Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Looking good. Might prompt me to actually put some of my DnB onto my N900 :)

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Hey guys, just a little update.

Heres the finished interface, little changes around the place and the addition of the monitor controls where the album art was.

Dont pay too much attention to the XF logo in the middle, it was a two second job to fill the space.

Im working on a design doc that covers all aspects of the app, so when i hopefull get some more people on board its there to follow and help speed things up.

Let me know what you think, and be sure to spread the word about this app. the more people that know, the more chance of getting it made!

Cheers

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Looks nice, im into testing too. But this is only a concept picture ? No coding done yet ?

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Hmm with the current software releases... Seems like maemo is becoming the true xpressmusic of nokia :p

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I dont think ill need testers, there will be regular releases so everyone can be testers.

I have no intention to make this a commercial app that you have to pay for. This is an app the whole community needs (and from the response so far wants), and if the community helps build it and test it, then they deserve it for free even more.

Ive still had no contact from anyone with programming experience..

Hopefully before xmas we can make a start!

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I wish I could help you programme it

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

this will be a great app! for a lot of fun and for a lot of people! Keep up the great work!!

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Quite like the XF logo in the middle :)

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

The picture looks like some equipment that is already existing:
did you really graph this all up?
;-)

If it is an existing application (->?) some porting of the code would be the way.

I've done programming years ago also for GUIs and therefore I wonder how one would manage the little knobs...
Select them and getting a larger image of the knob which you can turn? Select the enlarged knob once more so that it gets small again?

Also "FX" A and B points to some "FX" dialogue (one blue, one orange?)?
How should this look like? (I am no DJ and I think you need a DJ who also codes)

How is the equipment commanded? Via USB?
Is the USB of N900 capable of sending the correct USB commands? Do you get the information for the curves through USB fast enough?

Many questions.

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I'm fairly sure porting mixxx with adjusted skin is the best way forward. in fact I'll try compiling mixxx in scratchbox for the hell of it (hell, with usb-hostmode I could [in theory, I doubt N900 has the power to handle control vinyls] hook up my Serato HW to it)

edit: running into weird issues with scons ("make replacement" I'm not familiar with) and I have other things to do as well so if someone else has gobs of spare time please take a look...

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Oh wow, some code monkeys are here!
Fly my pretties, fly!

That interfacde is all my own art except for the waveforms, i took those from traktor as i wanted actual waveforms from the tracks displayed, better looking if it looks right.

Good idea for the EQ knobs, the idea for those is click them and drag up or down to adjust.

I was inspired by traktor, pacemaker and some other dj gea for the layout design.

The fx buttons are for applying sound filters like reverb, wah, flanger, hi/low pass etc. Clicking and holding pops up the effects menu, then adjust the desired effect and release. Effecg stays on till you kill it, so you could have two going at once by going back in.
Ideal use will be with qwerty shortcut, holding X brings up effects menu so you dont have to go in and out. Realease X and then ypur ready to hit kill when your ready. This will make it easier for when you wanna loop a section and apply effects at the same time.

Im still working on a design doc that covers all functions in degtail, once i post this it will make everything very clear. I think anhyone with any mixing experience will see that this layout + qwerty shortcuts will allow some very fast mixing. Such a small layout and having shortcuts keeps everything so close and fast to access.

I'll be watching hyour progress with your Mixx port, i hope things workout and possibly lead to progress with this app!

Cheers.

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

haha, reading over my post, its funny seeing all my typos.

i just got an otterbox case and im not used to it yet..

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Hi!
I'm a professional DJ and I've been playing for a living 8 years now and I must say that I really like this consept!

I have some suggestions however:

I'd ditch the album art from this layout. Ideally this should be usable without a stylys so make room and strip all the unnecessary components.

I don't think that this device will be able to handle any effects nor mastertempo. I'd initially leave them out - at least until the code is properly optimised.

I'd make the loopdivider (or whatever it's called) arrow-buttons bigger so they'd be more finger-friendly.

I'd also like to see a button that toggles between loop and hotcue buttons.

One thing that I hate about traktor (from whitch most of these elements are borrowed from) is the time only shows time left and not time played. Maybe you could toggle it by touching?

Crossfader should be a bit wider to prevent you from accidentaly touching the track while trying to crossfade.

With the eq's I'd design the interface, so that when you touch the knob there'd like an invisible lever to the knob so you can adjust it with a bigger move. (damn this is hard to explain)

The decks need gain-knob aswell.

What are the eject-buttons for? I assume that they are for accessing the music library?
It's nice touch to put separate 'libraries' for each deck to prevent accidental loading over playing track. Background of these individual libraries should be in their respective colors aswell.
I'd like it to prompt before loading next track if there one currently playing. Or make it so that it loads next track when you stop the deck.

If you intend to use bt-headphones to monitor mixing I'd suggest that you put a separate volume and master-plf fader/knob for them.

