So the iOS 26 announcement passed and one thing piqued my interest from a ‘listening in the car’ perspective was the auto mix on a playlist.
Now I’d seen the announcement but not heard any demos. Well someone posted one on Insta and it works as expected… kinda cool. I know it will all depend on whether or not it can decipher the “1” on the beat count or the style etc but Sereto Pyro and Splyce did a half decent job and that was ten years ago. Let’s see if they have refined it to an even higher standard.
Automix is a great feature to use at the start of the evening when people are arriving and also during the buffet so the DJ can get a break and walk away from the gear. Of course I’m not advocating people use it 24/7 but in my standard function set using VDJ it has it’s place and is a much loved feature that when programmed properly works flawlessly.
The fact it’s not yet in Engine is another reason I don’t use the Prime Go+ for 95% of my work.
You seem to have such a negativity about people asking for new features and this has been highlighted by other forum members too.
Why dont you try asking me the reasons why i think the nails are being hammered into the coffin, engage in discussion about it, instead of taking petty swipes at my employment situation (which you are also free to ask about), then throwing a tantrum when i bite back.
I’ve been called out for not modding enough, but calling this an “extremely hostile environment” seems to get lost in translation for me. You both can choose to ignore each other, like you would in real life.
About this topic: you are both right; in a way.
I think us DJ’s just don’t like silence. Most of the audience don’t seem to care, but we do. If you’ve done radio, it’s even more hardcoded in your DJ DNA. For me at least…
I’ve bought dj.studio for some occasional medley work, but as this program evolves and would get realtime on DJ hardware, our work/hobby is kinda done.
TBH I’m with Stu here, and I’ll explain why. I’m a DJ. I get booked by people to play at their events, whether that’s a wedding, club, bar, birthday party, new year, xmas - whatever.
They’re booking ME to play the music. If they just wanted a playlist, they could use their phones, tablet etc. but they purposely booked me to do it, which IMO says they want a human, and the interaction that brings.
My policy is, based on the above, when I’m playing an event, it’s me doing it - live at all times. It doesn’t matter if they’re arriving, chatting, eating, dancing etc. I’m not going to put a playlist on at any point, because they hired me to play the music.
@Reese Traditionally we would pre-make a DJ mix to play in the background at a bar if say the first 30 minutes was setting gear up, or just quiet etc (obviously the bar manager needs to be ok with you doing this in the first place)… with this Automix, its going to remove the need for that, but then its also removing some of the need for a DJ, which is kind of why i see this as a path to the inevitable, “well we didnt need the DJ for the first 2hrs of our event, so why bother paying one for the rest, especially as that computer over there can do the same job nowadays”.
@PKtheDJ exactly my thoughts, if someone is paying for their expensive 25 grand wedding, or 3 grand Birthday party etc, some of which has gone to paying for entertainment in the form of a DJ, its not great optics if the person you’re paying a substantial amount of money for looks to be stood around, or offline etc. The customer is going to have the attitude of “What have we paid for”.
Its hard work DJing all day at a wedding or other event, and there is only small opportunity for a break, but then that is why the pay is good, and should compensate the DJ for what other people go to work all week for.
What i can see as an overall picture forming is the following, especially now the biggest of the big boys (Apple) are starting to explore this tech.
Sync: We no longer need to align the beats to ‘mix’ music.
Dynamic Beat Grids: we no longer need to prepare our music prior to using it.
Auto phrase markers: the software marks the phrases of the music.
Auto tagging cue points: we no longer need to know our music as the software has pegged it all out with breakdowns, mix in, mix out, chorus etc.
Smart crossfader: we no longer need to EQ a mix, or slide the fader as the software can do it.
Auto Gain: the software can now set the music volume automatically
Smart playlists: auto generation of playlists based on smart functionality
Auto FX: another thing ive seen requested that FX are applied the same way lighting FX are, where the time signature and levels are all done without human intervention for transitions.
Streaming services: This is the important bit, billions of people across the planet are now providing huge amounts of data for this services to mine. this means that the data is now there to choose the music without the need for a human being. Demographics, Postcodes, City, trends, charts etc can all be tapped into so a venue manager can simply key in some basic info about their venue and event and the computer can pick music based on that. An app can handle requests, filtering out the obvious ones that wont work.
The final piece of the puzzle is some kind of facial recognition camera (think ring doorbell that looks at the dancefloor), AI can monitor the crowd reaction and then provide further data on what works and what doesnt, then change the music up as needed.
Im not trying to scaremonger here, but the majority of that stuff bar the last 2 is all things that DJs on forums have been demanding/requesting… when you combine it all together you have to ask, what the hell is the human being (DJ) actually going to have left to do, especially when the computer that can do all that is a one off payment with some modest subscription plan for the streaming services to support it.
You also have to ask, what does a venue gain from not having to deal with DJs and the equipment required to DJ with.
Im not against tech, or advancements (as some people like to claim on here), im just looking outside the bubble and seeing where all this stuff is leading, and the frightening trend with young people starting out DJing who want to bypass every single bit of the learning process we all went through to obtain the skills.
