iPad DJ apps: Sonorasaurus Rex, Baby Decks, DJDeckX, and Tremor

When the iPad was first announced, I immediately balked at the blatant disregard of some obvious features. ‘Where’s the front-facing camera and usb connectivity? and 4:3 aspect ratio???’ I said to myself, as i threw my hands up in the air whilst watching the live blog from the keynote unveiling. ‘Well it can’t do flash, and it can’t video conference… but what are the applications to the dj community?’ I thought.  After some time spent on the serato forum watching the debate flare over the device, I sat back and compared it to other touchscreen dj systems currently available.

There’s been direct comparisons to JazzMutant’s Lemur controller – and in all honesty – the iPad already trumps said device, with a much more palatable price tag.  So for now let’s forget about that obvious correlation, and focus on the purchasable iPad-only DJing applications currently available.  Meaning im not going to review controller apps / wifi midi apps.

We all have seen the exploits of some so-called iPad DJs riding the wave of a tech trend gimmick, but if you take a second look, the iPad has what it takes to contend as a critical piece of the ‘working-dj’ arsenal.

Let’s compare…

SONORASAURUS REX:

At first glance, Sonorasaurus Rex is the most feature packed. It’s GUI is slick, so slick in fact, it appears to be modeled purposefully after the Jazzmutant Lemur.  I doubt the resemblance is unintentional – Pajamahouse studios probably wanted to make that known.  Silly names aside – Pajamahouse has the widest feature set available. DJs get all the familiar eq and transport controls in a fat-finger friendly layout, not to mention 6 effects (1 per deck, non-chainable). The effects seem somewhat unusable though, as any direct adjustment of the effects instantly cuts the post audio until your finger comes to a rest on most of the effects. They are also not linked to bpm, so it takes a great deal of guesswork.

One critical feature which makes it a standout app, is waveform scrubbing. unlike any other dj app on the ipad – Rex allows the dj to insert and set precise cue points on each track, manipulated by scanning through either deck with a finger. combine this with a engine built for low latency, lag-less controls – and you have a stable app that allows seamless transitions over and over again. another obvious feature that everyone else but Rex left out is the ability to sort large playlists by BPM – a simple idea, but when you have 100s of songs in a playlist – and 20 seconds left in a track – you might need that extra organization to get your mix in quickly.

+clean, polished interface

+precise cuepoint control with waveform scrubbing

+library management is fantastic and sortable by bpm

+headphone cueing ‘split mode’

+modest price tag

+tutorial mode explains each function

-batch waveform building for a few hundred tracks takes hours

-effects aren’t very useful / not linked to bpm

-iphone / ipad versions are sold separately

BABY DECKS:

The most simple, traditional setup. I think anyone with half a brain can jump into this app and kill a few minutes playing around with that ‘wikky wikky’ sound. Baby Decks marketed it as a toy, but with some polish and more features – I think this could turn into a decent ‘serious’ dj app.  I’ve mixed a few tracks through with simple blends and encountered no problems, but without itunes file sharing support, eqing, or cue point management, its kind of hard to recommend this app for use anywhere but your bedroom. probably would be really fun at a house party with everyone taking a turn. Sure I had fun nerding out with some tranform scratching on their included break records – but $25 dollars? I consider that a little steep.

+traditional layout is inviting to just about anyone

+excellent sound quality and deck control

+actually possible to do some half-way decent beat juggling

-lacks cue points and eq-ing

-uploading 1 track at a time makes large dj libraries a pain, not worth the effort

-high price is a turn off for the feature set

DJDECKX:

Those familiar with cdjs might want to take a look at djdeckx. The gui is, well, ugly. its functional and intuitive, but damn did the ugly stick beat this thing. the sad thing is that this has some of the best pitch control available – bending the sliders up and down provide very smooth and accurate adjustments, unlike some of the other apps which cause some nasty stuttering or ‘dirty-ness’ to the adjustment. It’s been bashed on the app store reviews, but I don’t think its deserving of a lot of the comments, i think most people expect this to be a kin to Baby Decks – and are upset when they cant scratch the decks. as a simple song blending tool – i think it works. Its difficult to do long transitions, but anyone halfway familiar with a dj setup could probably pull it off if they knew the bpms of the music. I found it a strange design decision that it is firmly stuck in ‘split mode’ where cueing is done in the right channel, and the master mix is pumped out of the left channel. There is no ‘help’ manual. the cue point management is awful, to the point where you are probably just better off not bothering with it.

+great pitch controls

+waveform creation (although kind of tiny and hard to perform visual cueing)

+eqing sounds fine

-bpm input should be a tap, not a full keyboard type-it-in-if-you-know-it process

-cueing system needs a complete rethink – its unusable and illogical

-button lag makes precise mixing a chore, but fading track to track is a no brainer

TREMOR:

It’s an eyesore, but for someone who NEEDS 4 deck mixing in an iPad app, I guess this hypothetically could do it. I’d be very surprised if the user could actually perform a decent mix with this app though.  the cross-fader is admittedly unique – its an x-y fader corresponding to 4 decks by its relative position on the screen – cool!  never seen that one before – it however is unusable as blending with it constantly causes stuttering audio and staggering fades.  As for other design decisions, It’s hands-down the strangest application available. Lining the bottom of the interface are an array of pre-installed samples ranging from the theme to the children’s show Barney, to Southpark TV show samples, to airhorns.  It seems childish and unnecessary to say the least. why would the developer think we want that? along with that – the developer chose to include internet radio streams assignable to one of the four decks.  this alone is just bizarre – i can’t imagine ever djing somewhere and deciding to pull a lossy, buffering internet stream into the mix.

+4 deck mixing from 4 different sources

+interesting crossfader design, but glitchy

-annoying stock samples

-no cueing

-utterly confusing $20 toy

What’s coming in the future:

I’m really interested in this app: Mixr

They have little else to show but graphical mockups of their app – but it seems like they have a good concept of what we want in a dj app. I really hope they integrate some form of visual cueing aid and waveform scrubbing though – it appears they have overlooked it.  At the moment though – Sonorasaurus Rex 2.0 is the clear leader – in fact, I don’t think i would trust any of the other apps at a gig. Since the 2.0 update, Rex can indeed hold it’s own as a viable dj app – and certainly worth the money. if you have an ipad and you’re a dj and you want to experiment with the possibilities, or have a cheap backup rig – Rex is an easy choice. if you want to play around with scratching – give Baby Decks a try. Or you can do what I did and try them all – just write a review and the developers will just hand out promo codes to you!

It looks like the time is just about right for these kind of experimental interfaces to take off into mainstream usage. Let’s hope they aren’t treated with the same prejudice as CDJs were upon their introduction. They really do have a lot of potential – I hope some names like Serato or Native Instruments jump on board and makes an interface with the ipad – that would be a great nod to the future.

I kinda wish iPad djing would take this direction though, making use of a hardware mixer instead of touchscreen faders. How awesome is this setup?! Who wants to start a iPad app company with me and make this!?!?!?!

This entry was written by yeahdef, posted on May 18, 2010 at 2:33 am, filed under news. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.