Algoriddim Djay Vestax Spin Review

  

Reviewer

: Gizmo •
  • Oct 05, 2012 We recall spotting Vestax's Spin DJ controller being used with Algoriddim's djay for iPad app at last year's BPM show in Birmingham. In a neat piece of symmetry, we've just got word that Spin 2, which is billed as the first 2-channel DJ controller to natively connect and control Algoriddim djay for Mac, iPad and iPod touch, is being unveiled at.
  • Jul 25, 2013 Vestax, a professional turntable and mixer manufacturer, worked closely with Algoriddim to make the Spin controller. It’s designed specifically for djay and vjay, a sister video mixer app.
Date:

Per maggiori informazioni visitate il sito http://www.digitaljockey.it. From Vestax, Spin2 is an all-in-one DJ controller designed together with Algoriddim, the creators of the popular music mixing app djay for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Spin2 plug and plays with Algoriddim djay, bypassing complicated setups to immediately mix songs from your iTunes library.

October 2009 • Price: $50/€40/£36 • Link:djay

Test System: djay v3 on 2.4Ghz Macbook Pro with 4Gb RAM and OS X 10.6.1

Introduction


Software is now officially part our DJ life, be it simple Flash loopers, DVSs or full on production suites. How and when you use that software is entirely down to your needs and preference, but one thing holds true - people want to DJ on their computer.
This on the whole hasn't been a very DJ like experience, eschewing the popular metaphor and becoming very much like a software interface. Decks are replaced with waveforms and playlists squeezed down into a tiny space. But Algorridim has revisited DJ software and have taken it back to a much more DJ like experience. And embracing the graphical power and multi-touch goodness of the OS X platform, have created djay - software that not only looks like regular djing, but also feels like it too.
Djay has now matured into v3, going beyond its basic but ultra Mac friendly roots into a fully fledged DJ application - but its still standing out from the crowded market with because of the unique approach it takes.

First Impressions


I'm so used to opening up DJ software and seeing something that looks just like Traktor. Waveforms at the top, oodles of controls shoehorned in underneath and the library taking up the bottom space. It's hugely refreshing to see a graphical representation of real decks for a change. The screen is broken up into 3 parts: deck and mixer, extra controls and library, all of which scale and resize beautifully when clicking and dragging. Let's break it down.

The Library


Being entirely Mac based, and almost all Mac users slavishly using iTunes, integration is very tight between djay and iTunes. As most people probably use playlists, that is djay's first port of call, and shows all smartlists, custom playlists as well as iTunes default lists too. But there's also a few handy dropdowns do you can locate albums, artists, genres, composers across all of iTunes too.
Once you start looking through playlists, you get a lot more info about the songs. You get columns for artist, (track) name, BPM, album, genre, year, grouping, time, composer, comments, rating, date added and track number - and you can sort your playlist by clicking the column header as well, as well as define which of these columns you want to see on screen.
It does also seem that you can only read from the library on your Mac rather than seeing all your devices. So no iPods, iPhones or external devices for you in djay I'm afraid.
Upon opening djay, I did worry that the library was incredibly cramped and quite hard to use. But I discovered that the whole window not only completely scales, but also allows you to drag the middle bar on the fly to effectively minimise the decks and give over the main part of the screen to the library. You can also completely hide the libraryIt's a neat touch.
IDEA: How about being able to turn the columns on and off without having to go 2 menus deep? And perhaps artwork too?
But like any other DJ software, much of the successful usage is down to preparation, and djay is no exception. Proper playlisting is one part, but djay also lets you analyse tracks for gain, BPM and to create beat grids for perfect loops, effects integration and and sync mixing. Analysis can be done on the fly, but a better approach is to analyse playlists before use. I did detect some slight weirdness with BPM analysis on some tracks, like some Drum and Bass being half the BPM it should be, and the library listing tracks by BPM in an odd 2-step speed order. Minor issues really, especially as BPM can be manually tapped in anyway.