Oh and I'd implement a method to adjust pitch-slider accurately by touching either side of the fader (above & below) so it starts slowly moving. It's the same method that is used with serato scratchlive's internal mode...

and I allmost forgot:
pitch-bend buttons! Necessities!

This is my two cents. I'll be lookin closely how this project turns out :) Good luck!

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Sweet, thanks for the suggestions.

The interface has changed from what you commented on. The album art was a temp addition to fill the space. Its a work in progress but a pretty complete one.

I agree on the EQ knobs, i think the best solution is one another forum member suggested, and that is make the selected knob enlarge when touched and perhaps even slightly blur the rest of the interface so it makes the knob the focus point.

Good point with the loop buttons, they should be bigger for fingers as not everyone will want to use a stylus.

The time left / played is a good idea, it could be a touch to toggle option or when shift on the qwerty is held down it changes. Again this could be an option in the preferences page.

Gain knobs will be in, when the shift key is held down on the qwerty, the eq knobs will change to gain controls as well as headphone controls such as mix and level. This way you can listen to the playing track as well as the cued track and control how much of each you hear.

Seperate eject buttons for each deck helps reduce slip ups. There will be an option to toggle a warning when loading a track into a deck with an already loaded/ playing track. Just in case.

I've thought a lot about the monitor setup and i would like to keep away from anything usb. The usb port is a well known problem for the n900, and i would like to keep it free so the phone can be charged while your mixing. I think a headphone jack setup will be best. What setup though i dont know.

Pitch slider ideas are good. Pitch bend though could be another shift key shortcut. The bpm sliders change to pitch bend controls when shift is held down?

Holding down Z could just change the loop controls to the hot cue controls? Pressing the corresponding cue number on the qwerty to trigger?

This is stuff we can work out when things get going.

Thanks heaps man for the suggestions, any ideas you have be sure to post them!

Also spread the word to anyone you might think will find this interesting. The more people that know the more chance to get the project going!

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I've been waiting for a app like this for ages. Only one problem what happens if your showwing off at a party then the phone rings??? Joke.

But seriously I don't think that the device would be able to keep up with the pitch, fx, playing 2 tracks at once. Esspecial if they were to be 320kbps mps you were doing at the time.

The only on way this would be pratical if you could actually lock down the device when the app is loaded, disable un needed processes along with in coming calls. Even better have a option to force the phone to go into offline mode basicaly. I run my bad boy @ 1GHZ so I think I could possible get away with is but dont forget the basic coding for the processor is locked @ 500dsp ( I think anyway, unless some one has got around this already? :s )

For the Idea 9/10 so my device will be up for testing. It would be interesting to see how I get on with it, I used to use timecodes with my old cd mixers, not I got usb ones though. I'd be able to play at a house party and plan the mix or practice on the way there. Not that I don't pay full atention to the road 8-)
Nore my typing by the looks of it. So I shal leave you that, actually screw it. 10/10 I'd like this project to come alive.

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Someone over at the Mixxx forums doubted the N900's ability to handle such an app, but i honestly think it can.

I can run traktor with 4 decks with no problems on my 1ghz laptop with only 512mb memory.

Putting your phone into offline mode might be a good idea to gain some more resources and help stop any unwanted communications interrupting the audio.

Oh and if the phone rings while your mixing, dont answer it, adjust your bpms and mix the ringtone into your set!

Years ago when i worked in a supermarket, the store phone would ring over the pa and sometimes would be in sync with the music playing. Classic.

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

If this can be done, it will be amazing. Honestly, having used a few of these apps on the pc, I don't know if the n900 is powerful enough. But hey, if you can pull it off, you'll be a hero in my eyes. :p

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

s13n1: is it out yet ?

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

In general I like the idea of such app. But I would rather prefer little bit austere UI and more finger friendly controls. Attached is just a quick sketchup I made (links to full sized .png). I have even more ideas in the head already but didn't have time to incorporate them (namely the waveform area showing the whole song overview and zoomed beats together - something like in one of the djdecks user made skins).

One other thing, how would one realize the prelistening of the track? Would be the master routed to i.e. left channel and cue to the right? This would degrade the production to a mono master output :-( With the external soundcard connected via USB it would be easy (H-E-N required then) but the drivers would be the issue I guess.

Anyway, even the version without prelistening would be fun! Keep going!

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Blurring the background (if N900 and Qt can
handle this) is a development of my knob-enlargement idea. :-)

Maybe the knob should rather be like the big one in
http://cdn.tentec.com/9.jpg
or this one
http://images.trustedreviews.com/ima...336-CDJtop.jpg
I do not remember the exact GUI name for this currently...

