Review: iCrates App for iOS - Crate Digging Goes Mobile

Here's a review of a really nice little app called iCrates. It takes a lot of the leg work out of hunting down tracks online with regards to buying them either digitally (from iTunes) or in physical format.

I really liked it as the idea was simple yet effective. It'll never distract me from bargain-bin hunting, but it's useful for a quick idea on valuations and availability of tracks I might be after.

iCrates is currently priced at $2.99;

Musik Messe 2012 - iOS products!

In case you've missed out, over at DigitalDJTips there's a very nice round-up of the latest products that were demo'd at Musik Messe last week. There were a number of notable iOS related items, perhaps showing a gradual acceptance by manufacturers that this interface is here to stay (for a while at least).  Products included;

• MixVibes Cross DJ for iPad
• Deckadance for iPad
• Vestax V-MIDI
• Neusonik iA/ONE iOS interface

It's exciting to see more products coming to market around iOS, no doubt I'll get to have a test/play soon (I hope!).

5 Reasons Why iOS Is Great News For DJing

This article takes a look at why iOS is good news for DJs. It's the first in a small series of articles I've written about iOS DJing. It's already looking like a busy 2012 for me with a number of new products coming to market over the coming months.

Red Bull BPM DJ Tutorial video

3 New Ways To Listen To Music On iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch

Another new article by me over at DigitalDJTips.  This time taking a more casual look at how to listen to music stored on your iDevice, focusing on 3 apps;

• AirVinyl
• iAlbums
• Planetary

I've mentioned Planetary before, but still worth a look if you haven't already.

AirVinyl is currently priced at $0.99 for iPhone & iPod Touch;

or $2.99 for iPad;

iAlbums is free, but only developed for smaller devices (not yet Universal);

Planetary is also free, but only available on iPad;



DJing, democratized

Just thought I'd share this lovely article written by Serena Calder on Capital Arts Online.  I'd been interviewed last year as part of this piece, as had Phil from DigitalDJTips and a few others.  It gets the point across nicely that the wide variety of DJ apps available means that anyone on any budget can try their hand at DJing, whereas previously you had to invest in hardware.

DJ Player 4.5 is in the app store now

OK, so I'm catching up a bit after regular day-to-day work!  DJ Player 4.5 is in the app store now, along with the promised price increase - but well worth it considering the amount of functionality you get in this very robust and professional app now.

I know some of you have got this on your iPad 2 devices, so why not share some screenshots with the camera functionality enabled...the more adventurous the better!  I'm hoping for either some amazing live DJ gig crowd shots or perhaps fantastic beach sunset gigs!  Feel free to upload your screenshots somewhere like imageshack and share the links here!

DJ Player is currently priced at $47.99;

Deej app gets update...

Deej v2.0 has been released to the app store in the past few days bringing the following features;

• Graphic restyle
• Solved sound issues on iOS 5.0
• BPM calculation and Autosync
• Interruptions (calls, iPod music) improved
• Deprecated Music Case music import method

It looks like the price has been dropped as well (for a limited period).  If you want to see my review of v1.8 of Deej, check it out here.

Deej is currently priced at $0.99;



Cue.Play.DJ v1.7 details released...

This next version of Cue.Play.DJ (for iPod Touch & iPhone) has been a long time coming due to various reasons.  Max Harvey from Capsulated Software posted the features list a couple of days ago on their forum;

New Features

• Keylock (iPhone 4 and faster devices)
• Play music from your iPod Library (OS 4.3 and above)
• Auto track syncing (iPhone 3GS and faster devices)
• Recorded tracks can now be played from inside the app (OS4.3 and above)
• iTunes playlists can be used to filter the track lists(OS 4.3 and above)
• Recordings are now done in AIFF format (OS 4.3 and above)
• Can now record on 3GS and above (was iPhone 4 and above)
• Choice of max/min pitch 10%, 20% and 50% (iPhone 4 and above)
• Can play AIFF and Apple lossless files (OS4.3 and above. Only from the iPod, the desktop app remains the same)
• Gain memory. Tracks will now remember their gain levels for next time.
• EQ v3.0. Rewritten EQ code for better stability on OS5
• Can now cancel track importing mid way through the process
• Can now export/import track data files to your other devices (OS4.3 and above)
• New beat bar scale. The beat bar now gives much more accurate information between the 0 and 1 beat.

 

Bug Fixes

• Fixed recording stuttering problem
• Fixed flanger issue on iPad 2/iPhone 4s
• Other bug fixes

It looks like a decent update, recording on older devices will come as a welcome surprise to many and hopefully the ability to cut out a step in the process of loading a track is what is meant by 'Play Music from your iPod library'.

Great news, just a matter of waiting now...once this release is out then I suspect Capsulated might start thinking about an iPad version.

Cue.Play.DJ is currently priced at $9.99;

Future DJ for iPod Touch/iPhone review

Another review of mine over at DigitalDJTips, this time Future DJ, an app I hadn't come across before.  It's a dual waveform DJ app with a single screen view for all operations.  It's currently iPod Touch/iPhone only however there's an iPad version rumoured to be in development.

I thought the app was OK, although with Cue.Play.DJ v1.7 due for release in the coming weeks and DJ Player v4.5 already out there are much better alternatives.

Future DJ is currently priced at $3.99;