Guest post by Gabriel… It wasn’t long ago that using CD player in clubs was considered sacrilege. Now, with big DJs getting behind ever smaller DJ systems (we recently reviewed the well-received djay for iPad), that’s all changing. But can a full DJ set-up get any smaller than this one for iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad, backed by none less than Ferry Corsten?
The makers of Cue Play DJ claim it is possible to play a real DJ set using nothing more than your iPhone or iPod Touch (it also works on iPad) and this app. I wanted to find out if it really would be good enough to play a real club set with. Check out the video above, then below, let’s look at the app itself, and how it performed in a real club.
App overview
This is the app with the faders showing for both tracks.
Basically Cue Play DJ offers an easy to understand layout / interface to let you play back 2 tracks at a time (WAV/MP3/M4A), and if you’re familiar with DJing or sound equipment you’ll immediately recognise common similarities. If you are beginner, the clear and logical layout will help you to quickly navigate your way around the app and its features and functions.
You switch between the fader/pitch functions by double tapping the fader/pitch button. The double arrow buttons act as pitch bends when tapped, top for slowing down, bottom for speeding up, and FF/RW when held down.
Even though everything you do is done by touching the screen, it was designed to look and work like professional DJ equipment, therefore all the controls are well spaced out, and the screens zoom in to enlarge them and to make the functions like low/mid/hi knobs, kill switches, load/sync and play/pause easier to access.
Pro-grade features
They really have crammed a lot in to this. There are 3 effects including the all-important low-pass filter, plus BPM tap for correcting BPM or adding to non-BPMed music files, the choice of resetting track settings on load or not, and switching between knobs and horizontal/vertical faders for ease of use on that tiny screen.
Even though everything you do is done by touching the screen, it was designed to look and work like professional DJ equipment…
With real beatgridding (don’t expect Ableton style warping!) and BPM / phase auto syncing, they’ve not forgotten any of the current DJ features.
I almost expected to find a real-time sampler there! That would have been a bit ambitious of course, but let’s take a closer look at what has been implemented:
Here is the looping section - note how the hot cue is switched on (red dot).
Loops and cue points
Flipped on its side, the display shows detailed waveforms, which helps with inserting your start point and cue points (up to 5 per track) nice and accurately.
Creating loops is very easy. You tap on the beat number button you require, and this activates the loop, which plays according to the number of beats displayed on the selected button. You tap again to deactivate.
Following the same process as above, hot looping (notice that the red light under “HOT” is lit in the image to the left; you just tap it to enable / disable) allows you create more natural (musically accurate) loops. These are based on where you start the loop points, not where the software calculates the loop points to be.
Set lists and transferring tunes
Creating a set list involves uploading BPMed songs to your chosen device for you to select and play from (you can BPM them using the supplied app or any BPM app that can write the correct value to your MP3s).
Flipped on its side, the display adjusts to give you much more accurate access to your eaveforms.
Although this uses up hard drive space on the device, it at least means you can have as many songs as your device will hold at your disposal. It can be quite a time-consuming process, and unfortunately (as far as I am aware) when you upload a new set list, it removes the current set list stored on your device.
Transferring tracks to your device is done over a WiFi connection with your computer. It is a bit tricky to set up, but once it’s done, uploading is pretty straightforward. This procedure should not put anyone off. It is a process that I’m sure will become much improved as they revise the software over time, especially as iOS 4.2 now lets applications access tunes in the iTune library directly, something not possible when this app was originally released.
Headphone monitoring
The easiest way to facilitate separate headphone cueing is to purchase a 3.5mm male stereo to 2 x female mono splitter (to mono, meaning only playing through one side or channel not both which is stereo, very important to remember this when you ask for it in the store).
This will split the output signal, and send it out through the 2 separate mono outputs. You also need to buy 2 x 3.5mm mono to stereo adapters. Put one of each into the 2 mono sockets. These will turn the mono signal back into “stereo” (audio on both sides).
You'll need an audio splitter cable for headphone monitoring, which you can buy or make yourself.
Because the stereo output is split, and then separated into 2 mono outputs, and then returned back to stereo (with the adapters), that is what allows you to have pseudo-stereo output in your headphones, as well as pseudo-stereo output into your master output (home hi-fi or club mixer, for instance).
The sound is in mono, but most club sound systems are mono anyway, so will make no difference at all as long as you can boost the signal nice and loud on the club mixer. Alternatively, you could just buy such a lead – here’s a DJ splitter lead on ebay.
Or, you could use WiFi to stream your DJing back to your laptop via a companion app that will allow you to plug master speakers into your laptop’s sound card (and record your set at the same time). Doing it this way means you don’t even need a splitter cable, but obviously you do need a laptop.
We didn’t test this function in real life but it looks kind of cool, if a little over the top. (Why use your iPod to DJ when you have a laptop in the room?)
Using it in a club
I was so inspired by this app that I had to road test it on my iPod Touch live in a club. I’m happy to report that it totally blew all my fellow DJs’ minds by how good it is.
It is quite clearly possible to play a competent DJ set from an iPod Touch, in a club, at a professional level
Everything worked fine, and we just couldn’t get over the fact that, with technology nowadays, it is quite clearly possible to play a competent DJ set from an iPod Touch, in a club, at a professional level.
Of course it took a bit of getting used to, but with a little practice using it (necessary for both the experienced and inexperienced DJ) it should be rare that many mistakes are made.
Conclusion
Does a crossfader curve have much use on an iPhone app? Discuss...
To conclude, for any DJ, professional or otherwise, who wants practice putting mixes together while away from their usual DJ set-up, or just be able to do a random set anywhere, this really is a very capable, portable solution – more portable is indeed hard to imagine. Grab a splitter cable and get past the set-up issues and you’re onto a winner.
