Last summer, I reviewed the Tonium Pacemaker, which is a great little tool for a new DJ or hobbyist. Recently, I got my hands on some more serious hardware, the EKS Otus.
What Is EKS Otus?
The Otus is a way to get more hands on with your digital DJing. I see a lot of DJs with software and many with traditional decks, but how many mix the two? I don’t know, but that’s just what the Otus does. For DJs comfortable with their craft and who have good software to mix their music, the Otus gives them hands on control. For people like me, it makes DJing easier.
What It Does And How To Us It
EKS has some pretty user-friendly instructions on their web site to get everything set up, but I still had some problems getting it going, even after I realized that I needed to map all the channels per the instructions. Eventually, I found that I just needed to make sure I started the EKS Midi Agent first, then Deckadance, then plugged in the Otus via USB. The USB is also the power source, so my testing consisted of just my laptop with it’s power cable, headphones, USB to the Otus, and the Otus, itself. For such a device, it’s really portable for a DJ who travels. The Otus should fit nicely in a backpack with a laptop.
Some of it’s capabilities, it seems, are going to depend on the software you pair it up with. As long as you have the right software, however, it does just about anything I could imagine a DJ needing to do with music. The most prominent feature is the 7.5 inch jog wheel that lets you adjust pitch by touching on the outside or scratch by touching the surface while spinning. To the left of the jog wheel I found the master volume and cross-fade control knobs. Above those were the left track control knobs for bass, mid, treble, and headphone volume. The top right of this device has the same four knobs for the right track. Below the right track control knobs are seven loop control buttons to trap or release a loop and control how long or short it is. Below these knobs is a pitch ribbon with a button to adjust the scale. On the bottom left, opposite the pitch ribbon is a set of general playback control buttons, including three to remix on the spot. Dead center at the bottom is the layer control button and directly above it at bottom center is a touch pad with two mouse buttons and a set of six programmable action buttons. On the back is the USB connection, headphone jack, analog RCA outputs for both virtual decks, and S/PDIF outputs for both virtual decks, as well. The whole thing rests on four pointed rubber feet to minimize vibration interference.
For this review, I downloaded and installed something called Deckadance (per instruction from the EKS web site), which was only a time-limited demo. I’m not sure if it’s the Club or House version, but either way, the purchase price of $99 or $179, respectively, seemed worth it. It would be nice to see some basic free software packaged with the Otus, but I imagine this device’s target customer will already have something like Deckadance in use. A professional DJ might also have been able to do a lot more than I did with the Otus, but I still got plenty of action out of it.
Of course, there’s the basics, like messing with the EQ controls, cross-fade and cue points, but there’s also some pretty cool controls like the three buttons to the left of the play/pause button that accessed randomly configured reloopers which could also be mapped out very specifically if needed via the software. I was able to program each differently for varying effects. With Deckadance, I was able to have six different reloopers set up, three for each deck. The loop control buttons also made it very easy to set up a loop, and adjust the length as it loops. Between the reloopers, the jog wheel, and the loop controls, I was able to create some familiar effects that actually sounded decent, if I do say so myself.
Everything is lit up green or red, depending on what track you’re controlling, and looks pretty cool. It would also be very helpful in a dark club, especially since some of the control buttons are pretty small and close together. One of the more unique features of the Otus is the four control wheels placed handily at its corners. They can be programmed to meet your own needs such as rapid movement through a track, file and folder selection, pitch and volume. While I didn’t use these a lot in my testing, they came in handy when I did use them with one exception. I found myself turning to the track pad to mouse through my track lists rather than use one of these control wheels because it was faster and felt more natural.
Also programmable, as mentioned previously were the six action buttons. I used these for recalling cue points, but they had far more possibilities, many I didn’t even have time to touch on. These were actually touch pads rather than buttons, so you had to either hear what you expected or watch for it on your laptop. Similarly, the pitch ribbon was a touch sensitive pad, which made precision a little tricky.
Final Thoughts
Although I was able to keep the EKS Otus for a lot longer than expected, holidays and other circumstances prevented me from giving it the time it really deserved and after using it, I really wanted to hold on to it longer. What I did experience was nothing short of magical, even if it could use a couple minor adjustments like the placement of the headphone jack or the tiny loop control buttons. For the price, it’s worth it, but only if you’re going to put it to good use as a pro or just have the money to spend. Portable, powerful, and good looking, I’d say any professional DJ should add this to his or her arsenal.
