iPod DJing, is great, as it allows you to DJ with out a bulky laptop, this however doesn’t mean that you can do away with a laptop altogether, after all, an iPod needs iTunes and a laptop to organize and load music from interestingly DJ programs can be quite pricy and not all are compatible with iTunes or the iPOd, the DJ1800 however was creative with this in mind, and allows you to work with iTunes and DJ at the same time, making it the perfect DJ software for iPoD DJs, its a strictly Mac affair with makes it all that much more iPod friendly, and has interesting functions lik Pitch lock, which allows you to alter tempo with out affecting pitch. It comes with the flexibilty for two out put mode, 1. via the head phone port and a secondary out put, or via a multi channel external sound card, the DJ1800 is also compatible with various MIDI controllers so you can Dj from your laptop, a fully documented plugin API means that for any tech geeks out there, you can create your own plugins and controllers, making ti possible to convert an iPod or an iPhone into a controller for the DJ1800.
Specifically for the iPod, the iTunes libary is fully integrated into DJ1800, there is also plug and play support of any iPod, like-wise for the iPhone, or iPod Touch, perhaps most significantly the DJ1800 allows you to save mixes, StartPoint, AutoGain and BPM values to iTunes and therefore your iPod, iPhone and iPod Touch. You can find more information on DJ1800 here.
SO today marks the announcement by Apple that a new iPod has been launched, this, the new iPod nano is the christmas feature unveiled by Steve Job, this iPod is designed to be skinnier, and cheaper than other iPods and is rumored to be longer, thinner and with a larger curved screen. In the same unveiling the iPod Touch was also going to get an upgrade of memory and a long awaited price cut. Also out was a new iTunes, iTunes 8 with some great new features but for DJs, sadly not much.
As for the new iPod Nano I personally don’t think its going to be a big dent for iPod DJs, or iPod Djing, your Numark IDJ or cortex dmix might need an upgrade for the software to be compatible.
if youre looking to DJ with your iPod, then these new hardware upgrades really won’t have a significant impact, as iPod Djing doesn’t rely on the iPod other than as memory, so unless you’re a cool trend setter, theres no need to chuck your first gen iPod in the bin just yet.
The idea of DJing with an iPod has been bounced around since the first generation of iPod was released in to the market, as the price of iPods has come down, and the higher end iPods such as the iPod touch becoming more functional the desire to DJ using an iPod in a portable manner has grown. Whilst there have been creations such as the Pacemaker, this is a totally different tool and probably doesn’t suit most peoples budgets. It comes as no surprise the there have been attempts to create a portable iPod DJing device. One of the most functional and fun is this little Japanese creation, its basically a case that holds two iPods, each with a volume fader on either side and each installed with the Linux base iScratch software, this then feeds into a single output which plays out the headphones and/or an amp, it’s home made and still doesn’t tackle the problem of adjusting the pitch which has been a persistent problem in iPod DJing.
Here’s a little treat for you iPhone and iPod touch DJs, the video shows another new program for iPod touch and iPhone users that allows the iPod touch and iphone as a Midi controller for Ableton, it brings the concept of a midi controller a step more in line with with iPods than the PS2 midi controller.
Because the iPod touch and iPod phone are wi-fi enabled and can browse the internet via the iPod touch screen, this means that online applications, web apps can be created to be used in conjunction with the wi-fi enabled format, all that is needed is for the screen size to take into consideration the iPod touch and iPod phone, screen size. This is again good news for iPod DJing fans, as now you can have web based programs that you can access via your iPod touch or iPod phone and whats more they are web based so they won’t take up memory space on the iPod or iPod phone. As yet a quick look on the apple site I couldn’t find any webapps particularly relevant to DJing on the iPod, however, I’m sure as popularity grows more DJing related web apps will start to appear, for the time being this is the only DJing related iPod webapp I could find, check it out here.
Apple have recently launched the iPod touch SDK Developers program, iPod touch and iPhone Developer Program provides a complete and integrated process for developing, debugging, and distributing free, commercial, or in-house applications native to iPhone and iPod touch. It comes complete with development resources, real-world testing on iPhone, and distribution on the App Store, so you have everything you need to go from code to customer.
For normal DJs and iPod users this is pretty insignificant, in that we wouldn’t need to ever handle this kind of stuff, however for programmers and developers this has huge implications, allowing them to create applications that run native on the iPod and iPhone… why would us iPod DJing fans care?
Well, there’s been plenty of noise made about creating an iPod application that allows you to DJ on the iPod, iPod touch, or iPhone without the need for a third party controller or without having to Jailbreak the iPhone.
There are a few applications that already allow you to DJ on an iPhone, but non are really full spec DJ applications and really don’t do the iPod any justice.
Anyways, if you’re an iPod fan, and a DJ and a Developer, then this might be of use to you.
The fifth beta version of the iPhone SDK includes Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks and samples, compilers, and Shark analysis tool. Has now been launched and its free to trial, here.
For those of you who are really serious, there is the iFund, a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform, provided by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
