apps which do give some flexibility on this. I suspect Algoriddim are reviewing what's in the next upgrade now and possibly focusing on this more than any other feature at the moment.
+ / - iPod Library Access:
It depends on your preference with this one. The generic library access UI is nice when you're browsing through your playlists, selecting tracks visually (based on their artwork)...however, when you're playing a gig and you want the next track to be roughly in the same BPM as the current track it becomes more difficult as you have no method of sorting by BPM. I suppose this is no different to what I do with real vinyl, but it seems a shame not to utilise the tech to handle this a little better than a generic UI screen.
- No Single Deck option
This would really boost the appeal of the app to me (and perhaps others as well). As mentioned earlier, the decks are far too small to consider scratching - at least for me. Also some of the UI is quite cluttered, with the EQ, Loop and multiple Cue Points all accessible via a single tiny button which then pops up a window obscuring your view of the deck. If you could utilise a single deck mode, then you could open up the UI a bit, display a larger turntable surface, provide more space for the other features as well as lose the mixer and the other deck. This would then allow mixing using a hardware mixer with 2 iPads quite easily and would overcome the heat Algoriddim get (not sure why the criticism lies with them for an Apple issue) over Mono audio out when using a splitter. Single deck = no splitter needed.
- No Effects
For an app which provides a lot of functionality, to omit effects from the list is a surprise to some. Most DJ apps now provide some effects capabilities ranging from the very basic to the advanced and well designed. Either way, the inclusion of effects with DJay would be welcome but the question would be where on the UI would you access them from?!
Although there are a few minor negatives above, Algoriddim has done very well propelling their app to the top of the Apple charts on several occasions. Over the past few weeks I've got a bit more used to DJay and will probably be using it more at home as an ideas test to quickly see if tracks can mix together, maybe for the basis of throwing together a quick mixtape. It'll be interesting to see how they cope with the USB Controller and whether any more updates/functionality for iPad 1 will be forthcoming.
DJay (for iPad) is still currently priced at $9.99 (
half-price, but for how long?!);
DJay (for iPhone) is currently priced at $0.99 (bargain price!);
