Beatgrid misbehavior in djay Pro (both MacOS and iOS) demonstration video link in the topic

The youtube video is at
https://youtu.be/5JKnZMzQtc8

This video is to demonstrate to Algoriddim (and those who are interested) that the beatgrid of djay Pro really does not function as is epxected.
Let me mention that on iOS I think djay is the best software for ad hoc mixing. So this is clearly no bashing video.
And on a personal note I think djay 2 was the best looking djay software period.
But the moment you want to visually mix and you go beyond auto analyzation of the track or take a slightly more complex track it will fall short.

Take a track who’s downbeat is NOT at the beginning (time index 0:0) of the song but slightly later. Ideally look for a track with a “hidden” 1.1.1 (first down beat/ beatgrid start).
That track will be wrongfully analyzed (as expected all mix software will likely get it wrong). It will most likely get the average bpm right, so your beatgrid will be properly spaced.
So what you want to do is shift the beatgrid so the 1.1.1 is on the first downbeat.

However if you want to correct the beatgrid in djay Pro you basically run into 2 problems

  1. djay wont let you set the first downbeat where you want to have it, it somehow wants to place it along its previously analyzed beatgrid.

  2. When you set the 1.1.1 (in close proximity of where you want it) the perfectly spaced beatgrid starts to drift (while the bpm counter still indicates the good steady bpm).

For this demo I used the r3hab rmix of closer by the chainsmokers because that track is mentioned in the forum and indeed it perfectly demonstrates the problem.

This track is 100BPM steady throughout the entire track (I show that in Traktor Pro and double checked it in Ableton Live suite). So Algoriddim this is not a case of different bpm regions or something among that line.
I use the djay Conversion Utility (https://youtu.be/F25-5Fdw8XY) to convert the cues and beatgrid start from TraktorPro to djay Pro.
Since the loadcue (the white dot) and the beatgrid start are at the same time index I know the beatgrid was set correctly, djay Pro just refuses to use it.

Timeline:
00:00 showing the Demo Track in Traktor Pro
03:00 showing the track with converted cues in djay Pro (mac)
03:44 set manual downbeat (and it wont stick off course sorry for the slip of the tongue btw)
04:00 Now you can see the drift of the grid (some beats are kinda of aligned some are not) Algoriddim why cant I edit my beatgrid???

Any feedback?

My experience with DJay Pro is that it tends to fall out of sync more often that DJay2. Most of my collection contains 80’s dance which were live bands not MIDI controlled. So DJay Pro is simply not as good as DJay2 keep up with syncing during transitions.
Recently I forced myself to let go of DJay2 because using both versions mess up each other on keeping saved beat grids.
So now after years of pain staking adding album covers to EVERY SINGLE track. It seems like we are being forced to do away with album covers.
I’ve been Mixing since 1982. And flipping through my crates, album covers are essential.
I use DJay iPhone in my car while driving. Set automix to shuffle. It is perfect for research tracks that go together.
I use DJay Pro Mac to set end Cues, for whatever crazy reason iOS can’t do this.
And finally in my world the iPad is the ultimate mixing software for me.

You should try that track on DJay2. To compare it’s behavior.

I hear you loud and clear.
Djay Pro is worse than djay2 at keeping the sync on.
I seem to be spending more time dealing with glitches and issues than creating and posting mixes these days.
Now I’m forced to use the Pro version and don’t like it at all.

In my opinion, spending time creating newer versions instead of Repairing old problems is not the way to go.

Right now Djay can cloud between all platforms.
I don’t think any other software can do that right now.
That to me is key. I hope they figure this out before other developers start offering dj software that can do all platforms.
Time is of the essence!

Hey G,
Thanks, I need to use the Pro versions because the Mac version is the only one that can create END Cue points.
So staying with the Pro versions across all platforms is much easier.
And my beat grids issues has essentially gone away.

As far as the sync turning off during transitions is something I can deal with.
I hope everyone understands how everything comes at you from every which way when you create a complex software like DJAY.
So I’m super glad that I can rip my LPs to mp3s and be able to sync my devices to my iTunes and magically have my music and mix in my car, my bedroom, freaking anywhere.
I really do appreciate their hard work.
So far, every single glitch that I’ve ever discovered can be solved by working with the team directly through emails.
Mr. G, I know that you know what you are talking about.
Be patient and work with them. They will figure it out.

If I’m totally honest, this is why I completely abandoned djay and moved to Traktor. Beat grids are a matter of “set your downbeat and pray that it autodetects correctly”. This is unacceptable in a product with “Pro” in the name.

It was this issue, the bug where ‘sync’ just turns itself off without warning, and the old bug where actual audio was a few seconds out of sync with the waveform, beatgrid and cue points. Those three issues made me abandon djay completely.

Could you please send me the song I will try here. I’m curious because me it work all the time when I adjust the first beat.

Email : djinglaurentides@gmail.com

Thanks for that !

Ok. I’m just trying to help you because on my side all manual adjustment work fine. Good luck.

You can place cue point with Djay pro and have kg in djay 2 via iCloud. Everything is compatible also start point and end point.

Do another experiment. Start this song along with Chainsmokers Roses (ft. ROZES) which is also at 100 BPM. Sync the two songs. The song Closer’s grid starts to drift about 1/3 way (the waveform is still correct, though.) The SYNC turns off when this happens. I like Djay Pro a lot but this bug is a nuisance. It makes the SYNC feature very unreliable. Please fix it Djay Pro.