Various other knob designs are here:
http://www.g200kg.com/en/software/index.html
http://nknobman.codeplex.com/
http://www.lesliesanford.com/Temp/TCHELICONharmonyG.png

I also like the knobs with number display:
http://www.g200kg.com/image/software/rovee100.png
but I am not sure if this is helpful in this case.
;)


I'd avoid the overloaded look of ZynAddSubFX:
http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/
but this also has some other GUI ideas.


Edit: http://qmidictl.sourceforge.net/qmidictl-index.html seems to have some "beginning GUI elements".

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I think ill stick with a knob design thats similar to what ive made, but when pressed, it will perhaps double in size and a + or - percentage value appear on it so you know what the level is.

Thanks for your knob suggestions though!

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I still think that my idea of eq-knob is the most intuitive :D sorry for braggin' .
It's like you press the knobb, move your finger away from the knob - while touching the screen - and then start adjusting by rotating around the knob.

Oh and about the monitoring...
I still think that using bt-headphones is the only feasible way to go.
I think that the most simple way to implement hp monitoring is to do it like it's done on pioneers djm-400:
- when neither is selected for plf, you'll hear what's going on at master out.
-when on is selected, you'll hear the selected from the left side and master from right.
-when you select both, you'll hear both irregardless of the crossfader position.

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Using traktor without a usb controller, the use is pretty quick and easy. Just click and hold then drag up or down. In the heat of a mix you want it to be as fast as possible. Up and down, easy peasy.

BT headphones im not sure about, whats the latency like? I think a simple headphone jack setup with the right splitter will be best. Having BT running is more resources too, i reckon it will eat up a bit.

Thanks for all these ideas, nothings ruled out till things are tested.

I cant wait for things to start progressing!

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

That would be great! I`m already using Staton SCS.3d but only one. I can`t wait to have another one that can be used from my phone..:)

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I'm new here to maemo.org! I signed up just to help and support N900!! I'm a virtualDJ user and I think a DJ app would be great!

I recently purchased a ipod touch just so i can use the dj programs they have. http://async-games.com/ has a great app.

http://async-games.com/images/baby_buttons.png

I think if you can follow this concept you'd have less of a hassle coding..

but then again this is only a dj scratch program.


all in all i do like how your layout is looking.

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I'm expecting to have the first "good-enough" version by January 2011. ;)
By that time, I'll need testers because i don't have the real thing, so I'm just guessing all MIDI codes from mappings tables that I've searched in the Web. :p

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Maybe this issue has been talked before, so sorry if it is.

Is it possible to have two different audio outputs out of N900 simultaneously, for example wired 3.5mm and Bluetooth-A2DP?

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I don't have the real thing too, but If you need help, I can test it :D

@s13n1, I use traktor too, and I think that your "skecthes" are awesome ;)

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

uh, not that im aware of..

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I think anyone who mixes tunes regularly knows that if you want serious features, you buy serious hardware.

This is a phone app, things will be kept simple and pocketable.

There will be no usb sound card setup, if theres monitoring it will be a headphone jack setup and a simple one at that. i can use traktor and my pacemaker without monitoring because i know my tunes.

They layout is a good size for fingers but will be better soon. I dont think there is any more information you need on screen.

This is a simple dj app for a phone that will have more then enough features to mix very well.

Things are real busy right now, as soon as i get more time ill upload some more pics and infol.

Still chasing help too!

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I don't think that someone will change a serious hardware by a phone app...

But, this will be an awesome application for people that like Djing.

It's good for that moments that you are waiting for something. Instead of playing games, you mix :D

BTW, Sorry my English :)

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

It could use jackL/R as track A/B (if connected to a mixer w crossfader) and a bluetooth headset as monitor. Or simply jack as stereo output and Bt monitor.

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

And why not connect normal headphones to the mixer then? just a thought :)

But yes... multiple output cinfigurations would be nice :)

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

I have used twice N900 as a "DJ" source (with Instinctiv). Just connected to the amplifier and basically queued songs out of it. No other DJ equipment was in use because the main thing was the live band on these small work related parties. Before the band started and after it stopped, my N900 was used as a music entertainer.

Having possibility to listen out from monitor headphones would had been nice, because other people also were queuing new songs and would had wanted to listen abit what kind of stuff there was available while main song queuing would not have been interrupted.

So having simultaneous different audio output from 3.5mm wired, Bluetooth A2DP, and/or FM-transmitter (?) would be nice, and possibility to work as a stand alone mode without any other DJ equipment but amplifier. Of course then BT- or FM-headset would have to be with to use this option.

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

What happend to the app. any news?

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

i just downloaded a dj app in nitdroid with two turn tables and it works good and there is more.....
so i wish we can get the same in maemo???

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Here's a video demo of my DJ app:

http://djditz3.no.sapo.pt/dscn.png

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Looks good, is it already in repos ?

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

Not yet.. still needs some work...
hopefully by the end of January I'll put it in...

Re: Cross Fade DJ App
 

hope it does come out, for the vegas trip !!!!