Archive for the iPod DJing info category.
DJing on an iPod can be very different for a DJ compared to DJing on conventional DJ equipment. An iPod doesn’t react in the same way to a normal DJ Deck or DJ CD players, and the controls on the iPod are different, as such there are different ways to handle the iPod in a DJing context.
The iPod has a jog wheel, that is sensitive to pressure on rotation, this controls, the volume, and position in the track (and I’m confident some day will control pitch as well), pressing the iPod Job wheel north, gives you the menu and back button, east is fast forwards, wast is rewind and south is play and pause. the Center button on the iPod acts as the select or enter button.
Now that we have a clear idea of the iPod controls, lets look at cuing up a track.
Select playlist >> select the BPM playlist >> Select the track >> the track will automatically play so you want to hit pause on the iPod straight away >> assuming you have a fixed cue point, you’ll need to have noted down the time stamp of the cue point, click the center of the iPod jog wheel this brings up the time line, rotating clockwise or anticlock wise on the iPod jog wheel get to the cue point. The latancy of the iPod in this regards (latancy being the reaction of the controls of the iPod) is pretty good with virtually no delay.
Using the same technique above, you can also create loops although this takes lots of pratice on the iPod, as the controls are not as forgiving as that of a DJ turntable, this being said, if your loop is a few seconds long you can use the same technique as above as follows:
Follow the instructions above, once you play out the cue track, the screen will revert back to the static timeline>> hit the center iPod button, the editable time line will reappear>> rotating on the jog wheel, rotate back to the time stamp of the beginning of the loop>> the iPod will automatically restart the track from that point.
With a bit more refinement you can also create ’scratch-like’ effects as follows:
on the iPod with the track playing, click on the center iPod button to bring up the editable time line, rotate back to the cue time stamp, keep your finger on the iPod jog wheel, gently rock it in time with the rhythm/ beat, you’ll notice that as long as they iPod job wheel responses the track will rock back to that time stamp, making a stuttering type effect on the track. This is nowhere near as effective as true scratching, however, it can be a very effective sound effect in a DJ mix.
Other effects include rapidly presseing the play/pause button, pressing the pause button, pressing the centerl iPod control, rotating back to the cue time stamp, pressing play; and pressing the center iPod control whilst the track is playing, rotating back to the time stamp and letting the track playout.
Whilst these iPod techniques greatly enhance how you can control the music on an iPod when DJing, they do need loads of pratice and getting used to, but they will greatly make the effects and the experience of DJing with an iPod more fun and interesting.
Hopefully in the near future, there will be more functionality added to the iPod that will allow a DJ to control the iPod in a way more similar to DJ turntables or CD decks.
Assuming you’ve chosen not to use some of the iPod DJing units available, there are still ways to take advantage of the iPod in a DJing context.
By treating the iPod as a deck, you’ll need two iPods, preferably with screens but you can opt for an iPod Shuffle, from a cost perspective, the ipod mini or iPod nano, are the best compromise between the needs of iPod DJing and price.
First you need to organize your music on your iPod as shown here.This will help you to overcome some of the challenges DJing on an iPod will present, i.e. Beatmatching.
you need a mixer of some sort, if your on a budget, any basic mixer with two or more channels will do, however if your looking for portability there are mixers that will help you check them out here. Connect up the iPods to each channel.
Select the track you wish to play from one channel, move the cross fader to that channel. in the second channel, select the incoming track, make sure your headphones are hearing that channel, use the pause button, to set the start point. (assuming you have chosen two tracks with the same BPM or the same BPM smartlist on your iPod) once you’re ready, wait for the Beat on the first track and press play on the second track, listen in your headphones and make sure the two are aligned…then move the crossfader accross.
Once the two tracks are aligned you are in the mix, so thats when you can start to doing interesting stuff with the EQ or cross fader. As you can see once you have smartlists of the BPM of tracks and only mix tracks with same BPM, there’s very little difference between iPod DJing and other DJing. No doubt soon there will be an add-on to iTunes and the iPod that will allow you to alter the pitch of your music, this will make the iPod far more DJ friendly and allow DJs to beatmatch properly and with songs of different BPM.
The iPod is an MP3 player, so its not designed to work as a DJ unit, and as such there are limitations. Now many of the new DJ units that take advantage of the iPod such as the Cortex D-mix 300 or the Numark iDJ2 address the shortcomings presented by the iPod.
The main two limitations to the iPod from a DJing perspective are:
1. a lack of pitch altering- this means that track pitch can’t be altered, meaning that on an iPod the speed of a music track can’t be edited, which for a DJ means that you can’t beatmatch accurately.
2. there is no way to scratch music tracks on an iPod, something some DJs see as a necessity.
These flaws greatly affect the performance and usability of the iPod as a DJ tool, in reality its shows that iPod DJing is merely at the beginning stages, just like CD players once were, and natrually as the attraction of DJing with an iPod grows so will the functionality provided by the iPod and its software, indeed this is already happening when you consider the Pacemaker, and if that proves to be popular, it will only be a matter of time before the iPod becomes a truly portable Dj unit. In the mean time there are work arounds to allow you to DJ with an iPod now, check them out here and here.
iPod DJing is still very new to the world of DJing, and certainly the potential of using an iPod for DJing hasn’t been fully explored by DJs most people still see the iPod as an MP3 player, but when you consider an iPod is a small ’simple’ computer then you can begin to see why a device as small and portable as an iPod could be a real asset for DJing, point to note, the Pacemaker is the next step in iPod DJing, and whilst its great, its expensive and a totally different machine, this is really about exploring the iPod as a product range and its function in DJing.
