Just received my Reloop Beatpad yesterday and have been testing it out with my iPad2 running DJay2 in iOS7. As long as things are stable, it’s an absolute pleasure to use this setup.
However, things don’t stay stable very long. I am having various problems. I suspect they are related to me doing too many things on the Beatpad in quick succession and maybe the iPad2 not being able to handle it, and the app briefly freezing up or losing audible sound altogether.
The problems I have been having are:
– Unexpected audio loss. This can happen on just one of the decks (in which case for me so far it was always deck A on the left) or on both decks, A and B. The app and controller are still fully functional, but I simply don’t hear any audio anymore. Solution is to close and kill the DJay2 app on the iPad and starting the app up again (and then loading the tracks again). No need to reboot the Beatpad.
– Loss of spin-platter control. For example, when this occurs, then even though the platters on the Beatpad are in Jog Scratch mode, touching or moving the platters does not interrupt or change the music playback in any way. This problem is always temporarily, but can sometimes last for several seconds (which feels like a really big problem).
Those are really the two big problems I’m really concerned about. Other than that:
– Occasional brief freezing up of the DJay2 GUI while the music output keeps going.
My questions are:
Are these known issues?
Is the iPad2 not powerful enough to use in this setup?
Is iOS7 more problematic than iOS6?
Is there anyone who is using the same setup as me and is having no problems at all?
Could any of these issues be caused by the Beatpad controller, or are these all DJay2 application issues?
Apart from issue 3, it all sounds like a connection or hardware problem. I recommend contacting Reloop support and even Apple support to get your iPad checked.
About issue 3, how long does the freezing last? How often does it occur? Did you notice any patterns as to when the freezing occurs?
Problem 2 (platter) can be diagnosed by touching the metal underside of the unit with the other hand while trying to scratch. If this makes it work properly, it is an earthing issue and something I’ve also encountered. Reloop say it isn’t a “fault”.
A fix is to attach a wire to the earthing pin on the back of the unit, and put the other end to an earth of some kind. As long as you know what you’re doing (very important, obviously), wiring it to the earth pin of a mains plug and plugging into a wall socket solves it (that’s what I’ve done).
So far, I’ve had no issues with djay2. from the looks of it, (based on what you wrote) I’d be willing to bet you have your ipad working too hard! Though it is a powerful tool…it is not a MAC or PC. Hence, try using djay2 without beatpad and see if you still experience the same issues. If you do…then you should probably give me your set up…and try something different for a hobby. perhaps…building model airplanes!?? lol…let me know how it goes…
Wow man! I was just kidding about the airplane thing. but…cool! And yes…I do this for fun also. I’m now learning myself. Consider this: If you do a complete factory reset…you will have to RE-Analyze your entire library. So, plan for that. Also…before you do a factory reset…back up ANY and ALL of the samples you created in Djay2!!! I learned that the hard way. I had well over 200 samples and lost them all due to ignorance. Save your work.
Thanks Phil for that tip. Will definitely try that.
I did not notice that when I run my finger over the bare metal of the back of the iPad, I can feel the slight tingling because the power adapter isn’t grounded. (You can have that same sensation when using an ungrounded power plug with your MacBook as well, for example.)
I’m not so sure the first problem (audio signal loss) is a hardware or connection problem, since I can always resolve it by killing the DJay app (latest version 2.5.2, by the way) and restarting that app on the iPad while leaving everything else untouched. The Beatpad remains on, and non of the connections are changed.
Sorry, haven’t gotten a chance yet to do more testing since my post. Will test more tomorrow.
Yes, that’s correct. The turn tables are still playing – I see the vertical wave moving upward still – and the controller and app still respond to my input. I can still jog scratch the waveform, for example. Just the sound has suddenly cut out on turn table A, or in some cases on both turn tables. The sound does not return until I have rebooted the DJay2 app on the iPad.
On a few occasions the sound dropped out when an alert showed up on the iPad from another app. ICloud was telling me that It was unable to download some songs, for example. On other occasions it happened when I started jog scratching a playing music track. Have not found a consistent pattern of steps that can reliably reproduce the problem, I’m afraid.
I tested the Beatpad with my MacBook Pro today, and did not have the audio issues.
I have played around with DJay2 a lot on the iPad before I had the Beatpad, and indeed then there are no problems, but that is kind of pointless – there is just not enough you can do that way. The Beatpad really opens up the features nicely. Mostly it works brilliantly, but the sound disappearing entirely and not coming back until I reboot the Djay app is of course a serious problem. If it was a hiccup, stutter, short pause, or something like that, then that’s one thing, but the sound disappearing altogether is bad, and indicates that the app as a whole somehow gets in a bad state.
My late grandpa built model airplanes from balsa wood. Very meticulous models. He was a co-pilot in WWII and had a real passion for making precise models and explaining to me how airplanes get lift from their wings, etc. I could never do him justice
I’m obviously not too serious about DJ-ing – it’s really just for fun and house parties – but I do like the iPad DJay2 user interface and Beatpad controller a LOT and it would just be wonderful if it could just work well as designed. I’ve considered using the Mac app as a backup, but it’s simply not as good.
I may even considered doing a complete factory reset on my iPad2 and do a nice minimal install of just Djay2 and my iTunes library.
Update: I did find out today that my iPad had practically ran out of storage, because I had been a bit overzealous in selecting my entire library of 11K songs to download on the device from the iCloud.
I can not seriously expect this thing to handle all that I’m throwing at it while it has literally only 4MB of storage left.
Oops!
Instead of trying to manually clean out apps and songs, I have decided to just do a factory reset on the iPad, set it up again nice and clean with only a few apps (incl. djay and vjay) and synch up only the portion of my library that I’m most likely to want to spin in djay.
Been testing today again a lot with the Beatpad. I didn’t go too crazy, and it performed quite well. Only once the sound dropped out again, and that’s when I was hammering away at the samples while two tracks were playing with synched keys and beats.
Anyway, once I have completely reset my iPad, then at least I can be confident that I have a nice clean setup. I’ll report back with my findings…
FYI: my iPad2 is about 3 years old and just has an insane amount of apps and kiddy games on it. And who knows what me and my kids have installed and removed again over the years. I’m just ready to clean the thing up and make it a nice dedicated brain for my Beatpad
UPDATE: setup has been working great for the past couple of days since I did a factory reset on my iPad. I have not gone crazy and trying to combine various effects with lots of Bounce Loops and samples, like I did in my initial tests, but at least in normal usage this setup has been working really well now.
Warren, I think you can mark this issue as resolved. It must have been due to my iPad2 just being bloated, filled up to the max, and due for a fresh, clean restart.
The Beatpad controller is great and really makes this a *very* sweet setup.
And I *love* the Djay UI, by the way. Please keep the skeumorphism and don’t be tempted to flatten and dull the UI like iOS7 did.
