ios | Digital DJ Tips

April 29th, 2013 Reviews

Review: Ninja Jamm App For iPhone

by DJ Hombre

Coldcut’s iPhone remix app has finally arrived and offers the chance to remix your Ninja Tune favourites wherever you like…

Ninja Tune, the legendary label formed in London 1990 by sampler pioneers Coldcut and home to The Cinematic Orchestra, Bonobo, Roots Manuva, The Heavy, Wiley, Coldcut, Amon Tobin, Toddla T, Fink and many more, has released Ninja Jamm – an iOS remix, re-arrange, and re-mangle app.

How the app came to market is a story in itself (indeed, Matt Earp who was heavily involved in the development process, has written about it on CreateDigitalMusic) – but now it’s finally here, how does Ninja Jamm compare to other artist-based remix apps? Let’s find out…

2 Comments »

April 24th, 2013 News & Opinion

Kickstarter: Toaster, An IOS DJ Splitter With A Difference

by Phil Morse

The Toaster (that blue thing) is a Mic-enabled binaural mono splitter, aimed at iOS DJs who want independent headphones and master outputs and a microphone input… all through one socket.

Kickstarter is a site where people pitch product ideas and get other folk to pledge financial backing to help make them a reality – and let me tell you there’s some weird and wonderful stuff on there! (Actually, QuNeo is one of the big success stories in our industry that came through Kickstarter.)

Today something with lower ambitions than QuNeo: The Toaster. It’s a small adaptor for iOS devices that provides mono splitter functionality so you can use compatible DJ software (ie Algoriddim’s djay) to “hack” full headphone cueing as well as a master out, by converting a single stereo output into two independent binaural mono outputs. Nothing new there (there are lots of splitter cables out there) – but this one has a difference.

15 Comments »

April 19th, 2013 Reviews

Review & Video: DJ Player v6 for iPad & iPhone

by DJ Hombre

DJPlayer happily working in a Numark iDJ Pro, portrait mode being a new feature of v6.

In our last article about DJ Player (v5.8) I jokingly said that keeping up to date with versions of the app was becoming a full-time job – little did I know that only a week after that article I’d receive a beta version of the app, something which goes some way to proving this!

In case you didn’t know already, DJ Player is a universal DJ app for iOS and has been around for over four years, gradually building an established mass of DJs who use the app on a regular basis. It eschews the regular “DJ app” convention by moving far away from physical world replication (it doesn’t show spinning vinyl or jogwheels on screen). In fact, only as recent as update 5.8 did a small scrolling waveform window appear. iMect definitely does things its own way.

12 Comments »

April 11th, 2013 News & Opinion

Free Video Training For Traktor DJ

by Phil Morse

Learn to use the FX, filters, loops, library and more on Traktor DJ by following this series of free training videos from Native Instruments.

Native Instruments has uploaded a whole playlist of Traktor DJ training videos to its YouTube channel, to help new users of the iPad DJ app get to grips with their software.

The videos start at the very basics and work through all the main features, from loops and FX to library and the slicer-like “Freeze” mode. They’re clearly presented, talking slowly through each feature and showing you a demo of each function as well.

1 Comment »

April 9th, 2013 News & Opinion

djay & vjay Get Multitude Of Improvements On iOS, Audiobus arrives…

by DJ Hombre

Audiobus offers a lot of scope for creative routing of audio within your iOS device, not to mention the possibility of uploading your mix to external services.

Algoriddim just updated its djay and vjay apps with a whole host of improvements and fixes, hot on the heels of the last flurry of changes.

Audiobus for djay is the big news, but it’s only one of many improvements. Oh, and if you’re a djay user and are always pushed for storage space on your iOS device, you’ll definitely want to read to the end for some more news…

10 Comments »

April 5th, 2013 News & Opinion

The 128GB iPad Is Here… Now Who Says iOS Isn’t For DJs?

by Phil Morse

Three years ago, Rana Sobhany first ‘outed’ iPad DJing, touring her simple two-iPads-and-a-mixer set-up. How far we’ve come since…

Of course we’ve been heavily covering iOS as a DJ platform from the off, and have had a dedicated iOS editor, DJ Hombre, for over a year now. We’ve always been sure iOS is going to be a dominant platform for DJing. (Actually, to put it more accurately, we think laptops were always an imperfect solution, so anything with another angle on it all needs to be taken seriously.) And with big names like Traktor finally jumping on board, this could be the year it goes mainstream.

Two of the big issues with iOS were that there weren’t two stereo outputs (so headphones monitoring in stereo was impossible while pushing a stereo signal to front of house), and that the devices were limited in storage capacity. iOS 6 solved the first issue, and the recently-announced 128GB iPad solves the second.

