Djay Pro Ipad Hardware

Djay Pro provides a complete toolkit for performing DJs. Built exclusively for iPad, djay Pro seamlessly integrates with your media library and Spotify, giving you instant access to millions of.

Hands-On

By Victor Marks
Wednesday, December 12, 2018, 07:24 am PT (10:24 am ET)

Algoriddim's new djay for iOS has moved to a subscription model, and includes beat-matching, A12 Bionic machine learning, plus iPad Pro USB-C support.


Loops in Algodiddim's new day for iOS

Algoriddim has been making djay for iPad, iPhone, and Mac for eight years, winning Apple Design Awards and being featured in Apple Keynotes along the way. The new version is a unified one across all of Apple's iOS hardware, with a bunch of new features added, and older ones improved.

djay classic mode on iPhone

The app launches in Classic Mode, with two turntables and a mixer. Load up two songs and mix between them, and virtual grooves are drawn on the screen so you can identify the breaks in the music. You can apply one of five free effects to either track.

Djay Pro Reviews


The simplest way to mix is Automix mode. In Automix mode, you view all your tracks, and with one tap, djay mixes all of them with optimal transition points using machine learning and the 'AI Automix engine.'

Automix mode in landscape. It works in portrait as well.

The new version also has Spotify integration, giving you access to a huge library of songs if you're a Spotify subscriber. The integration allows users to match songs that go well with what's currently playing, and provide a list of matching songs based on danceability, BPM, key, and music style. It's also able to save songs to Spotify collections and playlists from within djay.
If you have a Pioneer, Reloop, or Mixtour controller, djay is able to work with it immediately. All these features are free, where different versions of djay used to be paid-for apps.
What's different now is that djay is moving to a subscription model, and unlocking pro features with the subscription. In addition to the supported controllers in the free level, a paid subscription unlocks support for over 50 MIDI controllers from Pioneer DJ, Reloop, Numark, Denon DJ, and others. It also adds an advanced MIDI learn system to map each control on users' hardware individually and enables support for Bluetooth MIDI.
Subscription also unlocks unlimited access to a 1GB library of samples, loops, FX, and visuals with content provided by Loopmasters, Future Loops, DocOptic, Sugar Bytes, and others, and a looper and sequencer, so you can begin performing tracks in addition to mixing and spinning. Users who want to make it into a performance can load up the grid-based Looper with up to 48 loops, and djay will time-stretch them and match them to the beat in real-time.

Cue points!

A pro subscription also turns on video mixing, with output support to external displays. There's a library of visualizers in djay that work with this feature. If you have a new iPad Pro with USB-C, you can use external displays and be connected to DJ hardware at the same time.

The looper when used with visual mixer

Djay Pro For Ipad

Turning on the subscription also enables an advanced media library with playlist editing and management, smart filters, and iOS drag and drop integration with the Files app and Dropbox.
Djay takes advantage of the power of the A12 Bionic processor. Every sample in the new looper can be assigned a video clip that plays in time with the audio. With the power of the A12 Bionic chip, you can now mix up to ten videos in real-time, right on the iOS device.


Earlier, we mentioned the Automix AI engine. An AI is only as good as the training that gives it the data to work with. Here, Algoriddim trained the AI using training sets from human DJs.
Automix AI intelligently identifies rhythmic patterns and the best intro and outro sections of songs. It then calculates optimal fade durations and automatically applies parameter changes to EQs and filters for a seamless transition. Users can fully customize their preferred mix settings and start the automix with a single tap.
djay also now includes Ableton Link, a protocol Ableton developed that allows apps from multiple vendors to all sync up to the same beat on a shared Wi-Fi network. Inclusion of Ableton Link means you can use djay to jam with friends using desktops or compatible mobile apps, and your djay beats will play in tempo with the their applications.

The new version of djay is available now on the App Store for free, and comes with a seven-day trial of all pro features. Djay Pro Ipad Hardware
Upgrading to a pro subscription for all the sounds, visuals, and other features is priced at $4.99 a month. Existing customers who purchased a version of djay in the past on iOS are eligible for an entire year's subscription for $9.99 —$30 off the standard pricing, or a year for two month's price.
The new djay for iOS is compatible with any iPhone or iPad running iOS 11.2 or later.

Djay Pro 2 Ipad

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Pioneer DJ’s new DDJ-200 hardware is designed to work with mobile devices and streaming services primarily, and laptops/local music only as another way of DJing on top of that. It is able to work with a wide range of streaming services by being compatible with DJ apps from other brands as well as Pioneer DJ’s own WeDJ.

To use Spotify on it, then, you don’t use the (free) WeDJ app that Pioneer DJ recommends for the unit (check our first look review here), but instead, you use the djay app from Algoriddim, which is officially supported too.

Djay Pro Ipad Hardware Test

djay has the added advantage of also working with iPad, up to and including the iPad Pro, so you get much more screen real estate to play with over DJing with WeDJ on an iPhone (WeDJ isn’t for iPad as of now).

Note that day in its full version is a subscription app (although at the time of writing you get six months for free), and you’ll need a Spotify subscription too to do this.

How to set it up

To get the DDJ-200 working with the app, you need to first power the DDJ-200 (plug it into your phone charger with the attached cable, for instance), then use the supplied mono (or “DJ”) splitter cable to take your iOS device’s headphones out to both your speakers and your headphones. Note that if you’re using a newer iPhone, you’ll need the headphones adaptor too, which removes your chance to charge the iPhone without yet another adaptor.

Next, you need to hit the preferences and go to Bluetooth Controllers, tapping on the DDJ-200 to get the two devices talking to each other.

To use Spotify, you hit the flashing music icon on either deck, and select Spotify from your options as a source. Log in if you’re not logged in already, and all your playlists etc are there. Tap a track, and you’re off.

In use

Djay Pro Ipad Hardware Problem

It is smooth, and a great deal of fun. Tracks load instantaneously on any half decent connection, and you can DJ with them immediately. for parties, music discover and so on, this is great – although because you can’t DJ with any kind of locally cached files, you wouldn’t want to rely on it for long in any professional situation.

The DDJ-200 and djay integration is fine – you’ll find yourself using the iOS device more for stuff that you can’t do on the controller (I couldn’t see any way to use pad FX, although I may have missed it, for instance); by default the pads are halved top/bottom between loops (with variations triggered by holding “shift” as well) and four cues.

Transition FX – a big new thing in WeDJ, with loads of variations – is one effect only (filter transition), again as far as I could tell on a “first look” test.

None of these limitations are dealbreakers, because for me one of the advantages of Algoriddim’s software is that you can use this on a bigger screened device where it’s fine to use the touchscreen a bit more. The views, the FX, the sequencer and several other things on djay are better than WeDJ for me, and I am sure a lot of Algoriddim users would agree too. the choice is what’s important.

The only thing that irked me was having to go into a menus then another menu to change headphones volume.

Conclusion

This is a great way of DJing with Spotify quickly, simply and cheaply using a neat new piece of beginner hardware from Pioneer, and an established leader in iOS DJing software.

Many people will be happy to see this, and a lot of beginners who simply don’t understand why they can’t DJ with their lovingly crafted Spotify library will love this – it removes a huge obstacle for getting started in DJing.

• Check out our first look DDJ-200 video and article and our Q&A session from our live show about this unit at this post.

Djay Pro Ipad Hardware Problem

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