The Decks


Only real turntables will do here. These are actual spinning platters complete with strobe lights that respond to pitch changes too. You can even add a tape marker or use your own custom vinyl image. It's like custom slipmats but you can actually see them. You also get the option to have ID3 artwork on the label or the whole vinyl too (like a picture disk), as well as having the track time (clickable between elapsed and remaining), artist and track name right above the deck.
The tonearm is moveable as well needle drop style. It's not especially accurate though and is merely a rough approximation - no waveform display to show the highs and lows here. This is very much about replicating the use of real decks, even down to on/off switches and spin up/down speed and a reverse switch too. The attention to detail is high.
IDEA: I know it's stupid and completely unecessary, but how about options on decks and cart brands? A possible sponsorship opportunity to increase Algoriddim revenue?
The decks also have a feature rich pitch set too. Although the slider itself is only 1' long on screen, the resolution is still 0.01% and has switchable ranges of 8, 16, 25, 50 and 75%. But the gem here is key locking, which is keeping the key of the song the same while adjusting the speed (brilliant tool for pitching bending without the awful up and down warbling). You can adjust the quality of the end result depending on the power of your processor as well.
IDEA: Pitch range selector on screen would be a great help, as well as the ability to accurately set the speed numerically.
Having used many hardware and software equivalents, djay's keylocking is phenomenal. Speeding up usually gets good results on all systems, as you're removing audio to shorten the audio, but slowing down beyond 20% is normally the very maximum that software can handle as it has to create what isn't there. Not so with djay - even at -50%, the quality is amazing. Both geeky thumbs up from me for this.

The Mixer


Replicating a mixer to scale would see the controls being too tiny to use so the controls properly so they've been made big enough to see and use on screen. It's an unusual layout, more akin to a regular mobile dual head player, but everything is laid out logically. The cross fader sits in the middle and has a 3 way curve control between fully linear (i.e. centre dip) all the way to instant cut. Either side of the fader are the channel fader (fully linear) with meters and a tiny pan control below them.


3 band EQ with +/- 12dB EQ rests either side of those. The EQs don't quite kill, but when you're talking about laptop DJing with such affordable software, we're not talking about the finer points of EQing here.
IDEA: Given that fader EQs aren't that common, how about an option to switch to rotary EQ on screen?
There doesn't however seem to be a master level inside djay itself. I guess that can be handled by the system volume. But better still is to use an audio interface so you can properly monitor your music and output to a sound system too. Thankfully, djay recognises all such interfaces and allows you to configure channels to suit. Nice.

Looping Panel


Each deck has a single loop feature. Assuming that the BPM has been analysed correctly, pressing the measure button automatically creates an instant loop to the length of the measure on the button. this can be expanded up to 32 beats or down to 1/8 beats. And if you haven't analysed your BPM, you can also manually create loops with the in and out buttons. But I do strongly advise analysis as this feature works a lot better if you do.
This is a really useful and impressive feature that works perfectly if the track analysis has done its job right, and is great for messing around with doubles.
IDEA: Can we please have down to 1/32 beats please.

Cue Point Panel


Equating to the turntablist art of stickering is the cue points panel. You get 3 per deck that can be saved for future use as well. You set each one in the panel, and they appear as a coloured dot on the vinyl which is a really nice touch. Jumping to the cue points can be done on screen, or like just about everything else inside djay, via the keyboard. You can also add start and end poits too, which can get djay to automatically start from when loading a track or automixing.
In practice, I found hitting cues perfectly whie playing a little hard - just the slightest of delay so that hard drum beats lost the first milliseconds. If you work manually and move the wheel to the right point, it works solidly. Again, this underlines the importance of preparation.
IDEA: Perhaps some control can be added that adjusts the manual tapping of the cue point to be +/- a few milliseconds, or maybe locks to the analysed beat grid.

Transition Panel


For most people, moving the on-screen faders is how you'll move from track to track. But if you decide to shake things up a little, you can have a little more than regular fades and can pick from a list including backspin, echo, brake and reverse. And you can have djay apply the transitions at random too, and up to a length of 15 seconds on 0.5 second increments.