39 Comments »

March 28th, 2013 Reviews

MixVibes Says CrossDJ for iPad Has Best iOS Keylock: We Find Out

by DJ Hombre

CrossDJ for iPad now has keylock, and the makers are claiming it’s the best in the business. We decided to find out…

When we first reviewed CrossDJ for iPad by MixVibes in May last year, one of the biggest criticisms from your comments was the lack of keylock functionality. Maybe not surprising, as a few other DJ apps already had keylock on iOS in one guise or another, so expectations had been set high.

Well, the good news is that version 1.1.0 of CrossDJ for iPad now has the all-important keylock feature. Now, we could have just reported that and moved on. But the official wording from MixVibes makes a grand claim, that we thought we couldn’t just leave it at that…

10 Comments »

February 26th, 2013 Reviews

DJ Player 5.8 For iPad Brings Streaming Music

by DJ Hombre

With 20 million tunes available, adding Deezer to DJ Player gives the iOS DJ a world of music for instant access… as long as they’re online.

With streaming music services revolutionising the way people access music, it was only a matter of time before someone got a streaming music service right there inside an iOS DJ app.

This is exactly what iMect, the maker of DJ Player for iPad, has done in the imminent new 5.8 version of that app. By plugging music streaming service Deezer in to DJ Player, the company has neatly offered iPad DJs immediate access to many millions of tunes.

23 Comments »

February 21st, 2013 Reviews

Traktor DJ For iPad Review & Video Talkthrough

by DJ Hombre

With Traktor DJ, Native Instruments has finally brought to market its vision of how DJing should be done on tablets.

Traktor has long been a firm favourite with digital DJs, including with about three-quarters of Digital DJ Tips readers. The desktop software offers a wealth of functionality and pushes the boundaries with things like its extensive effects and Remix Decks. Now, Traktor DJ has joined its bigger brother, bringing the world of Traktor to the iPad.

So what does the newest DJ app for the iPad (iPad 2 and upwards with iOS6, to be precise) look like, and what does it do differently from other iPad DJ apps in order to stand out from the crowd? Let’s find out in our full Traktor DJ For iPad review and video talkthrough…

54 Comments »

February 19th, 2013 News & Opinion

News Roundup For iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch DJs

by DJ Hombre

Video mixing on the iDJ Pro with vjay app: One of a number of exciting new developments in the iOS DJ space in the past couple of months.

A number of exciting updates for iOS DJs hit the App Store over the Christmas and January period, and due to the tsunami of coverage from the NAMM Show that always happens at this time of year, there hasn’t been editorial space to cover them all.

So for our growing band of readers who use an iOS device for either their only DJ system or as a second DJ system, here’s a round-up of the most significant news from the past couple of months:

33 Comments »

February 13th, 2013 Reviews

Review: Mixed In Key iMashup v2.0 for iOS

by DJ Hombre

Making great mashups on your iOS device with iMashup is now even easier with the ability to copy segments – a new feature in v2.0.

In November last year, Mixed in Key launched iMashup for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, which we instantly loved. The app has actually been updated a couple of times since our first review, providing not only a series of bug fixes but new features including colour-coded envelope types, a filter on the library screen and an in-depth tutorial.

These were all nice additions (in particular the library filter) but didn’t address the most requested features of looping and copy/paste. That’s all changed in v2.0. Read on for more on these, and another killer new addition to the software’s spec…

4 Comments »

February 8th, 2013 Reviews

Review: RekordKrate for iPad

by DJ Hombre

RekordKrate a new iOS app to assist with choosing that next track in the mix.

It’s a long time since DJs moved away from well-thumbed records boxes as their music library system. Nowadays, laptop and iOS DJs, of course, tend to select their tunes through lists, virtual crates, smart crates and so on. But for pro and semi-pro DJs playing from USBs plugged in to CDJs in dark clubs, all they had to replace their lovingly packed record boxes were small LCD displays on CDJ players.

The new RekordKrate app aims to put some of the big-screen library navigating power enjoyed by laptop DJs into the hands of USB (and CD) DJs, by allowing them to use their iPads (and soon iPhones and Android devices) to browse their music libraries easily. Crucially, it also allows them to quickly choose a next song based on harmonic key and BPM.

13 Comments »

February 6th, 2013 Reviews

MixVibes CrossDJ for iPhone Review

by DJ Hombre

Mixvibes CrossDJ arrives for smaller iOS devices such as the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Can it replicate the success of the iPad version?

MixVibes has recently released an iPhone version of its excellent Cross DJ software.

DJing on smaller iOS devices has its challenges, mainly that the smaller screen means apps can tend to feel cramped and busy. However, we loved the sleek interface and functionality of the iPad version, so were interested to see how the experience translated to the iPhone version.

10 Comments »

January 16th, 2013 Software

Spreaker DJ For iPad Review

by DJ Hombre

Spreaker is a new broadcast app for DJs that allows them to construct complete radio shows from little more than just an iPad.