Capabilities: the iPod can play, fast forward, rewind and pause music, as you would expect from any music or MP3 player. The jog wheel is fantastic and one of the control features that sets the iPod apart from other MP3 music players. The iPod software and computer software iTunes are both also very strong in their offering, certainly from a Programming and set planning perspective, and really for any iPod DJ, this is the key focus, after all the iPod isn’t a DJ tool, not, at least, in its current state. Another key strength of the software and one that supports the art of programming a DJ set is the ability to create playlists.
Limitations: The iPod whilst being fantastic with heaps of storage, is first and foremost an MP3 music player, so to Dj on an iPod requires a degree of playing around and working around these limitations, hopefully these will get addressed as the appeal and attraction of DJing grows and a big enough market devlops for DJing on an iPod to justify Apple making a DJ compatible DJ iPod. Another iPod limitation is that there is only one output, so there’s no way to use your headphones to adjust your track whilst another is playing out, for DJing this also a bit of a downer. But lets be realistic, the iPod is an MP3 player, in the same way that a CD player, cassette player or Turntable are music players, basically, despite all their functionality, the iPod is a player, and to use it for DJing, you need to give it some leeway.
Benefits: DJing with an iPod has massive advantages, for one, you can you entire DJ music collection in your pocket, its also fantastic for DJing on the go, and for mobile DJs, its a great backup, saving you space and the curse of the DJ back (backpain from carrying vinyl), if you add to this that DJing on an iPod is still in its infancy, and really the full potential of DJing on an iPod is still being developed, you’ll be ahead of the game. On top of all this, as the iPod is digital, it means you can broadcast your music quickly and easily accross the web and with certain iPod accessories, you can record sounds and music to your iPod, and potentially use them in set literally straight away. All this means that despite some serious limitations, there are solutions to over come them, and the full potential of DJing on an iPod is still yet to come.
Now there are two ways to approach iPod DJing, depending on your budget and how flexible or innovative you want to be. 1. if you have some budget, the easiest and most conventional way to get into iPod DJing, is to get an iPod DJ unit, you can find units like the Cortex Dmix-300 for pretty good prices, and these iPod DJ units are literally like DJing with two decks and a mixer, with jog wheels that control each channel from a single iPod. alternatively 2. you can get two iPods, setup the music with the BPM format mentioned here and get a mixer, if your looking for portability you could look at a micro mixer.
Essentially, DJing on an iPod is fantastic fun, it allows you just as much if not more flexibility as any other form of DJing and allows you to carry your entire collection of music in a unit the size of a cigarette box.
The software for an iPod essentially organizes your music, however if you plan on DJing music on your iPod, you’ll need to consider the limitations and features of iTunes and the iPod and use these to your advantage. Good organization helps when you DJ. Lucky for you here is a decent solution for anyone looking to DJ with an iPod.
First, before moving any further there is one key aspect that needs to be considered: an iPod and the iPod software doesn’t yet allow you as a DJ to alter the pitch on its own, whilst there is DJ equipment that allows you to alter pitch, the iPod itself and iTunes doesn’t currently have a feature to do this, after all this would requre the software to edit the structure of the track. there is however a slight work around, we’ll look at that later.
To organize music on an iPod, you need to look at iTunes. An iPod, stores music naturally in groups, these are as follows:
Artists
Albums
Songs
Genres
Composers
(and podcasts and audiobooks, but we won’t need this)
If you are using the iPod to play music, then usually using the Album group is fine. Now, for the organization.
You can get tools that help you to identify the BPM (Beats per minute) of tracks, these include: beatunes for iTunes on Mac and this manual application, there are loads out there. now once every single track you have has BPM, you want to create Playlists in iTunes, the easiest way to do this is to use the Smart Playlist set the limit range, ie the BPM, now the groups in the playlist section of your iPod contain tracks by BPM.
Next, if you wish to setup other playlists on your iPod, you want to make sure they are allocated a number, by labeling the BPM related playlists as BPM 130, and your normal playlists as 1. xyz when you search through playlists on your iPod you’ll find the BPM playlists grouped together.
With in the playlist, iTunes allows you to dictate the order of your tracks, this is a great opportunity to think about how to order your tracks.
With this your iPod, now allows you to select playlists based on BPM, album, song, artist, and genre. when you are organizing your music, make sure that you enter this information into iTunes.
The iPod was invented launched in 2001 October by Apple. Whilst there were alternative MP3s and music was available online, what the iPod achieved was a success in branding and marketing experience. Essentially the iPod was the turning point in music, allowing whole libraries of music to be contained in a single pocket sized device. The iPod is essentially a mini computer, not to dissimilar to early computers, at the same time the iPod was launched Apple launched iTunes, a software that manages and plays back MP3 music.
As the technology evolved the iPod has gotten smaller and more flexible, paving way for opportunities to DJ and use the iPod as a DJ tool and DJ device that is far more flexible and easy to learn than conventional DJ equipment. As DJing become more and accessible, more and more people are keen to learn how to DJ with out having to spend a fortune on DJ equipment or spend ages having to learn how to use DJ equipment, making the iPod and DJ equipment for the iPod an ideal entry point and starting point for those looking to learn how to DJ.