I didnt remix this track so I’m not going to distribute it. It is on Beatport and some remix compilations that are commercially available.

Most of the time djay gets it right if you dont mess with the auto analyzed values. But with tracks that require manual adjustment (like this one) it will happen.

Another good example are acapella’s. But this track is the perfect example because it’s beatgrid is 100% steady 100 bpm.

Update to Algoriddim and those interested.

I think I’ve nailed this problem kind of down. Its about recalculating the graphical beatgrid as held in by metatadata file and the overruling of those values by the local data in the DjayOut.plist (still with me?)

I did this with the now famous track The Chainsmokers - Closer (feat. Halsey) (R3hab Remix)

Make the track a virgin to djay (take away all of its info from the “Preset Library.plist”) and throw away it’s the metadata file

On this virgin I can set the first downbeat exactly where I want it to be.
The beatgrid will start to drift throughout the track (always by the same amount! so this data is comming from the metadata somehow) so this is clearly a bug.

Now I change the “BPM” I dont really change it, I just re-enter 100 and apply it
and all hell breaks lose, my first downbeat shifts and the whole grid both shifts and start to drift. (this was on a virgin track remember so no converted data and freshly analyzed by djay)

After this step I can never get the first downbeat in the place I got it in step 1. Another clear bug!

So just because I can, I entered a weird bpm value -128- in the “djay Preset Library.plist” (using the song.manualBpm and indeed this value is nicely shown above the pitch control fader). However my beatgrid (which should be different because of the difference in bpm) remains the same!

I think this is the heart of the problem.
You need to rewrite the “beatgrid visual representation” routine so it takes into account the manually adjusted data (beatgrid start then tempo) before it falls back to it’s metadata . And it has to do it in the proper order.

If you guys want to see a video out of this, no problem jus drop the word.

I’ll add some screenshots

Setting the first downbeat on the virgin file

Notice the beatdrift

While the downbeat is perfect (see pic 1)
I now re enter 100.0 as my BPM value this is what happens!

Notice the beatdrift its the same as pic 2!

Now because I can, I changed the bpm value in the plist to 128
the beatgrid should be noticeably different

Now this is truly strange, the drift is still the same as in pic 2, proving that along the way the beatgrid only got a new graphical representation in step 2.

At least on MacOS the latest version of djay Pro seems to have taken care of the problem. I keep the video up for everyone who runs into similar problems (solution : upgrade!)

oops the problems persist. Algoriddim support contact me if you want all the technicall details.

Hi Fred,

I hear you, and you know I share most of your concerns. However if you turn the sync in the cloud off you should be fine to go back to djay 2.

There are ways to get your data form djay pro to djay 2 without using iCloud.

Personally I need my 8 cues, Ideally I want the djay Pro (2 decks) features in djay 2 (for the looks). I’ve contacted tech support directly (and provided them the closer remix so they can reconstruct the problem). I’ve haven’t heard from them yet tho.

Update: Algoriddim support acknowledged the problem (I send them over the chainsmokers track) and are working on a solution.

@ Trever (and anyone else)
It’s basically the same problem, not able to manually adjust the first downbeat and grid how we like it.
Algoriddim support has confirmed and the issue (something sketchy about setting the first downbeat in the first bar while the track is paused… umm we all edit our beat-grids with a paused track right)
They will NOT fix it in the upcoming update (that is confirmed as well) so lets hope they find time/possibility to fix it in the next.

I already suggested for a manual beatgrid with fixed intervals, opposed to the current “smart” analyzation of the beats.
What I would like is set 1:1:1 anywhere you like and enter the BPM value. With those 2 parameter djay can calculate the intervals. Kind of how Ableton Live got different modes to calculate the beatgrid (warping).

Thank you for the update.

I have a slightly different issue related to this thread and it involves setting the downbeat on certain tracks at the very beginning. A great example I was working with today is ‘Good Times Roll’ by GRiZ and I run into it rather frequently. The start of the track is clearly intended to be 32 beats before the first main drop, but the first downbeat doesn’t register until the 5th beat. The first beat is cut off, and if I try to manually set the grid through the set beat grid command and then nudging it far enough to the left to keep my cues correctly aligned, then the downbeat marker disappears… It’s almost as if the song is missing a half second of extra silence that would allow correct default analyzation.

Aside from editing each track manually… I would love if the ‘nudge beat grid feature’ allowed placement of the start of the track before the 0:00 point. That way then I’m trying to align a start cue point like this through the sync command, it doesn’t skip the first measure and mess up the phrasing.

Right on! Thank you. I’ve been DJing less than a year and moved from Mixxx to djay Pro as an intermediate step and I’ve been so pleased with the design and Spotlight integration and cloud sync for Cues that I’m hopeful Algoriddim continues to polish and improve their product (and everything I’ve seen supports this)

I 'm not sure how other programs handle this but of course it looks like they would need to allow a negative time value if we desired for the 1:1:1, and also the option for ‘flex time’ for songs that aren’t quantized.

Similar to the half/double toggle I imagine they could have an advanced toggle for each song if needed too flex/fixed. I can tell the aesthetic they use values elegance and simplicity for the user.

Of course there are surely tricky tracks that use multiple BPM for different parts of the song though I haven’t seen as many in frequent use.

Anyways thanks again for the insight!