I’m no DJ, but I know cool tech when I see it, and when I was sent a Tonium Pacemaker to review, I had a good feeling I’d like it. The Pacemaker is essentially a music player with dual outputs, a large hard drive, and mixing capabilities crammed into a tiny package. It’s like a DJ’s travel kit. Having mostly no clue how to really DJ, I decided to enlist the help of local musician and club DJ, Brian Forge for this review.
It’s got the look
Part of being a DJ is your image and who doesn’t want hardware that looks cool? From the pacemaker itself right down to every detail of the packaging, Tonium put out a great looking product. When you open the box, everything in it is in it’s own special place and in it’s own smaller black box, including the user manual which is also black and made to look cool. This thing oozes cool every step of the way. The Pacemaker is all black and it’s small… like, cell phone small. Well, maybe a little bigger than my iPhone, but for DJ equipment, that’s not much of a footprint.
Immediately noticeable are the two main components of the Pacemaker on its face: the display on top and the touch control on the bottom. The color display packs in a lot of information while you’re mixing, and looks pretty good. The touch interface is pretty smooth after you figure it out. Before you figure it out, it’s pretty frustrating trying to make anything happen, but it doesn’t take long to learn. Between the display and the touch pad is a touch slider to control the blending of the left and right tracks and with it are some more controls. On the side is a button that you can slide up for the headphone output. One end has the output and power jacks while the other end has the power button, a menu button, and the USB port. Inside this tiny package they’ve crammed a 60GB hard drive and I’ve seen other reviews with claims of 120GB drives.
The software and community Speaking of the internal hard drive, that’s where the software for your laptop or desktop is kept. No CD needed. Just plug the Pacemaker in and it prompts you to install the mix software on your PC. Don’t try it on Windows 7 RC1, though, because Brian did and it did not play very nice. It’s not an official release of the OS, so I didn’t expect it to. On XP, however, the software installed and offered some pretty cool features. It did have some problems dealing with us loading up the same track multiple times and trying to overlap it, but it also smartly prevented us from adding conflicting affects to the same spot on the timeline. The software, like the Pacemaker, is well-designed and has a lot to offer the rising DJ.
Better still is the mix community. Tonium is plans for this device to not replace all the expensive pro equipment, but rather to provide an open doorway for amateur DJs and those of us who just want to play. One of the great things about the device is that, aside from the obvious loading of tracks onto the Pacemaker, you can import and export mixes, completely layered with the cue points and blends you or another mixer created. So let’s say you throw down an awesome mix and you’re proud of it and want to share. You can export the mix to your computer and upload it to the mix site where others can listen, download and rate it. How’s that for community interaction? If it’s good enough, your mix might get featured and linked to from the newsletter. The mix site is a great idea that will surely help some newbies feel more comfortable with the Pacemaker.
Forge to the rescue
When found this thing in my mail box, my first thought was of how cool it was and if I could keep it (sadly, no), and my second thought was, “I’m not a DJ. How am I going to really review the capabilities of this thing?” So I called in a DJ. Brian Forge has been DJing for a long time and has been asked to guest DJ in other cities and over the weekend, he was nice enough to drop by the office for a few hours and try out the Pacemaker.
The Pacemaker is a great little piece of equipment. It features many, if not more, features than you find with standard CDJ units. All the basics are covered and there are many other FX available to play with. The interface does take some time to get used to though. I only had a short time to familiarize myself with the features and functions but as I caught on, I was able to navigate rather well. I could easily see myself using this while traveling. Whether to practice certain mixes, experiment with ideas, or even practicing and keeping myself entertained, this would come in handy. I do feel there are certain limitations though. I was not impressed with the way their cue system is set up. It makes it difficult to properly set cue points. It is a bit cumbersome to navigate a track once you set a cue point and even more difficult to reset one once it is laid. As with CDJs, you can only lay down one cue point at a time. Because navigation is a bit tricky, controllerism is a moot point with the Pacemaker. You will not be able to scratch or bring in FX on the fly. You have to hit the switch, and perform the most accurate of finger movements to just bring up the right FX, let alone control them. However the touch interface does seem to work well for basic DJing. Especially the crossfader. With proper practice, the sensitivity allows for some clean and accurate cutting between tracks.