FX Panel


Standard in DJ software these days are effects, and djay gives you 3 per deck:
Pitch: This keeps the speed the same but shifts the pitch in one note increments.
Echo: Based on the BPM, this can apply echo from 1/64 beats to 4 beat measures.
Reverb: Club, hall, arena and room settings.
What's great here is that you can apply them all at once, and each has a full wet/dry control too.
But being Apple, you also get the wide and wonderful world of Apple Audio Unit effects too - and these are something to be reckoned with. I'm not going into details as it's really quite geeky, but I show you the detail of one particular audio unit, you'll get the idea:

Indeed - they're very powerful. And you can apply them per deck and on top of the djay internal effects too. They are however pre-fader effects.

Microphone


Appealing to the more mobile nature of djay, you also get a microphone input too. You get the same level of control over it as you do other channels, but it is a separate channel and can't be routed through the crossfader. It can act as a third deck if you so choose as you can define the mic input to any audio interface you choose.

Sampler


This review keeps throwing up surprises the deeper I dig. I wasn't even aware that djay has a sampler. And I mean sampler, not just a sample player. You can grab a sample from the decks or microphone or load some in from your own collection (I hear airhorn is quite popular…). But it's not just a matter of a simple drop, you can also loop the samples, reverse them, change speed and volume too. And they play over whatever you happen to be playing too.
With just a little more polish, this could be a very serious tool in djay's arsenal.

Vestax Spin Dj Usb Controller

History


Isn't it annoying when you've rocked a really good set but have no idea what you rocked? Well djay saves a history for you. It's nothing more than a list of played tracks in the correct order with the elapsed time, but you can export it as a PDF, or better still as an iTunes playlist.

Recording

You could always record directly out of the audio interface, but djay allows you to record internally as well. The recording is done on the master output and can be saved in 3 qualities: good (.m4a 1Mb/min), high (.aif 2.7Mb/min) and best (.aif 10Mb/min). Not much more to be said about it really other than the recordings sound great and don't glitch either.
I may as well add a note about performance here. On my 4Gb 2.4ghz Macbook Pro, djay barely made a dent on the performance. In normal performance, the processor hit around 4%. But even when hammering djay, with internal effects, audio units, samples and recording, djay barely hit 16%.

Hands-on

Having used Traktor-like programs for a long time now, going back to a more hands on DJ-like experience on screen is an adjustment to say the least. Djay offers full keyboard control over most features, but also makes a big deal about multi-touch gestures i.e. single and multiple fingers on suitably equipped trackpads. Using 2 or 3 fingers while hovering over controls does different things. Over the platters for example, 2 fingers makes it scratch whereas 3 fingers does spinbacks. It's a highly imprecise method of control, but with practice, you may well get better at it.
There is however a new scratch feature in djay called auto-cut. It's not unlike Vestax's Samurai fader technology or a gate effectthat esssentially cuts the sound on and off while you move the platter back and forth while holding down shift. Yeah I know it won't make you into Qbert, but it's a nice effect. I think I'd like to see it incorporated as an effect as well.
IDEA: How about an iPhone app for control?


If using your laptop exclusively doesn't appeal, djay now accepts MIDI learn so that you can assign control over to your favourite MIDI hardware. I tried this with a Vestax VCI-300 and Denon DN-S1200, and got great results - except for the jogwheels. This is an area the algoriddim will have to do some extra work to ensure full compatibility, but now you can at lest grab any old MIDI controller and remove the reliance on mouse and keyboard actions.
Generally speaking though, djay feels much more like conventional vinyl DJing that computer spinning. Having a very graphical representation of decks and a mixer, along with features like instant doubles for quick mixing makes this much more engaging that just hitting keys.

