Hands on Review – Pacemaker, the Spotify iPad DJ app

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Hands on Review – Pacemaker, the Spotify iPad DJ app

The rise of streaming services has recently caught the attention of DJ software developers, with pulselocker being released late last year and now Pacemaker, a spotify exclusive DJ application for the iPad that we reported here.

Free on the appstore for iPad right now, Pacemaker features a two channel mixing, eq, gain, looping and cue control. Extra features such as effects cost $1.99 each or can be bundled for $10.49.

I wasn’t expecting much opening the app for the first time. A majority of existing iOS DJ apps just plain suck – laggy controls, iffy beatmatching issues, bad mp3 integration and single channel audio. With the exception of traktor on iOS, I haven’t found a half-decent mixing application I would even consider using outside the comfort of my own headphones.

While Pacemaker is far from flawless, I was pleasantly surprised by the polish of the UI and integration of playlists from your spotify account. In its current state I can see pacemaker being a fun novelty at a house party, though in its current state its far from viable in any kind of club setting.

Breakdown of my thoughts on the pros and cons of Pacemaker

Pros

  • Integration with spotify music collection (Over 20 million songs) 
  • Responsive, polished and simple UI
  • Multitouch mixer – eq your A track while you’re effecting your B track
  • Sync, with traditional tempo and nudge controls.
  • Waveforms of songs
  • Split audio – send one cue channel and one master mix
  • FREE!

Cons

  • Two channels
  • One cue point per track as far as I can tell, which doesnt save
  • No separate volume faders – just the crossfade
  • Any effects besides EQ cost $1.99 each
  • Impressive cue control – a zoomable waveform would be great!
  • No track preview
  • Can’t record mixes that include streamed songs from spotify

Grab it from the appstore and give it a try: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pacemaker/id593873080?ls=1&mt=8

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