Comments on: Deckadance Ships, with Extensive MIDI Controller, Vinyl Timecode, VST Support

By: Create Digital Music » Deckadance DJ Software Now in Beta for Mac

Create Digital Music » Deckadance DJ Software Now in Beta for Mac — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:16:01 +0000

[...] Ed.: Deckadance DJ software has been on our radar for some time on the DJ software front: lots of MIDI control (with one caveat; see below), agnostic support for multiple vinyl timecode systems, and most interestingly the ability to run the whole app as a VST plug-in. Dreams of loading Deckadance into Ableton Live danced through DJs heads. The app even added built-in support for Nintendo Wii remotes. But the software, from the development house that brought us FL Studio (”Fruity Loops”) was Windows only. No more: [...]

By: KevO'Music

KevO'Music — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:31:31 +0000

I’ve tried just deckadance - seems worth it, especially the relooper thing, i’m into looping a lot..

By: Evil Paul

Evil Paul — Fri, 11 May 2007 07:18:05 +0000

I’ve been looking forward to this one beacause of its’ potential for computer-based scratching. For an idea of how well the FL studio scratch engine works, check out:

http://klanglabs.siliconemusic.com/-spyro-/mouse_skills.html

This guy can really cut it up on the virtual decks, using a laser mouse. With any luck, Deckadance brings even more to the table.

By: DJ McManus

DJ McManus — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:54:59 +0000

Guys, the degree to which your tracks are quantized is controlled by you. Assign fewer markers and don’t use the global quantize function. Let’s not get hysterical here.

I never said you had to squish P-Funk tracks into Kraftwerk, but if you want to you can. Isn’t that part of the insane sonic mayhem that Peter was getting at? You can’t do that with Deckadance.

Were talking about DJing software and my point was that in terms of beat matching ability Live has it on all others, hands down. Traktor can’t even handle a couple shifts in tempo.

Yeah, pile on all the extras if you like but I’m saying that Live is rock solid with the foundation, WHEN YOU CHOO-CHOO-CHOOSE TO USE IT. All the flashy extras of vst tempo synced effects, your vocodered mic freestyles, and rewired glitched synth pads aren’t gonna add anything if the two tracks you have synced as a base are skittering about slightly out of sync.

Peace in tha Middle East!

By: corporation

corporation — Thu, 10 May 2007 17:49:49 +0000

i’ve tried it out with my vci-100.

it doesn’t seem to have the scratch start up problem that traktor has - but it’s vinyl emulation seems too computer/robot/digital like. traktor seems to have deckadance beat in that department.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:04:24 +0000

James, I tend to agree, but then beatmatching is only one DJ technique … so anyone’s who’s doing a set that’s about quantization is probably missing the point, anyway. Ableton is capable of creating some insane sonic mayhem, too, and of making it easier to bring in performance elements, so that’s where I think there’s lots of potential.

And I think what McManus is saying is right — but that should be all the more reason, with everything quantized in that way, to extend what’s happening musically/sonically from that point.

By: james

james — Thu, 10 May 2007 09:41:47 +0000

the smooth beatmatching is exactly what’s wrong with ableton for djs.. nothing more illustrative of a dj who’s missed the point than the anodyne sound of perfectly matched perfectly quantised computer-music…

By: DJ McManus

DJ McManus — Thu, 10 May 2007 07:34:01 +0000

Behringer BCD2000 & 3000 (though interestingly not Behringer’s DJ controller),

Aren’t those the Behringer DJ controllers?

I tried the demo and thought it was similar to Traktor but not as nice looking or flexible.

I would love to try Torq but there is no demo. That looks to be the best of the bunch to me.

I agree with the to little too late as there are a dozen programs that do most of this. If you really want VSTs and all that then LIVE is a great choice.

Also, if you put aside rewiring, effects, remixing, and all that, Ableton Live does the absolute best job of beatmatching bar none. With all the extra bling people seem to overlook that it does the smoothest mixes ever. You are mixing with all the beats matched not just the 1s of each bar. Maybe not the sexiest feature but probably the most important for a DJ.

Just my 2 cents.

By: yermo

yermo — Thu, 10 May 2007 06:28:09 +0000

tried this with my xone3D an got really excited. this gives me more features over tracktor because of the vst support and sampler. together in live this thing is rocking. few glitches as when loading new tracks in it, gui really slows down, but I didn’t find any major problems. hope image line will keep developing this piece as i’m buying this. :)

By: onyxashanti

onyxashanti — Thu, 10 May 2007 04:04:55 +0000

hmmm…thats a good question. i’m sure it probably does, but i never tried because i only ever just needed them to play together…not in sync. i will try and see and report back