Workflow for loading tracks - syncing and cueing - room for improvements

Old Forum djay for Android
1

I’ve recently played around a bit with both the Android and the Mac app. I’m still waiting for a Pioneer Wego3 Controller to add some fun. :slight_smile:

My last DJ experience was with a Denon DN 2000F and two Technics SL-1200 so please excuse any lack of experience with up to date DJ software.

But now that we have it we can do a lot more things. Great. :slight_smile:
I put some ideas into one post rather than opening posts for every idea. I hope you can discuss them anyway. Thanks!

  1. Jump to first beat after initial load of a song.
    The first thing i do (and every DJ i saw in my life) is looking for the first beat (and cue it). Djay allows to jump to the first cue point after loading a song but there should be a setting to jump to the first beat (at least to best guess) if there is no cue point yet. For most tracks Djay knows it quite well after analyzing it.

  2. Make SYNC Button more intuitive.
    I needed some hours to find out the sync button is used for two things: initially set the pitch (speed) of the new track AND to sync-start the track. It would be great to know which of the two states the sync button is actually at. Another way could be to use the play button as “sync-start” button. Maybe this could be a setting. I used the play button for hours until i found out what the sync button is able to do (by accident). :slight_smile:

  3. Make CUE point (buttons) more intuitive.
    When using a tablet (nexus 7) i mixed up the buttons “set cue point” and “go to cue point” even after i used the app for hours. The “set cue point” button looks more like a record button to me. You could also lock cue points. I think there is another topic already here.

  4. PLAY-CUE-PLAY Workflow.
    With my Denon CD Player i used PLAY - CUE all the time. Which means: PLAY starts the song and CUE jumps back to cue point AND PAUSES THE TRACK.
    That was the workflow.
    When beatmixing i never want the the song to continue playing when jumping back to my first cue point.
    When using Djay App my workflow is (after i initially SYNCed the new track, see 2.):
    SYNC - PLAY (to pause the track) - CUE (see 3.)
    After that i can start with SYNC-play again. Three different buttons. I see a use for DJ’s who kind of hot jump to cue points while playing the track but thats not my case. :slight_smile: Maybe this could be a configuration setting as well (pause when jump to first cue point).
    I would love to only use two buttons.

  5. Make the setting for locking tone pitch permanent.
    So one doesn’t need to enable it after every start of the app.

Thanks for reading through this post. I would be happy to push some features up your issue queue. :slight_smile:

cheers, rokr

2

Yes, that button workflow is very awkward. You can use the Sync button just to set the Sync mode on or off but you still have to use Play/Pause to stop the track the hit the Cue return to be in standby. When using Sync, be very careful that both songs are beatgridded correctly, especially the heavier beat marker that marks the beginning of a 4 beat measure. The Sync feature aligns those and there is no option in the software to switch it to align only to the closest beat. It’s really a shame too since the software does such a good job of auto beatgridding songs with live drummers. Those same songs don’t always maintain a strict 4/4 structure all the way through, throwing off the markings for the beginning of a measure. An example would be Blondie - Heart Of Glass.

3

Sorry, my experience is only with the iPad app. Behavior may be different with the Mac and Android apps.

4

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback, guys! We’ll definitely think about this…

5

It’s exactly the same behavior with Android and Mac App which i both use.

6

Today i got a controller, the Pioneer DDJ Wego3. With that one it exactly works as described at 4. Just PLAY and CUE, where CUE jumps to first cue point and pauses.

7

I agree a lot, and I really like the software and dont have a lot of negative feedback about it. But I would really love if there was a way to customize the buttons, I mean is true what Rokr says, I wanna play using only cue and play… is nice to have the sync button and stuff, is really handy, but there are situations in which a Dj with a little bit of experience in beat matching prefer to do it manually, and I am not going to start a debate about the sync button, I use it!! but what I mean is that it would be nice if I decided not to use it for a particular track etc… to have the ability to have the software behave like normal equipment, I mean I want to be able to press the play button and come back to the beginning of the track and match the kick drums, just like I do in any average Numark, Pioneer and denon etc… and use the jog wheel to ameliorate… I really think we should deserve to have that option…

8