I’ve dabbled with djay off and on for years now, but inevitably seem to gravitate back to Serato even though Serato is disappointing in many ways. I’ve often felt a mix of joy and frustration with djay, but am so grateful and pleased to see such attention to detail in user interface and overall usability being taken seriously. It’s maturing beautifully, and I dream of the day this can become my workhorse.
I’ve been DJing for 15 years. I’ve watched with dismay as iTunes has slowly fallen apart and become Apple Music, with a gradually less usable interface. I’ve wished and wished that Apple would give me the ability to edit metadata on my mobile devices, but I know that feature isn’t coming. I have attempted to get Apple’s attention in every way I can think of to tell them about the interface issues, but nobody responds or listens. Unfortunately/fortunately, Apple Music still retains key library management functionality that is useful to me, and I imagine many other DJs who probably share a love/hate relationship with it.
I imagine with some tweaking of djay as it currently exists that users could store a music collection (ie files we own and have downloaded or created) in the cloud (even just iCloud would be great), be able to edit metadata like comments, grouping, rating, etc in any version of the app, and then see those changes synced between all versions of djay.
Imagine native smart playlists built directly in djay that respond to metadata changed on the road on a phone, and know that when you’re back on your laptop your smart playlists will reflect those changes automatically. Not just cue points or a few djay-specific things, but ALL metadata. Same music library in all versions of the app, stored and synced via iCloud. Imagine giving Djs the freedom to say goodbye to Apple Music completely with a full-featured library management platform integrated into djay. The auto mix interface could make this a better music player than anything else out there, even for casual users who aren’t interested in DJing.
I’d be stoked, personally. Anybody else out there interested in this?
Definitely interested, there is already a thread asking for this. I do feel you described the wish for this in a great way. I wish Algoriddim would really look into this as you described.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions @chuckles. I have forwarded this to the dev team for consideration. In the meantime, please use the blue Vote button at the top left of this page so we can gauge user demand for this feature. Thanks!
It’s a great idea. I hope it comes true someday. For now, the main problem with djay pro is working with the music library.
Binding to iTunes is a pretty strange solution. It’s inconvenient in every way. We’ve already talked about how slow it is to work with huge libraries of music tracks. We’ve also talked about metadata and the possibility of transferring and editing it.
I think the developers should focus on improving the music library. After Serato, Traktor, and Djuced, everything was fast and you could edit metadata, add ratings, etc. DJay Pro lets us do everything through iTunes and even on a Windows computer, which is a big change.
I know some people like working with iTunes or Apple Music, but I prefer not to tie music to any program. I have Beatport and I buy/download music on different sites. I sort it, sign it, edit metadata, rate it. Other programs understand this, but djay pro doesn’t understand flac comments or ratings, etc.
Anyway, we’ve already covered this a lot.
We just have to be patient and have faith that things will work out.
I think the DJ Pro program is pretty amazing overall, with some great features!
It’s so important to remember that not everyone has iCloud. Lots of people use other cloud services, too! There are so many great options out there! You’ve got Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive (Microsoft), Mega, and tons of local cloud services in each country.
In one of my posts, I suggested limiting the first stage to simply syncing playlists in m3u format, which I hope will be helpful!
I think it would be really great if DJay Pro could do the job of exporting and importing playlists in m3u format!
It would be really great if Djay Pro could develop the possibility of batch searching for lost files and re-linking these files by different parameters, like file name or by metadata, like “Artist” or “Track name.”
Playlists in m3u format are super small, so they’re a breeze to send via email or as a separate file to another device.
It would be so great if DJ Pro had its own cloud system for transferring and syncing m3u files!
P.S. I tried DJ Pro in real work today and played a 1.5-hour set of progressive house music. It was so much fun! It was such a cool commercial hangout in a very luxe DJ bar/club! I use Windows, and I’ve found that djay pro on Windows has some pretty significant limitations. I decided to go to the source to see what I could do to improve my experience with djay pro on my shukra.
All the things they write about working with the library, switching to tracks, switching to playlists, and so on. All these problems have been confirmed, which is a bummer.
But to do track mixing in djay pro is just fantastically convenient. I was convinced that the innovations that djay pro gives me are ahead of Serato, Traktor, Djuced, and so on.
The few times I use Djay Pro I prepare the playlists with Rekordbox, then I save the playlist in m3u which I open with Itunes and then have the playlist ready in Djay.
It would certainly be great if Djay Pro gave the possibility to save playlists in m3u format.
I just wanted to add something really important.
It would be really great if there was a simple, multiplatform system for transferring not only playlists in m3u format, but also transferring cue points, automix points, etc. parameters of DJay Pro.
I don’t often create playlists for gigs because I like to take my time to choose the perfect tracks and edit the metadata to make sure they’re just right. I also love using dynamic playlists with different filters to make sure I’ve got exactly what I need for the mood of the dancefloor during the performance.
But in DJay Pro for Windows, it’s not super essential for a DJ’s workflow. There aren’t any dynamic playlists or filter search features.
It’s a bit of a hassle to display the rating and comments because you have to run everything through iTunes and work with collections there.
I’ve also found that the Flac format can be a bit tricky when it comes to displaying comments, ratings, and so on. I chatted about this over on the forum if you’d like to know more!
I really like DJ Pro on MacOS, but I wish it wasn’t tied to iTunes. I was also surprised to find that the iOS version doesn’t have a track rating field. I hope there’s more to it than that, because I’d hate to find out after buying an iPad and installing the program that there’s something I’m missing.
I think we should think about how we can make it all more convenient without losing any of the functionality.
If A.i. is really here, then I would predict these filing issues would be solved… in theory.
My theory is that Djay’s future could with A.i. take care of All that and mixing on it’s own with the main user being non djs.
Djay has 8 modes with Automix right there almost on top.
We are simply the ants discovering all the issues.
I can’t wait till these filing issues are resolved,
I’ve been a non pro dj for over 40yrs about the last 18yrs with Algoriddim.
Almost everyday, djay is opened in one device or another🙏
A.I., which is available in Djay Pro, can’t mix tracks normally yet. Sometimes it works, but most of the time it turns out crooked. Like a student after 3 months of DJing courses.
Matching tracks works also not very well and there are no settings for selecting tracks.
Maybe in 10 years everything will change and A.I. will listen to a million DJ mixes and will do proper track selection and make great mixing.
