Review: DJ Player 4.5 For iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch
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New features
The list of new features below is impressive in itself, however if you look at the relative “footprint” of the app it is now a mere 1.6Mb in size (compared with 17Mb of the previous version). I’m not sure how this is achieved, but it is an incredible feat! Here’s what they’ve crammed in:
- Improved key lock in +/- 16 % range – Full details on the custom key lock functionality were described by the development team in the press release. The main point here is that the key lock functionality sounds really smooth between +/- 16%;here are no gaps or juddering, even on a first generation iPad. You can switch key lock on/off via the “Lock” icon on the deck screen (just above the vinyl-view strip)
- Reverse play If you tap the pitch slider anywhere but the slider, the track will play in reverse momentarily. If you press the “Reverse” icon (near the “Lock” icon!), the track will play in reverse continuously until you press it again. This can be coupled with the “Slip” mode, so the track bounces back to where it should have been
- Artwork and duration display on track list page – The track list page has always been a strong feature of the DJ Player app. The addition of miniature artwork thumbnails gives a more familiar feel to the screen – especially if you’ve come from a background of thumbing through crates of vinyl or boxes of CDs. Duration is a handy addition as well, eliminating that risk of loading a 25-second intro instead of a eight-minute disco monster! With space as a premium on my iPad, I tend to ensure I’ve only loaded tracks over a specific duration anyway
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- Sort by duration – With the addition of duration metadata to the track list page, you can now also sort by duration too
- Improved resolution on all devices including new iPad – With the reduction of app size, it’s clear the developer hasn’t just implemented a standard “Retina Display Support” approach. Typically, when developers improve the resolution of an app, it increases in size and as such takes up more space – even if your device doesn’t have retina display
- Twitter integration – Using this setting, you can automatically or manually post your track detail or device camera photo to Twitter. The neat twist here is that you can choose to have this occur automatically at a given interval or manually at a press of a (“Camera”) button on the mixer page
- “Deck Shark” protection – This is the flipside to the openness of the Twitter integration; it stops other DJs seeing what tracks you’re playing and will not post the current track detail to Twitter (even if auto Twitter posting is enabled). Deck Shark can be activated by tapping the track title on the deck screen