Phil Morse has published a nice article on Algoriddim’s Djay Pro on Digitial DJ Tips.
This parallels my thoughts. Yes, the beat gridding is impressive and, I hope, sets a new standard. It’s not just having the beats marked, it how two tracks with variable BPM are blended. I thought one or the other might sound distorted, but I don’t hear that with Djay. There are three paths to matching beats while mixing: by ear, grid marks on the beats (DJay, Engine, etc.) and warping to a fixed beat (Albeton Live). Djay doesn’t always get it right when there are dropped beats in measures. The beat is marked but the downbeat is off. E.g., Lorraine Johnson’s, “Feed the Flame” and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, “Tell The World How I Feel About 'Cha Baby (A Dimitri From Paris Disco Re-Edit)” both drop two beats in places. In that case, for me Ableton Live works best as I added those two beats back in to keep the downbeat in the flow (of course, you don’t have to). Once you warp a song in Ableton Live it will easily beat grid on any platform but it is time consuming. You can’t port the beat grids from Djay to Engine DJ, unless Lexicon can do that (?).
Djay Pro really lacks in support for controllers and file management. It doesn’t really support Denon’s controllers, Pioneer DDJ FLX10 or Rane Four. I am suspicious of the Reloop Mixon 8 Pro as there are many for resale.
I bought Djay Pro more for the ability to use it as a backup. It’s great to have the app to use, in a pinch, on the iPhone or maybe I’ll dig out my old Vestax VCI-100 to try with it.
An inMusic / Algoriddim marriage might be a good thing. inMusic has the hardware and Engine DJ is mostly great software. Phil’s suggestion that Apple might take over Djay Pro scares me.
The controller I wanted to use wasn’t natively supported, but it’s easy enough to map - including having button LEDs switch on/off. I’ve now got the controller to a point where I can DJ with it.
Two flaws for me are the inability to create a database from scratch (i.e. point it to a folder and it scans everything below that folder) and inability to edit tags on the Windows version. You can edit tags if you’re using Mac.
I know Paul Dakeyne has being bsuy doing what he calls re-grids on lots of classic tracks for Mastermix, but he’s done the same kind of “fixing” and I’ve heard DJs complain that it’s thrown the track out as those parts are so well known.
The worst example IMO is what he did to Searching by Change.
I have a beefier Lionel Richie - All Night Long and one of the breaks was extended a bit to keep it 4 x 4 .
I always see the groove leave the dance floor when I play that rework/redrum/edit that I have.
They don’t mind the extra beefiness but that extra beat added to the break is the issue. I think what confuses the dance floor is that it’s not a remix as it still as close to the original as possible yet it’s a different structure
But I still play it like that because the energy recovers afterwards.
In France, we have a national dimension radio called Fun Radio which obviously uses DjPro5 for the mixes. I was listening in my car and it was completely crazy and unbelievable to hear Beyoncé crazy in love mixed perfectly with Armin Van Buuren Mr Operator ! This software is insane !
Going by recent comments on the Algoriddim forum, it seems that some DJs are not grasping the concept of the Fluid Beatgrid system.
I guess they’ve only ever used DJ software and are used to seeing a single BPM displayed on each deck. Now they’re seeing the BPM readout change, they’re flipping out and claiming that it’s broken!
