A lot of DJ hardware has the 8 pads on 2 decks layout. This suggestion is an idea that revolves completely around those pads. As of now, what the pads do is entirely dependent on the hardware, and there is mostly no way to change them, unless you midi map every pad one by one, so I’m proposing a new system to replace and customize your pages. There IS a Neural Mix Pad Mode that is hidden in a limited amount of DJ gear with some button presses, but this idea expands on that.
In Serato, they let you replace a pad page with stems (depending on the hardware) via the settings menu, and in VDJ, they let you go absolutely crazy with pads with new preset pages, user made pages, and customizing pads with codes. For DJay, I think something in the middle would be a great addition to the software. (Also I have no idea how Recordbox handles pads)
DJay could have a good amount of pre-set pad pages, and it looks like there are already foundations for some I’ll give some ideas in a moment. But the idea would give users two options: make a single profile of up to 8 or 10 pad pages, and every piece of hardware would adapt those pages in the same order. OR, make multiple profiles for each piece of hardware to have different pad pages. I have no idea how possible either of those options are, I’m sure it depends on the hardware, but I think it would be great if, for example, the third page of both my Rev-7 and my DDJ-1000SRT were both Neural Mix Pads.
Ideas For Pad Pages:
- Cues Points
- Saved Loops
- Pitch Cue
- Slice
- Auto Loop and Beat Jump/Skip
- Instant FX - there are already 8 on each deck!
- Manual FX - many DJ hardwares have on-board effects already, so a pad page for DJay’s manual effects can be a good addition. Top row could be the on/off for each effect, and bottom row could be FX routing for neural mix.
- Neural Mix Pad Mode - this is already made, but hidden behind shortcuts for a limited amount of DJ gear. I would also propose a change: replace top row with channel muting, and bottom row with Mute FX controls. Pad 5 can be on/off (or Mute FX selector if there are more in the future
), and pad 6 to 8 can be how many beats the echo out is. - Neural Mix Bounce - I think similar to how the Rane One MK2 does it with their Stem Roll, shown here at the at the 2:14 mark. Bottom row are 4 bounce pads, top row is neural mix channel selector.
- Crossfade FX - you can choose 8 (or 16 with shift) preselected crossfade effects.
- Beatgrid Editing
- Sampler
- Looper
- Customizable pad pages with midi mapping, that can be saved, and maybe shared?
I hope this all makes sense! Thank you DJay team.
