Device: 2021 MacBook Pro
Sonoma 14.3
djay pro 5.1.7
This article claims that the user is able to select the source of songs that the match panel pulls from. However, this drop-down menu does not seem to be visible on my machine. All it does is pull from all of Apple Music, which is essentially useless considering files streaming from Music don’t have BPM and Key info until scanned; meaning it can recommend tracks 50-60 BPM away from the currently playing track, which can lead to very messy transitions. Being able to select specific playlists is a must-have; match is essentially useless when paired with streaming services otherwise (and I don’t have a choice to use it with my local library for some reason; it’s stuck using Apple Music).
Additionally, being able to change the qualifications for the songs that appear in the Match panel is a huge deal for me. Rekordbox has the option to only surface tracks that appear within a user-specified percentage of the currently playing track’s BPM, and while I don’t love this implementation (I wish there was an option to surface tracks the specified percentage away from the currently active deck’s BPM instead of the song’s BPM), it’s miles better than the Match panel in djay, which seemingly offers no options for fine-tuning which songs are presented. Rekordbox also has an option for mixing in key, which can be very helpful if you are into that (I’m not a professional DJ so I don’t really care), whereas djay has no comparable option.
I think the Match panel in djay is one of the most underbaked things in the software. A working match panel is very handy when you don’t have a plan or a set tracklist and need a song that will blend well quickly. I think this is an area the djay team really needs to improve upon.