Have you ever considered doing online radio broadcasting? In this age where DJs need to try harder and harder to stand out from the crowd, one way to differentiate yourself in order to get more gigs could be to run a regular radio show. Not a live mix, but a “proper” show, with chat, music and so on – like an EDM round-up for your town, for instance.

Of course, this being 2013, there’s no need to have access o radio studio any more for any of this. Spreaker DJ for iPad lets you put together and broadcast your own radio show, live, using little more than the iPad and a microphone. Let’s take a closer look…

4 Comments »

December 19th, 2012 Reviews

Philips Party Machine Review & Video

by DJ Hombre

The Philips Party Machine is a loud, brash but fun speaker unit that’s aimed at the party crowd rather than serious DJs.

Have you ever been invited to a house party only to turn up and find the host has supplied drinks and food, but simply docked their iPhone into the hi-fi? Guests are submitted to a random selection from the host’s music library. At best, you may be at a party where they’ve done a little homework and prepared a playlist, but the result is more often than not an instant mood killer.

Philips thinks it has the solution to this kind of issue with its Party Machine. I got the chance to take a closer look and have a play earlier in the month. Here’s my Philips Party Machine review along with an exclusive talkthrough video.

23 Comments »

November 29th, 2012 Reviews

Review & Video: Vestax V-Midi Interface For iOS DJs

by DJ Hombre

The Vestax V-Midi is a small audio/Midi interface for use with iOS devices.

Vestax V-Midi review: When Apple produced the Camera Connection Kit (CCK) to patch the hole left by lack of USB support with the iPad, digital DJs, musicians and software companies jumped on it as a means to transport CoreMIDI data to/from the iPad for hooking up external gear such as DJ controllers and keyboards.

Unfortunately, the same loophole wasn’t available for iPod Touch and iPhone users, and as such they were left out of the Midi connectivity scene. But now the Vestax V-Midi has come along to change all that…

16 Comments »

November 23rd, 2012 News & Opinion

DJ Player 5.5: DVS Arrives For iPad By Christmas

by Phil Morse

DJ Player 5.5 brings vinyl control to iOS software DJs, and is due to drop before Christmas 2012.

Rapidly becoming the iOS power user’s DJ software of choice, DJ Player is about to cement that position with the imminent release of v5.5, which brings digital vinyl control to users of the software on iPad, iPad Mini, iPod Touch and iPhone.

DJ Player 5.5 can be used with any timecode vinyl/CDs, and you can even have one turntable controlling both of DJ Player’s software decks simultaneously.

54 Comments »

November 16th, 2012 Reviews

Review & Video: vjay For iPhone & iPod touch

by DJ Hombre

Taking full advantage of the iPhone 5′s new longer retina display, vjay for iPhone is a full VJ package in your pocket…

vjay for iPhone & iPod touch review: Back in June this year, vjay for iPad grabbed our attention with its clever pairing of a djay-style interface with powerful video mixing on an iPad.

Pretty impressively, with vjay for iPhone & iPod touch, maker Algoriddim has now managed to streamline the vjay app interface to work on a much smaller screen, taking advantage of the technical advances of the more recent such devices. We already know that vjay is great fun on an iPad, but how does it fare on a smaller screen? Let’s find out!

6 Comments »

Digital DJ Tips1>

Learn How To DJ With Digital DJ Gear

Review: Ninja Jamm App For iPhone

by DJ Hombre

Kickstarter: Toaster, An IOS DJ Splitter With A Difference

by Phil Morse

Review & Video: DJ Player v6 for iPad & iPhone

by DJ Hombre

Free Video Training For Traktor DJ

by Phil Morse

djay & vjay Get Multitude Of Improvements On iOS, Audiobus arrives…

by DJ Hombre

The 128GB iPad Is Here… Now Who Says iOS Isn’t For DJs?

by Phil Morse

MixVibes Says CrossDJ for iPad Has Best iOS Keylock: We Find Out

by DJ Hombre

DJ Player 5.8 For iPad Brings Streaming Music

by DJ Hombre

Traktor DJ For iPad Review & Video Talkthrough

by DJ Hombre

News Roundup For iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch DJs

by DJ Hombre

Review: Mixed In Key iMashup v2.0 for iOS

by DJ Hombre

Review: RekordKrate for iPad

by DJ Hombre

MixVibes CrossDJ for iPhone Review

by DJ Hombre

Spreaker DJ For iPad Review

by DJ Hombre

Philips Party Machine Review & Video

by DJ Hombre

Review & Video: Vestax V-Midi Interface For iOS DJs

by DJ Hombre

DJ Player 5.5: DVS Arrives For iPad By Christmas

by Phil Morse

Review & Video: vjay For iPhone & iPod touch

by DJ Hombre

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