Tablets (ipads etc ) and Dj Controllers the future

I use a laptop (Traktor) but my gear (Denon) has its own music management software that works on an iPad and I’m seriously considering going down this route if it agrees with my M.O.
Marco makes an important point above, you can plug more stuff into a laptop and they’re generally more powerful than a tablet. My Denons would handle the music processing and my mixer has fx on it already, the iPad would simply be a music display tool, so power and usb ports wouldn’t be a problem in my particular case. This is worth bearing in mind if you’re considering tablet DJing, what exactly is doing your sound processing and where’s your storage?

The point is that laptops are far from old fashioned when it comes to DJ work, and given their connectivity they have far more utility than a tablet anyway. Do your own thing if it works for you 🙂

I own (and use) a Numark iDJ Pro that I use for quick and/or simple gigs, like playing for my own American Football team during home games. It’s ok with the DJAY app it’s “made” for. It’s infinitely better with DJ Player which has a very nice mapping. BUT … (there always seems to be a but, doesn’t there) … I use Cross for my laptop and currently the Cross iPad app does not do portrait mode, which is necessary in the iDJ Pro. And since I don’t want to keep two track collections (both all done up with cuepoints, droppoints, beatgrids, etx.), I will probably end up selling the iDJ Pro.

I think the concept is strong. Modern day iPads have plenty of processing power for this kind of job. I think the mechanics of hooking up the iPad, usually on some lame bracket at the back of the controller where it is easy for drunk guests to lean on and break something, is shabby at best. Numark did THAT right with incorporating the iPad inside the actual controller.

The touchscreen is great for many FX applications. It’s way more compact and easier to hook up than a laptop, slide it in, one connector on the iPad, two to the speakers (and perhaps one to booth) and a mic and headphone. Not much not to love.

Obviously the connectivity issues are real. And your controller HAS to charge your iPad while playing or you WILL run out of steam before the night is over.

In the case of using Engine (with Denon gear) or RekordBox (with Pioneer gear), using an iPad makes perfect sense. Even though it is nothing more than a glorified track browser/loader, it WAYYYYY beats the little displays on CDJ-like device (high-end Denon displays are acceptable, the CDJ-2000 displays are better). The iPad suddenly makes for a much more enjoyable experience. Used this way I don’t consider it digital DJ-ing though. It really is just replacing the CDJ screens with something bigger and with touch capacity.

It needs to connect through (wireless) network, so be sure to have all devices hooked up and your router with you.

Greetinx.

As far as I know there is no possibility to connect a controller to an android device although mixvibes seems to be working on such a feature. Currently you can hook your Android device up to a mixer, but that’s it and seems kind of pointless to me.