DJ Music

DJing is essentially a static art, after all you’re held down by the need of a power source and bulk DJ equipment and if you’re into Vinyl, a hefty load of DJ music as well.

Advancements in DJing and Music technology have meant that we are becoming increasingly portable, its only recently with the Pacemaker that its been at all possible to DJ music on the go. The Pacemaker however is still new, I’m only getting mine in a few days, as part of the premier edition, just to give you an idea of how new this DJ device is. Its costly too, so for some DJs this might be a little bit of a barrier.

Music technology has meant also that now we have iPods, mini iPods and DJ tools for iPods, which allow you to play music and in some cases mix music. Strange then that with the controls presented by the iPod and indeed the iPod touch and iPhone, no one has thought of creating applications that take advantage of the natural turntable like controls of an iPod and turn them into portable DJing devices. The iPod touch and iPhone add to the control features with their multi touch screens and this has spawed a whole range of DJ programs to help DJs on the go, mix music on the move. Using the most common of portable products- iPods and mobile phones.

There exists already a range of DJ software for mobile phones, most need a decent PDA type phone, which mimics the two turntables and mixer of a DJ setup, and you can find sampler style DJ software for mobile phones as well, but all these are limited in terms of their DJing capabilities for a DJ on the go.

Whats happening now though is that as DJs become increasingly portable and the technology we use becomes smaller we can now find DJ software that takes advantage of this.

Its a simple process too, you need to be able to play two tracks at the same time. Be able to match the speed and beats of these tracks, and alter the volume across the two tracks.

Mixmeister have created a software that allow DJs to scratch on the surface of a iPhone, its basically an effects module, and reminds me of a old toy key chain i use to have which was a turn table that made scratching sounds when you rotated the ‘vinyl’. the Mixmeister DJ software allows you to scratch over the playing track and control the volume of the track, so its only really useful if you have two, I suppose its useful if you’re getting widrawal symtoms when your out and about. Check it out here: Mixmeister iPhone DJ software

another more DJ friendly software is the iDJ, and a similar project called ideejay, both work on the same principle, mix with two channels, pitch control and cross fader, simple BUT all you really need to DJ on the go. One small problem though…how do you listen to one channel and let the other play out?

This doesn’t really suit all DJs, and there will be some who DJ music in a more production diven way, for these DJs, the Akai Mpc-500 iPhone DJ app is ideal, its native to the iPhone, so you won’t need to worry about ‘cracking’ your iPhone, it basically mimics a DJ sampler, allowing you to put different loops into a music mix. For a DJ looking to DJ music on the go, this is probably the best alternative to the portable DJ beauty that is the Pacemaker.

Essentially for a DJ looking to DJ music on the go, the DJ products to achieve this are limited, however there are a few DJ programs that will fill the gap for the time being.  however if you’re serious about DJing music using portable DJ devices and portable music devices, then you’d better start saving for the Pacemaker, which is purpose built for DJing music on the go.

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