I just got DJay pro for Mac. I’ve been using the old DJay for a long time and got really used to it. I do a lot of beatmatching when I DJ, so it’s important for me that the program syncs BPMs perfectly. Seems like the new DJay pro does not beatmatch well compared to the old one. Songs that used to sync perfectly now are off within the first few bars, making you have to ride the tempo and pre-cue like crazy. What gives?
Here’s how I tested it: I looped the first two bars of Justin Timberlake’s “Rock your Body” and then synced that with Drake’s “Going Home” and let all of the Drake song play.
With the old DJay, it stayed perfectly in sync until the end of the song without me having to touch the tempos.
With DJay pro, it was off within the first 8 bars of Drake, and by the end of the song, it was a full beat off.
I answered my own question. I figured out what was going on.
The old version of DJay was never good at syncing two playing songs together. It would never sync them to the downbeats of both songs. So early on, I learned a workaround. I would use the sync button to sync one song’s BPM to the song playing live. Then I would set a cue point on the down beat, and drop the synced song on the downbeat of the live song.
The old version of DJay would lock those two songs together all the way through, but only by chance I think. If I dropped an older song that did not have consistent meter (think Earth, Wind, and Fire), it would go out of sync quickly.
But new songs were fine. They were to meter, and they stayed sync.
So now I see that the new DJay is better at syncing together two playing songs, and it syncs them to the downbeats (if the waveform is right). So it takes away some of the work I was doing.
Now, why two synced songs don’t play together like they used to (and the way I’m used to), I don’t know. I guess I’ll just have to learn to get used to the new DJay. It’s going to change things for me, and not in a good way.
I have a Mixtrack Pro that I use for splitting (and all the other stuff too). I’ve found that it works really well with most DJ software, and doesn’t cause the problem you’re mentioning.
My problem was more with the syncing and beatmatching. I found out that it has everything to do with the new software and how it operates.
Basically, I learned a workaround to deal with the terrible syncing feature of the previous DJay software, and it actually worked quite well for me. I would sync two songs while only one was playing live, set a cuepoint to the downbeat I want, and then drop the non-live song in exactly where I wanted it to go. If I dropped it off tempo, I would slightly nudge the tempo, and it would stay perfectly synced to the end of the song.
For some reason, the new software doesn’t allow for this. But the sync feature is actually better, as far as I can tell. It tracks downbeats in the waveform which allows you to drop songs wherever you want, and it will sync downbeats automatically (as long as the software properly identified the downbeat). You can hit the sync button while two songs are playing, and it will automatically lock them in so that they don’t drift.
I’m still not sure why my old way of doing things isn’t working, but I also recognize that my old way of doing things was basically a ghetto way of getting around the terrible sync feature of the previous software. Now it’s time to learn the new software!
Overall, I’m happy with it, and I think once I get used to it, I’ll be a better DJ.
Also, you should think about investing in a midi deck like the Mixtrack Pro.
What are you using for a splitter? I am using a “sound blaster” splitter" which runs through my usb port. It seems to work for about 15 minutes and then the there seems to be an echo in the headphones and the songs do not sync well. Is this similar to your problem? Thanks
Colin
the thread you responded to is from January 2015, could you tell us in detail what problem you are facing and give us some more informations about your setup?
