Using a iPad pro with a Midi Controller and External Hard Drive and Charging the ipad.

Hello everyone. I’m new to the world of iPad DJing so please forgive me if there are obvious things I’m missing.

I’m VERY interested in DJ with an iPad Pro (m1) as both a awesome backup to my Video DJ rig and as a smaller portable setup for non Video gigs.

But I have some questions on hardware, controllers, music ect.

Let’s start with what I see is the biggest questions. How can I hook up my DJ controller (a Pioneer DDJ-SZ at the moment), My external hard drive (Lacie Rugged Thunderbolt2/USB3 with a SSD inside, where all of my music is kept) and keep the ipad charging all at the same time. I’m very familiar with Thunderbolt docks, and power delivered via Thunderbolt3/typeC. I currently gig with my 2019 MBP and a CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock (actually 2 because backup’s are a must). This dock has no ability to pass power to my laptop (or any thunderbolt device). So I know it’s not going to work. So what other docks are people using? Will any Thunderbolt3 Dock with PD (power delivery) work with djay? Do I need to goto USB3 docks, I rather buy Thunderbolt3 docks than USB ones. I guess I would need at least 1 USB Port to plugin a MIDI controller (DDJ-SZ) and at least one more (or maybe a thunderbolt port) for the external hard drive. Any dock I buy will also have Ethernet on it. I assume streaming (music in and output) will benefit from the wired ethernet jack? Or is that a bad assumption?

The TLDR for above is: What Dock is best used with new iPad Pros and djay to use a controller and an external hard drive.

Next questions. I probably missed this but what file types will djay play audio from? Most of my tracks are MP4’s (as I’m mainly a video DJ). At non video gigs I just don’t start Mix Emergency (a better version of serato video) and use the same files as audio. Can I do that with djay? or do I need to rip files I want to use on the iPad down to MP3’s or some sort of audio only file?
If I do need to rip them, is MP4 support on the development roadmap?

Can I map 2 MIDI controllers at once to djay? Could I use some sort of mini MIDI mixer of my choosing and a Pad controller a build my own mini DJ rig?

Will djay and a iPad be able to be plugged into USB port B on my DDJ-SZ while my Mac is plugged into USB Port A running different software(probably serato)? The idea of having djay and a iPad is a backup/decks 3+4 solution. So being able to seamlessly swap would be ideal.

That’s a good start I think on my question. Thank you for any help anyone is able to render.

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let’s reply to some questions :slight_smile:
yes you can map 2 controllers to djay

and for the mp4 files :

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Good god that’s a long starting list for your first post!! :grin:

Anyway, welcome and here goes….

The controller and hard drive can be solved with a few different hubs but I had a lengthy conversation previously which helps explain that one.

@JiPenade has just answered some of the others and there’s no reason why you can’t have the MBP on usb 1 and the iPad on usb 2.

Hope we’ve all helped for now but feel free to chip in with anything we’ve left out!

Cheers

:+1:t2:

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Thank you I saw the video stuff after. That’s huge to me! Help’s streamline my workflow greatly.

thanks for the awesome information.

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