My love and devotion to all things Mac is well known. But despite what
Nik39 people might think, I'm not however a raging fanboy, but simply choose the Mac as my computing platform of choice. But when I see software like
djay, it's quite clear that this choice is vindicated. While other vendors spew out Traktor clones, Algoriddim embrace the richness that the OS X system has to offer and give you a whole new experience.
Not having to work within the narrow confines of crossplatformness means that the look and feel can be entirely Maclike, as well as enabling djay to use the more advanced audio units that OS X's CoreAudio offers.
iTunes is tightly integrated, but the traffic is strictly one way i.e. you do all your work in iTunes such as playlist creation and ID3 tagging and djay simply makes use of it - including putting the track artwork on just the label or the whole record picture disk stylee. And changing the pitch changes on the record as well, visually speeding up or slowing down to match. It also includes a processor adjustable pitch shifter as well. You can even visually needle drop with and scratch with djay as well. Another bonus is the ability to mix and scratch with iTunes protected. The full list includes sampling, recording, automixing, manual BPM and syncing, 3 cues/hot cues per deck, transitions, saveable loops and 2 effects per decks as well.
You might expect that all this audio and graphics goodness might well tax the processor a little. While being optimised for Intel Macs, it does run pretty well on my g4etto Powerbook, barely reaching 20% processor load.
For external control, djay gives you complete control over audio output so you use small USB sound cards for monitoring, leaving the Mac's headphone socket or vice versa. New to this exclusive Messe version is integration with Vestax's VCI and VCM MIDI controllers, and it worked very well.
djay is certainly a breath of fresh air in a market saturated with software all looking and running the same. I hope that Algoriddim make djay skinnable as this will allow you to tailor your experience to whatever floats your boat. That said, the current djay interface is pretty damned cool. But the best thing is the price - £30/€40/$50. That's a really good price for what you get.
Review to follow. In the meantime, Mac users can download a demo
right here .
Tried the demo and it's a neat little program. Mind you I'm not about to trade in my Virtual Vinyl but for the price djay is a good little program. Before everyone starts flaming; it costs $50.00 so don't start complaining about the lack of waveforms, scratching etc. etc.
Giz, you rock! Nice find! Love your regular updates.
Tried the demo. For $50 bucks it is the best value for money one can find out there, IMO. Compare DJAY to DJ-1800 and Beatport Sync, I say this is the best of the three. Love the simplicity.
...and there are some cool features that I don't recall seing on other programs like being able to put album covers or any image you want on the platter. The stickers to mark cue points is kind of neat too. And the bpm tap button works unlike my much more expensive Virtual Vinyl (the button sticks and freezes). And one turnatable dimming and the other one getting brighter with transitions is a neat concept. And what I think is really cool is the "echo" effect in the "transition" section. One thing I think could be improved is all the empty space in the skin. I think everything could be made bigger to fill the empty space up, or even better, just fill the space with the loop buttons, cue points, fx etc. that currently have to be individually selected from the menu at the bottom of the skin. Although my guess is that the skin was kept less cluttered with RAM intensive graphics in order to make the album cover platter thing feasible.
like most (not all, but most) things with the apple on them, this looks gay to say the least. I'll stick with TS for now, kthxbai
Gizmo - nice find! Looks like a great product that is inexpensive. While I see that djay is set to work with a couple of the Vestax USB controllers, do you know if it will work with the Denon HC-4500 USB Controller? Thanks, Randy.
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On March 17, 2008, Dizzy commented...
5 comments to this story