• Cue Play DJ costs US$9.99 / £6.99 from the iTunes app store. More information from Capsulated Software.
Would you ever consider playing a DJ set in a club from your iPod Touch or iPhone? Have you seen DJs using such devices in clubs? Or do you think it’s a step too far? Let us know in the comments…
Now go to:
iPad djay: Touchscreen DJing for Everyone
Virtual DJ Launches iRemote For iPhone, iPod And iPad
MixVibes Unveils New U-Mix DJ Solution for Laptop and iPad
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Tags: cue play dj, ios, ios 4.2, ipad, iphone, ipod, ipod touch
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Sorry, not trying to troll but I don’t get it. I would rule this out based on the poor mechanical properties of the headphone jack on a portable media player alone. The list of shortcomings is basically endless: gesture detection on the multi-touch display of the iPod touch is subject to significant latency; mono-only output; no tactile feedback at all; bad haptics as it’s waaay too small; small storage capacity; etc.
[ link ]You’re going to love our Friday article
[ link ]No Comment! LMFAO!
[ link ]Dang. That’s the first thing to make me want an i-product.
[ link ]Looks like something I’d enjoy to mess around with if I had an iPad… I dunno how much I’d use it in a club but I’d definitly try it out at a house party or something… Just imagine what this kinda groundwork will lay out for touch screen products in the future..
[ link ]I think a healthy mix of tactile and touch will be a great things in the future but just a touch screen doesn’t make me tingle at all. At least for DJing.
[ link ]Wow, Corston’s selection is *terrible*.
[ link ]makes me won’a get an ipad aswell,,,looks really cool,,,
i wonder when native instruments will wake up and make an app that connects an ipad/ipod to a laptop with traktor pro or rather a touchscreen version of traktor pro…
they are loosing in this new touchscreen race…
am very happy to finally see more top dj’s getting involved with the evolution the dj world is going through,,,basically finally saying good bye to the good old vinyl world aswell…
the problem still lies ahead is the fact that touch screen EQ mixing is not as good as using real round ‘knobs’ ,,,but new inventions are popping up every day ..
thanks for this interesting article,,
[ link ]Seems like a no-brainer for any DJ to have in the pocket ready to go, to me, and the appropriate cabling in the DJ bag. I mean, figure the laptop fries mid-set and there you are, well and truly screwed – but no! You have your iPod with this ready to go and can save the day. Doesn’t even cost any significant money.
The only problem I can see is that it sort of “falsely trivializes” the DJ’s skills; even though the skill isn’t in the hardware and the hardware doesn’t give you any skills, the temptation is to look at this and go “so why are we paying a dj anyway?”, I suspect.
[ link ]This actually looks like a good approximation of a basic traktor, and easy to use, no real standout development of the concept of djing though, Im sure it will sell tons but I totally agree with frost, the more people use this professionally in public the less people will understand or value care what dj’s do using more advanced stuff…
still as a gimmick it looks great
[ link ]Well, more advanced stuff is better. In some ways, this is more advanced stuff.
But a bad DJ with advanced stuff is still a bad DJ. I guess DJ’s have to try to educate people as to just that, that hardware alone doesn’t make anyone a DJ.
[ link ]I totally agree with Frost..
I will say this now, and I will continue to say this forever..
A ‘GOOD’ DJ does not need ‘GOOD’ equipment to play a ‘GOOD’ set. The crowd do not know (or care) what equipment a DJ is using.
There tends to be a lot of talk about equipment features, rather than how the features actually improve the DJ’s ability to entertain his/her audience.
I love this blog, and the fact that it allows DJ’s to talk ‘tech’, but I personally love nothing more than the challenge of sending a crowd into a frenzy (based on song choice alone) using whatever equipment I have at my disposal.
“Play that good music”..Job Done!
[ link ]DJ = SONG SELECTION not equipment .
Second, this is the ONLY app on iphone or ipad that actually works with out crashing. Djay sucks balls and probably the worst dj app ever considering it crashes constantly and is 100 percent unreliable for any dj. Cue play dj is amazing, i use it to dj bar/bat mitzvahs, school dances and corp. events. From one dj to another, its the only one so far that is reliable and WORKS GREAT. Just waiting for an update so that i dont have to go through 4000 songs on a list, but instead just search for my songs
[ link ]i think this is the best thing since mp3 playing phones staggering for £6. bpm and sync dont work as well as it could but im d&b breaks etc. this would test the capabilities i think so all things considered a really impressive toy. best thing i can think is to go to a club using the party mono mode to mix a set out of the car sound system using headphones . a sort of pre party mix. and is just as capable as a stand in for cdjs or midi controller. cool enough !!!
[ link ]I have been in the DJ seen for over 20 years. I bought my first 1200′s some 20 years ago. I know firsthand how the dj culture has progressed. Back in 2002 vinyl was on the way out but many djs did not want to accept this including myself. The Internet wasn’t a good source to get music just yet and real djs had to go shop for records at record stores. Serrato was the turning point for me allowing me to move onto digital music while still preserving the feel of turntables. This change helped me realize that one must progress and push the envelope forward.
[ link ]I now use this app for djing whenever I feel like it without having to fire up all my equipment. Best of all, I can bust out a mix in the car, beach, plane or a party. I can also record a mix while chilling in my back yard or at the beach! I have spun out mixes at BBQ’s, pool parties and many other gatherings where a full dj system would be overkill.
I agree with previous posts that the equipment does not make the dj. You still need to know your music and know what songs go harmonically with each other. I still have my 1200′s but now if I play at a club it’s all CDJ and sometimes Serrato. Soon we will se big 36″ screens with multiple touch gestures being rocked by big name djs(check it out on you tube).
So, to sum it up, this is a welcome app that is the most advanced as of yet. The only drawback is not supporting the iPad view.