Automix


Having laid out that djay offers you a heap of tools to keep a crowd happy, and that you can hook up a couple of very capable Vestax controllers, you can also completely switch off and have djay acts as little more than an automatic jukebox. Automix simply trawls through your predefined collection and transitions from track to track using the presets in the transition panel. This can be from a playlist or totally at random.
But should you want to deviate away from your preset list, there's also the automix queue for you to simply drop tracks (like a request) and going back to the playlist.
Automix doesn't mean beat matching, but simply means unattended DJing for the lazy or simply weak of bladder. But with careful planning, you can put together quick a slick automix, especially if using sync with predefined start points. I know it's not like having Fat Boy Slim in your living room, but for a relatively unattended play, it's quite good.

Broadcasting


Now before you get too excited, this isn't a Shoutcast style internet broadcasting thing, but is in fact via Apple's Bonjour networking. As the above box says, you can send or receive mixes across your Bonjour LAN from inside djay. In all honesty, it's nice to djay uses all that Apple has to offer, but I'm not really seeing the usefulness of such a feature, other than broadcasting to your workmates.
That said, djay does integrate with Rogue Amoeba's Nicecast - a fully featured broadcast suite. You could create your own radio station simply by making a suitable playlist in djay, set it to automix and send it to the world via Nicecast. More info here.

Summing Up

Clearly djay is a breath of fresh air and an antidote to the me too traktorlikes out there. And even though the end result of djay use is much the same, the process is entirely different and much more like a traditional DJ does. This should enable people to perhaps appreciate the DJ's skill a little more rather than just pressing the sync button. I found it especially cool for putting together Hip Hop mixes with Beat Junkie style doubles rocking - all ultra clean and precise.

Djay has a solid feature set that goes beyond the $50 price tag, but might just take a little bit of getting used to. But it does work, and work well. If you want a good starting place for a very mac-centric DJ experience, there's none better than djay.

Ratings

Sound Quality
Like anything digital, it depends on the source more than anything. But even on a standard MP3 with internal and Apple unit effects applied, djay gave a solid reproduction.
Features & Implementation
Being very Mac based makes this graphically rich from the start. And the experience is closer to tradtional DJing than laptop spinning.
Value For Money
For $50, there's not much to touch it. The effects, looping and keylocking in particular are really good.
I Like...
• The interface
• Looping
• Effects
• MIDI learn
• The price
But not so keen on...
• The accuracy of the hot cues

The Bottom Line

If you own a Mac and want to try out DJing in the most cost effective way before investing in hardware, or simply want a very Maclike DJing experience, djay is for you.

By DJ Endo — Special Guest Review

Algoriddim’s djay is a Virtual Turntable / Software DJ Application that originally debuted for the iPad and iPhone, making it possible to DJ anywhere. I’ve been using the iPad application for over a year now on the Subway, Airplanes and on Road Trips in the car and its great for testing out mixes and playing DJ sets on the go.


The interface of Algoriddim's djay for Mac on a MacBook Pro

Recently Algoriddim just came out with a version of djay for the Mac platform, which is very affordable and I believe is great for both beginner and advanced DJs alike. While the software was probably made for internal DJ Mixing in mind, you can also use external MIDI controllers and soundcards with the program for even more control and mixing power. Algoriddim also sells a keyboard cover that has all of the programs keyboard commands, hotkeys, shortcuts and more.

Vestax Vci-300


djay's 'Picture Disc' feature puts the album artwork on the deck - Harmonic Mixing is a tremendous feature for a $20 product

You know what they say about first impressions, right? When I witnessed how they utilized album artwork on the turntable platter, the design work, and Graphical User Interface, it was love at first sight. Watching the album artwork spin on the virtual “turntable” takes me back to my “picture disc” vinyl days, and gives you a visual connection to the music.