Overall, I think this is an amazing little device. The limitations I have seen I believe are purely because of how hard it is to pack everything in to such a small, sleek little package. I definitely see myself wanting to pick one up as a “toy” and as a backup device, should my primary decks fail. I could easily see this being used by DJs on the road, by rising DJs honing their skills on the fly, and even people that host parties who want a DJ without going through the effort of hiring a professional.
Thanks, again, to Brian for his insight.
Conclusions
The first thing I think about is the price. It’s not exactly cheap, but it’s not expensive by comparison, either. For an aspiring DJ, it’s a pretty good price and a nice portable device. For a pro, it’s a great travel companion, like Brian said. If nothing else, you could save a mix and DJ a party at the drop of a hat. The usefulness of it seems to stop just short of professional needs, but is pretty complete for a beginner and I really enjoyed the amount of attention Tonium payed to details ever step of the way. Definitely worth the money if you have it to spare.
I can be pretty picky about the sponsored posts I accept because I want to post about stuff I would actually use or buy myself. Today is no exception, because today’s post is about a product that I think is timely, useful, and reasonably priced. It’s iPod / iPhone to iTunes Transfer software called iPodRobot.
One of the things that I’ve heard people complain about with the iPhone is that you have to sync it with iTunes to get files on and off the device. I’ve personally felt that was annoying with my own iPhone. Almost every other smart phone on the planet lets you connect to it as a mass storage device and access your videos, photos, etc. This software works as a bridge between your computer and the data on your phone, eliminating the need for iTunes as part of the equation. It’s a great idea and I’m a little shocked that I haven’t seen it before.
When the software starts up, it looks for your phone and connects to it. Then you just select the folders or files on your phone to transfer and tell it to move them to your computer. After confirming (or changing) the local folder, the files are moved. There’s not much to it, really. The one thing I was unable to find (and isn’t listed as an option on the site) was uploading files to the phone from my computer. The lack of bi-directional transfer was a drawback to me. Looking at the glass as half full, you can download a free trial to try it out, and what it does do it does well and without needing any specialized knowledge. For $20, it’s a nice piece of software to have if you don’t want to (or can’t) sync with iTunes for some reason.
While I was on the site, I checked out their Free iPod / iPhone Video Converter software. It did what it promised and pretty quickly. I was able to convert an AVI Flip video from one of my previous reviews into an iPhone-friendly format and just like the transfer software, this had a simple interface and just worked fast and clean out of the box. Although the ipodrobot software lacks a valuable feature I was looking for, I gave the company extra points for delivering otherwise very solid, stable, and easy to use products.
When I sat down to write this review, I wanted to come up with some witty title that described how I feel about the Sansa slotMusic Player. I tried, but I just kept coming back to one thought: As a portable music player, it’s pretty great, but as a portable player as cool as it is for only twenty bucks, this thing rocks.
The design When I saw the slotMusic Player on the Sansa web site, it looked like a light-weight plastic and I was a little worried that it would feel that way, too. When I opened it up, though, it was a pleasant surprise. In the package was the player, some ear bud headphones, a single AAA battery to power it, and little booklet to help you use it. The booklet is a unique way to help people use the device and is a lot more inviting than the typical black and white all text instruction manual. Instead of lots of boring reading, you get seven cards bound together, each containing a mini quick guide.
The player, itself is small (1.45″ x 2.84″ x .6″) and weighs 1.7 ounces, so it’s a great size and weight for a portable player. It’s also very curvy and looks smooth. All this beauty comes at a price, however. The one thing I noticed right away when I started it playing music was that it doesn’t have a clip. Without any kind of belt or shirt clip, I ended up just throwing it in my back pocket, but a clip could have been very handy. I also would have loved to see a small digital display, but I don’t expect that to come bundled with the low price. If I had to pay another dollar for the clip, it would be worth it, though. The player uses a microSD card for storage, so you can have 512MB for a few dollars or as much as 8GB for about $38. I love a device I can upgrade, but I also love a device that comes with a standard power source. The face that it uses a single AAA battery means I can just buy a pair of rechargable batteries and swap them out as needed after about 15 hours of playback without worrying about having to buy an expensive proprietary battery. Next to the standard headphone jack are the volume + and – buttons and the play/pause, forward and back buttons are on the side, accompanied by a little blue LED.
