Ask The DJ for Mac

User Reviews

• Doesn't Launch on Snow Leopard (10.6.3) & no support.

  boa1May 30, 2010

  Pros

  In the package comes "BPMer" which works pretty well (however, will only work on about half of your songs because its in demo mode until you license it.) "Ask the DJ" I can't even evaluate as the app crashes on launch.

  Cons

  App crashes in 10.6.3 on launch. The contact email doesn't yield a response. And, none of the apps in the package will unlock unless you enter the license key into Ask the DJ (which won't launch long enough to enter the license key.)

  Summary

  Currently broken and unusable with no response from the creators regarding the problem. The suite of three apps are are either broken (Ask the DJ) or remain in demo mode (BPMer, AccuBeatMixer) because the only place to unlock them is from Ask the DJ. From what I can tell about BPMer it would be a good tool if I could get it out of demo mode. Ask the DJ could also be a good app if it would launch... and I have no idea about AccuBeatMixer since I can't even get it to run because its also lock in demo (boat anchor) mode. At this point I'm applying for a refund.

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• Works reasonably well within its own restrictions

  souveekray klyDecember 23, 2006

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I tried version 2 with a few songs and it works reasonably well. It calculates the BPM of songs accurately but sometimes loses track of the rhythm in the song (at least it seems so based on the animation of the character and the bouncing of the track name that are synced to the beat, nice touch). Basically it prefers straight-4 beats played from start to end. I didn't try throwing â??difficultâ?? tracks at it with hard to detect beats, etc. Based on the info in the help, it will not work with those types of songs, so don't bother. As for the actual mixing of tracks (in Smart Cross-fade mode) ... it sort of works. It sets the speed of the next track to the current speed, then tries to match the rhythm of the two songs with varying degrees of success, fades the volume from the current to the next song and then rather quickly changes the speed of the new song back to its original speed. The end result is that you have the equivalent of an amateur DJ mixing your tracks. Sometimes it sounds pretty good, sometimes it's just way off the mark. For a party with a couple of friends where it doesn't really matter this is a fun way to play your tracks. I wouldn't use it at a real party though :) The CD interface is nice and works well on my MBP. The mixing behavior can be improved, e.g. by slowly matching the speed of the playing song to the next one while playing or something else to make the mixes less noticeable, but for now it's ok. One thing though: in the track listing I would expect the "Genre" column to be present, esp. since the app only works well with a select few of them. 6.5 out of 10

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• Doesn't work as advertised, no response from...

  aetherosFebruary 27, 2006

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  ...developer<br />This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />It does not store BPM in my tracks as advertised, and all e-mails to developer have gone unanswered.

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• Great idea - poor playback performance and GUI

  horstlNovember 8, 2005

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />When I read the description, I was thrilled. However, after downloading and trying it out there is also some serious downsides: <UL> <LI>The GUI looks nice, but is impractical <LI>Even worse, the playback is choppy and unusable </UL> If these two things get fixed, ideally to the point where I get a full integration of the features into the iTunes Party Jukebox, this would be a clear five star candidate. <P> For now, I give it 2 stars for a cool idea, the automatic BPM counting, and automatic in/out point selection.

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• VERY NICE!

  tjrydzaSeptember 25, 2004

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Love this app! Finally just click the songs and let the COMPUTER do the work. Thank you! For those who criticize it, make your own app then and let us rate it... Only suggestion is that the background of the CD be lightened so text can be read more easily.

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• Could be better...

  Pelota locaJune 28, 2003

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />This product is unusable on my G4. The GUI is very bad for real DJ, but the beat match engine is great. Just a request for the developpers : please, make a good GUI instead of a nice one (but hard to code for you) and focus on the real purpose of your program : mixing songs. The beat match engine is great, but for instance on my G4 the mp3 engine is unable to play correctly VBR encoded songs. The song skipped all the time while played.

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• I don't agree

  jlvaleroJune 11, 2003

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />NO, the interface is not ugly it is only unbalanced; the color relationship between the danser, the disc and the buttons. I'd like user settings for that. BUT ! the disc manip is fabulous and dances to a different drummer: Finally something a far cry from eternal vertical lists: a swirl one ! . I give 5 stars to psych the developer up. Hello you, don't become discouraged by a few humdrum thoughts.

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• CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

  Big Bad BillJune 11, 2003

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />This looks like a great program, but I can't tell because it keeps crashing. Serious stability issues. This is a BETA right?

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• Wonderfull software!

  Stine ©June 3, 2003

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Now this app is worth a try.. Then you find it worth the buy.. It's addictive! I've tried many playlists, put 'sensibility' to the max, and exported as audio. I agree with the others: get rid of the silly animated dancer!

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• Not bad, not bad....

  lannister80May 17, 2003

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I have been looking FOR YEARS for a Mac program (OS X or otherwise) that does exactly this. I agree, the interface, while clever, is ugly. The dancing chick is strange and distracting, but who cares really, I'm interested in the beat-matching. The BPM engine isn't bad, out of the ten songs I've tried it tagged 8 of them with the correct BPM. The incorrect ones are really around 140 but were tagged in the low 90's. Most of the transitions (between correctly tagged BPM songs) were flawless, while a few were ugly with the infamous "double beat". This program has great promise, but needs some improvement. Three stars, good start!

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