Features & Specifications:
» Visual Waveforms
» Harmonic Match: Automatic Key Detection, Key Matching and Transposing
» Audio FX: Gate, Flanger, Phaser, Reverb, Echo, Filter (Low Pass + High Pass)
» Instant FX: Absorb, Drift, Sway, Crush, Punch, Twist
» Looping (Auto, Manual, Bounce)
» Multi-touch FX Pad
» iCloud integration
» Automix
» Record Your Mix
» Song History (with export to iTunes)
» Live Undo/Redo
» Over 100 keyboard shortcuts
» Album artwork on turntables
» Pre-Cueing through headphones
» Microphone input
» Online radio broadcasting using Nicecast to Live365, Shoutcast, and Icecast
» Real-Time Sampler with sample library
» Multi-Touch Trackpad Support: scratch, crossfade, move slider, scrub, nudge, pitch-bend, 2D FX Pad
» Multi-lingual: English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese
» Seamless iTunes integration
» Queue (on-the-fly playlist creation)
» Browse library by: playlist, artist, album, genre, key
» Supports all major audio formats: MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV, MOV, Audio-CD, and others
» Supports songs purchased from the iTunes Store (also supports DRM protected songs, however, no recording or Audio Unit plug-ins supported with DRM)
» Drag and Drop support for files stored on external hard drives or memory sticks
» Automatic Beat & Tempo Detection
» BPM-Sync (beat-matching)
» Auto Gain
» Pre-analyze entire library/playlists
» Auto-Cut Scratching
» Tempo control (up to +-75%)
» Key Lock/Time-Stretching (+-75%)
» Pitch-Bend
» Beat-synchronized scrubbing
» 3-band equalizer (-24 dB to +6 dB)
» Adjustable crossfader curve
» Automatic Transitions: Fade, Backspin, Brake, Reverse, Random
» Multiple Cue Points
» Reverse Playback and backspinning
» Support for Audio Unit Effects
» Supports external audio interfaces, headphones, and headsets for pre-cueing (USB or FireWire plug and play, custom channel assignment)
» Native plug & play support and MIDI Learn

Harmonic Mixing

The next thing that caught my attention was the Harmonic Mixing feature built into the program. As someone who has worked with Yakov Vorobyev on the development of Mixed In Key, I was keen to see how Algoriddim would handle this crucial feature. Not only was the key displayed in the decks header, but you could also click on a drop down menu to shift the pitch up or down (by half steps) or even click the “match” button to match the key of one deck to the other.

Once you load a song onto a deck, djay analyzes the key of the track you loaded and stores the musical key into the browsers “key field.” As someone who’s a big proponent of Harmonic Mixing, even before the advent of applications like Mixed In Key, having manually keyed all of my records on the piano, I was instantly skeptical about how accurate the key detection would be in djay.

I compared my key results which were manually keyed on the piano vs. djay’s key detection results and found that out of 50 of my primarily deep house and tech house tracks, djay got 36 correct, or 72% accuracy. On the tracks that were missed, djay usually guessed to be the relative major or minor key, not too shabby for version 1.0.


User Tip: Turn on Distinguish Major / Minor keys in djay's Preferences

One thing I noticed when I started using the program was that all of my tracks were showing up as major keys (A minor was showing up as C Major). One recommendation for using the harmonic mixing feature in djay, is that when you first start using the program, you need to turn on the option for “Distinguish Major / Minor keys” to see the track’s minor keys. This is something I feel can be improved for future versions, since club music is often composed in minor keys. In fact, about 95% of my entire music collection is in minor keys.

With all of that said, djay is a powerful Harmonic Mixing program, and will help you find tracks that sound amazing together very quickly. If you’re not familiar with Harmonic Mixing, check out my video on YouTube.


Although, still tied to the turntable paradigm, djay's interface is inviting

As far as just simply playing and mixing tracks goes, djay makes it very easy for beginners to play, mix and remix on the fly. The user interface is very inviting with just the basic controls – something that won’t overwhelm users new to software mixing. You have two decks, a virtual DJ mixer, and a Browser with iTunes accessibility built in. The browser also has a nifty night and day mode, which lets you change the background color of the browser in order to view your tracks effortlessly. Loading tracks couldn’t be easier. You simply drag songs onto the virtual deck and hit the play button.

djay also has some cool playback features that mimics a real turntable’s functions, such as rewind, fast forward, lifting the tone arm off the record, click and drag scratching, and even the sonic effect of powering a turntable down.