Luckily this iOS automix seems to use FX and beat info guesstimates to blur the lines of a transition. I’ve only heard that one mix so it could be one of the better ones or a sub-standard attempt.
Back in 2005-2007 I worked in a strip club at weekends and they had Mixmeister as their main driver. It would run throughout the week each night and when I came on I just did my thing handing back over to the playlist when I finished. That was 20 years ago.
DJ Studio also has a very similar feel to it so I think anyone wanting the tools for automix, it’s pretty much already there for anyone and has been for years. I don’t think that adding it to Engine DJ or would make much of a difference seeing as Denon DJ has a small market share. VDJ will have more and it’s in that.
I personally won’t use any automix in a bar or club myself but for the install market I would deem acceptable for the daytime running of background music at low volume until a DJ turned up in the evening. Many places like sports bars are open throughout the day with no DJ. Also events that need hosting where the DJ is more of a compare like holiday entertainer. I worked for Butlin’s where the entertainment team would need seamless background music for an outdoor event but not a DJ. Another scenario was on ship the music was put on at 6pm but I started at 9:45pm. Until then it was VDJ automix playing various stuff.
Our gear isn’t just for DJs. It’s for anyone that needs music and that is unlimited with awesome tools like the Prime Go. A battery powered mixer with BT capability means it’s so flexible. This is a tool for gym instructors that do spinning classes, outdoor sports events that need a battery solution, BGM machines in bars, Ice rinks, schools, silent discos (2nd channel) etc. I do see a lot of people online that pigeonhole DJ gear too much and they don’t think outside the realm of the big-standard DJ at a wedding or in a bar.
Anyway, all this tech has already been around for many many years and I have yet to see a bar that has had a DJ removed due to these tools. If Mixmeister could replace me in 2005… I’m still here. A club that wanted to would usually just go for the cheap 19 year old £50 DJs which they were slowly moving to anyway. Anyone wanting automix has had plenty of options for many years now.
This new addition to iOS 26 won’t really add anything we’ve not already seen from other apps on iPhones. It will just add a tighter integration with Apple Music (Pyro used Spotify).
It’s only my opinion as I’m really not worried about automix. Half of the time it sounds naff for big room stuff anyway and even with the best software and 20 years of seeing this technology, it still needs supervising that all allusive first beat!
In the same way that self driving cars won’t kill the art of driving. It’s equally as naff at getting things right and that’s with BILLIONS poured into it haha.
I get what you’re saying, but i think back then all the different puzzle pieces weren’t there like they are today… its the backend data that is driving this stuff now that has me concerned. Plus the actual mixing part of the equation is now advanced with all these smart crossfader and dynamic gridding features that are at the forefront.
there’ll always be a market for people who want to put an event specifically with DJs, but the overall market will shrink to just those events imo, casual bar work and events where the music is quite standardised im convinced will be taken over by AI.
You even forgot one thing: an irritating customer can not mess with the head of an AI DJ, while the same obnoxious customer can easily get on the nerves of a real life DJ, taking him into a downward spiral of negative energy, influencing the quality of a DJ set. I thought I was immune to this effect after my 25 year career, but the last 2 events I played where “very hot weather where no one cares to dance”-events. You are already out of your comfort zone, and it really doesn’t take much for one customer to take you down…. AI is immune to this effect and delivers a more constant quality…
All in all, I have said this before, we are massively requesting features that make DJing easier every year, even every month. It’s a matter of time where the features we requested ourselves will culminate into tools which render us obsolete. Sooner or later the computer does this job better than us…
Honestly Johan, that is pretty much why I quit my gig a couple of months back. I’ve said from day one I have a rubbish day job that I go to just for the money (I work to the best of my abilities but if someone offered me the chance to not have to go there I’d bite their hands off), so I never wanted DJing to turn into that.
This gig I was doing in a tapas bar was exactly as you described, people stood around giving the impression they aren’t really bothered whether you’re there or not, only for the occasional annoying punter to rock up and tell you how terrible the music is, followed by “why can’t you play XYZ” that is almost always some horrific cheese that is completely not what the bar owners asked for…. In the end it was interfering with my own social life, it started to feel like a chore going there and it was just not what I want on my Saturday nights.
Covid has completely changed the landscape too, all those places where people used to let their hair down are now prettt dead, and the only ones where you’re seeing reaction are the social media spots, and then all the big name DJs are complaining about those nights as they aren’t getting the feedback.
An AI DJ machine will just pump music out to the masses who have no interest in hearing anything new (unless some radio DJ or influencer has told them to listen to it), they just want obvious chart music and easy anthems, the bot can provide that without all the baggage as you say, place your request on an App, who are they going to argue with if it doesn’t get an outing?
THIS was Pioneer’s wet dream with CuVo and those boxes they intended to install in club booths.
inMusic beat them to the goal by taking a different route but make no mistake: their plan is just the same and just as
