Belkin are a pretty cool company, they make loads of accessories for iPod, and Apple even stock their products on the Apple store site. the Belkin iPod audio mixer is really a music composers dream tool, for DJing its not really that kind of mixer, but if you have a studio setup, then its one of those nice to have tools. Essentially it’s a mixer with 4 channels with the ability to record directly to a 5th gen iPod, you can tell its been specifically designed for the iPod as on the right side you see an iPod do, complete with ED level indicators and XLR connectors. Each channel has 3 EQs for the high, mid and low range and in addition you have pan (left to right) and level controls as well, giving you a whole range of flexibility when it comes to building up the different channels. As far as iPod mixers go, this is really the only one designed for a recording and production environment, the quality of Belkin is retained in this product along with the price and the additional feature of being able to transfer from the mixer to an iPod or a computer makes this a great portable solution for the mobile DJ or musician.
iPods benefit for having their own software, in the form of iTunes. Whilst this is great for organizing your music on your iPod. In order to DJ with an iPod, you’ll also want to have some additional software, and while your at it, so DJ software on your computer as well (1. cause its fun and 2. to help support your DJing on an iPod).
Here are some very useful software that will help you to both organize music in a DJ -able format and help with you DJ on your iPod.
YamiPod 1.6 - This allows you to make backups of iTunes, one of the inherent problems with iTunes is that it only allows an iPod associated with that specific iTunes to sync, your mates iPod would sync and you wouldn’t be able to transfer their music to your iTunes, naturally this was put in place to prevent pirating of music. YamiPod is an open source iPod program that allows you to back up your iPod, so if your tracks are on your iPod and you end up with a new computer and a new iTunes, you can still transfer your music across quickly and easily with your iPod. To add to this, you can edit song information, import lyrics, read copy and edit playlists. One unique feature is the ‘repair iPod’ feature which allows you to restore the database of music on your iPod.
iTunes BPM inspector (when you get to the site click more and scroll down), this is a fantastic tool that helps you calculate BPM, which for any DJ is useful and to key your music organized on an iPod for DJing, this is invaluable. This works by tapping out the beat. Beatunes is another iPod software that does this as an automated process, however, whilst its good, there can be times when the BPM is not measured accurately, usually when the music is very complex with no obvious beat.
Beatport.com - beatport offer a download of their DJ software which is really a cut down version of Traktor, the great thing about this is that Beatport are great for downloading music for your iPod and they specialize in DJ music.
These iPod and iTunes compatible programs will help you to iPod DJ and keep your music in order.
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.