The turntable’s Pitch Fader and transport section is designed to deftly play and change the speed of the track. You can also set a start point and re-trigger the track from the start point with the touch of a button. In addition, there is a key lock button, and a Sync button, which will perfectly synchronize the BPM to match the deck that is playing.

Algoriddim


User Tip: Select 'Invert Slider' in djay's Preferences

Another tip for DJs just getting started with djay, who are used to traditional turntables, is that you need to invert the tempo slider in the preferences so it behaves like a typical turntable: the song gets faster by moving the fader down, and slower when you move the fader up.

Auto Play feature is something you may want to turn off in the preferences as well, if you don’t want a track to instantly start playing when loaded on a deck. Some may like this, but I thought it was annoying for the way I mix.

The mixer in djay is set up just like a traditional DJ setup. It has two volume faders (for two channels), a crossfader, a built in three-band EQ with Bass, Mid and Hi controls, EQ kills, and gain controls for each deck. One thing I loved about the mixer is that the LED indicator clearly shows track volume, making it easy to match the levels of both tracks visually (User Tip: I typically go to the loudest part of the track and set the gains so it is peaking just under the reds with the EQs set to zero). Built into the program can also “Auto Gain,” which will automatically adjust the songs playback volume to the same level for each song. Nice!


A close-up of djay's Mixer Section

One suggestion for using the EQ’s when DJing with only a mouse, is to set the EQ behavior so you can drag vertically to raise or lower the EQ. If you double click on the EQ, it will be reset to the zero position.

To cue up tracks and listen to each deck separately, you will need a separate external soundcard. However, djay has made it possible to use multiple soundcards simultaneously for cueing up tracks. For example, you can use a separate soundcard like Native Instruments Audio 2 DJ as your main outputs and your computers built in output jack to pre-listen to your tracks. The crossfader in djay can easily be controlled by clicking and dragging with the mouse, but there are also some keyboard shortcuts that will smoothly fade from one track to another, or even give you the transformer scratch effect.

As far as syncing your tracks goes, the BPM detection in djay is fairly accurate, not perfect, but good enough to get you close. If you sync the BPM using the Sync button it will match the BPMs of both decks. You can use the pitch bend buttons (+ and – buttons) on the tempo fader to nudge the tracks so they are in phase with each other, and usually once you have both tracks beat matched perfectly they will stay in sync for most of your mix. However, I’ve found that if you do beat jumps, or click on the waveform itself to scroll forward in the track, the tracks tend to go out of sync. This is why it is handy to have an external audio interface when using djay so you can get every mix perfect. Currently, there is no beat gridding algorithm, but it would be nice to see this in a future update.

For live remixing purposes, djay includes some great features to take your mixes to the next level, including Beat jump, Looping, Cue Points, and built-in effects, and even an intuitive sampler and sample recorder. Here is a breakdown of these sections:

To show the advanced section of djay, click on the little arrow button underneath the crossfader and click on the skipping icon. The Skipping Section will allow you to seamlessly skip forward or backwards in your tracks by a set length. I prefer to use 32 beats so I can skip forward or backwards 8 bars to skip over intros and extend outros.

Spin


djay's Looping Features - the blue line on the 'record' shows your loop

The Looping Section has three different modes: Manual Looping, Auto Looping, and Loop Roll. The Manual looping section will let you set your start point (In) and Out point (Out) for your loop and you can deactivate it with the Active Button. The Auto Looping section will let you set your loop length and a loop starting position. You can make the loop smaller with the loop half and loop double buttons, and you can simply turn the loop off by deactivating the Loop button. The Bounce Loop section is exactly like the “This is How I Roll” easter egg in Serato where you can loop the audio while the song continues to play back at the same position it would be in when you release the Loop length button. You can make the loop smaller by clicking and hovering your mouse over the length buttons to create dynamic buildups. With all of the looping features, the turntable and waveform will actually show you what part of the record is being looped.