Use your own music
One of the cool things about this is that you can just buy an album already loaded onto a slotMusic card for about $15, you can make your own mix, or both. Sansa was cool enough to send along the Weezer Red Album for me to test with, and I was able to add in some of my own MP3s. The album came with a little USB microSD card reader. I just slipped the card in, dragged some tracks over right from iTunes, and put the card back into the player. OK.. Truthfully, I had to convert the tracks to MP3 in iTunes first, but as long as you have MP3 or DRM-free WMA tracks, you can just drag them into the My Music folder on the slotMusic card and you’re ready to rock. The album also came with a little plastic protective case, and an insert booklet. Not bad for a digital album, but I think they’ll do much better if they make the digital version cheaper than the CD.
Playing music on the go
Navigating through and listening to the music on a slotMusic player is pretty simple. To get started, in needs power. With a little pressure, I slid off the outer shell of the player, inserted the battery, and slide the shell back on. To turn it on, just press the play button for a second and it’ll start playing right away. Everything else is intuitive. For example, if you press the forward or back buttons, it’ll go forward a track or to the beginning of the current track. Press the back button twice quickly to go back a track and hold the forward or back buttons to skip forward or back a little in the current track. Pressing the play/pause button will pause or unpause the playing and holding it for a second will turn the player off. You can use the included headphones or any other headphones with a standard plug. Better still, you can plug the player directly into the Aux port in a newer car to play music through your car’s system. That’ll require a basic cable you have to buy on your own from just about any electronics retailer.
The final thoughts
Sansa is making some good moves in a tough music player market. I initially drooled a bit over the Fuze, but I’m glad Sansa sent this player my way so I could really get an educated opinion of it. Having one in my hand sold me on it a lot more than seeing it online, and now that I’m sold I’m convinced that it’s the best $20 music player that I’ve had the fortune of playing with. The albums are a harder sell, but if you’re looking for a birthday gift for someone, find the right album and pair it with this player for a gift I’m sure they’ll like or just pick one up yourself.
Because I run a Gothic and Industrial internet radio station, I get regular mailings and promos from a variety of labels and other sources, including the artists, themselves. A few days ago, my inbox contained an email from beatwire.com with the subject, “Austin label announces “pay what you want” for Mp3s”. I figured I’d save it to read later and I tagged it “important” and moved on.
We all heard about when Radiohead decided to let fans pick their own price for their new album, In Rainbows. When that happened in October of last year, it created a huge buzz and shook the music industry. Many even speculated that this could be the shape of things to come. Those speculators may have been on to something.
Texas Music Forge makes their own rainbows
Today, I was reminded to look back at that email from BeatWire, a music industry press release distributor. The email was about Texas record label, Texas Music Forge’s decision to allow the consumer to choose what to pay for an MP3 purchase from the relatively new label, and said, in part:
AUSTIN, TEXAS–March 12, 2008–Austin, Texas-based publisher and record label Texas Music Forge announced today that it has begun a pay what you want policy for its mp3 downloads. The concept of allowing customers to download music and set their own price for it has been a topic of intense controversy in the music industry.
TMF really just opened up their mp3s for download and threw a PayPal “donate” button on the page, but how they are doing it isn’t what’s important. The important part is that they decided to grab on with both hands to the concept of giving the consumer the power to decide how much to pay for music. They’re not the only ones putting music in our ipods while keeping cash in our wallets, either.
Trent toes the free music waters
Fellow blogger, Malin recently wrote about Industrial staple Nine Inch Nails‘ move to make their new album, Ghosts, available for only five bucks. With a huge following, NIN has no real need to lower album prices, but why not when you can afford to. Trent Reznor has always had his game face on when it comes to leading the industry and marketing himself and NIN, so this is really no surprise to me. I’m actually a little shocked that more artists haven’t leaned toward the consumer in an effort to attract more people back to actually BUYING music.
The future of music online
The before YouTube choked all the bandwidth out of the internet, there was mp3.com, which CNET bought and all but ruined (but that’s for another article). Mp3.com opened the flood gates for new and unknown artists to get a lot of exposure very easily by just producing good music. It also gave them a platform through which to sell digital copies of their music. Then we saw the birth of iTunes and the 400 companies that have tried to unseat it. I have a feeling that the next progression for music online is individual artists and labels all stepping up to the plate to offer very cheap or donation-based digital album downloads until such a practice becomes nearly mandatory to compete in the industry.