Setting cue points is very easy in djay, and there are a couple different kinds of cue points. Clicking on the “Set Start Point” button can set start points. If you have “Automatically Jump to Start Point” selected in the preferences, djay will load to that cue point automatically each time you mount a track that has a start point marker. Normal Cue Points can be set and triggered by using the Cue panel in the Tools section. You can set three different cue points, each having its own color.


djay's cue point features

The Effects section in djay is a lot of fun and there are three different effect tools. The Triggered effects are standard effects that would be on a DJ mixer such as Delay, Reverb, Echo and Gate with a built in channel filter. You can chain up to two effects at a time and easily control the dry wet and amount for each effect. I wasn’t a huge fan of the effects since the tempo sync was a little dodgy, but the reverb, flanger and phaser work well.

I found the Instant effects section to be my favorite. Instant effects are like triggering multiple effects at once, and each effect does something cool to aid in a transition, or to add some flavor to your mix. There are two freeze delays, Adsorb and Drift, Sway (Flanger), Crush (Bit Crusher), Punch, which is a unique turntable stopping effect, and Twist, an echo rewind. These can all be easily triggered with the press of a single button. The third effect section, FX Pad section, is very creative. This effects mode allows you to have X/Y control over the effects parameters and also filter at the same time. On top of all of these built in effects, djay took things a step further by allowing you to use your own AU effects plug-ins. I was having a blast running my tracks through Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig!


djay with Vestax's Spin2 DJ MIDI Controller

Another very fun feature, which is almost hidden in the program, is the built-in Sampler. You can use the sampler to trigger snippets and even record and capture them. To reveal the Sampler, you need to open the Tools panel and then click on the “Show / Hide Sampler” button. The Sampler contains six Sample buttons for triggering any of the sample presets, such as Air Horns, Dream Chimes, Foghorns and Drums, as well as your own creations. You can record your own samples either with the computer’s built-in microphone or from a playing deck. The Sample Recorder comes with pitch and echo control so you can manipulate your sounds even further and play them live!

djay also has the ability to record your entire set. To do so, simply press the Record button at the top. You can actually choose to record at different qualities and bitrates. I choose “Best” to get a lossless .aif file, but you can also choose “Good” if you just want to listen to your mix over iTunes as a .m4a file. While you’re recording your mix, djay is not only recording the audio, but also creating a text set list that you export as a PDF file. Very cool!


If you’re the type of person that likes to hit play and walk away from the computer (or need a bathroom break… Ed.), there is actually an Automix function that will automatically play, crossfade and even sync your tracks for you for hours, even days on end.

While I was writing this review I was on a flight to Hong Kong and discovered that there is actually Bonjour integration in djay. What that means is if someone else is on the plane with me, we could actually link our djay systems over Bonjour and do a tag team DJ set at 30,000 ft. My signal would come in through their mixer, and they would have volume control over me, and my mix would even show up in their recording, or visa versa. This could lead to a lot of fun touring possibilities with other DJs!

Conclusion

All in all I find this program to be great for beginner and advanced DJs alike. It is possibly the biggest DJ software “bang for your buck” on the market and can also integrate with MIDI controllers. I can definitely see this program rocking house parties (and many Hotel after parties), and look forward to seeing it continue to improve over time! Happy Mixing!

The Future

Algoriddim’s djay has a unique market position of straddling both the novice and advanced user. However, by introducing Harmonic Mixing, the concern has definitely upped the ante. If they are moving in that direction, then adding “Beat Gridding,” sample juggling and other more advanced features doesn’t seem to be out of the question for the next version. We would also like to see more sophisticated visual representations of the audio waveforms.

» FutureMusic Rating: 95%

Algoriddim Djay Vestax Spin Review 2


Cheers:

+ Interface

+ Features

Vestax Spin Software Download

+ Sound Quality

+ Bang For The Buck

+ Easy To Use

+ Hidden Powers

Jeers:

– Waveform Display

– Manual

Off The Record:

“I am clearly not a fan of the antiquated turntable paradigm, but I have to give it to Algoriddim for the sophisticated implementation of this metaphor.” —Dan Brotman

“There is no bigger “bang for the buck” for software mixing on the market.” —Greg Geller


Algoriddim’s djay costs $19.99 and is available now.