Review: Pacemaker - Instant DJ

   Many, many years ago in Jamaica, I asked a friend of mine to bring his turntables, mixer and record collection over to my house to DJ my birthday party. We had our fun, and he left the equipment for pickup the next day. Being the Curious George that I was, I awoke in the middle of the night, tip toed my way into the room where the equipment was sitting, plugged in headphones and tried my first mix ever; two copies of Freak-A-Zoid by Midnight Star mixed with each other. Inspired and excited, I emptied my savings the next day to purchase my own records and equipment, and thus began a long and winding dalliance in the world of DJing that predates house music and has sparked more careers and influenced more events than I have space to list.

 

   However, while exhibiting a natural talent for the art of mixing music, it took months before I had the 'science' of it down pat. Specifically, how to match BPMs (beats per minute) while - at a higher level of achievement - how to simultaneously match the music in harmonious musical keys, where the listener cannot distinguish the point at which one song begins or the other ends. Over the next few days I will review three recent products that will allow the aspiring DJ to accomplish all of this with about a week of practice, and in a format that will literally allow anyone to bring the "Party in Your Pocket".

 

 

PACEMAKER - The "Party in Your Pocket"

 

specifications/functions

   The Pacemaker device (www.pacemaker.net), introduced in late 2007 by Swedish company Tonium and shipping in 2008, shrinks a record collection, two turntables, mixer and effects box into one very attractive pocket sized device reminiscent of a PSP. With TFT display, dual outputs, dual crossfaders, multi-touch sensitive surfaces and 18 hour playback time (5 hour DJing time), it connects to your Mac or PC as a 120GB USB 2.0 hard drive with support for MP3, WMA, OGG Vorbis, AAC, FLAC and WAV. Once mounted, you can copy from it the included Pacemaker Editor that mimics the functionality of the portable device (for Win XP/Vista & Mac OS X 10.3.9 and higher - soon to be made available for free with user registration on the Pacemaker website at beta.pacemaker.net).    While I do not yet have one, I am lucky devil #1658 in the queue to purchase a Pacemaker Premiere Edition unit (only 2000 of the devices are in the initial batch). Until it arrives and I write up my analysis (in March), you may check out their website for information and hands-on video reviews. I will begin by reviewing the free Pacemaker Editor software as it matches the functions of the physical device, albeit with some significant caveats (forgivable, in a free beta release). The functions in the current version are:

• Beat detection and pitch/BPM trimming
• Crossfade – cross fade transition and beat match
• Loop – duration and number of repetitions
• Filters – crush, sweep, harmonic, filter
• Audio effects – reverb, chorus, flanger, delay, echo, phaser
• EQ – -ve ∞ to +ve 9 dB
• Reverse play
• Master volume

observations

   I must point out that, in its current configuration, this application is NOT for real time usage - such as live DJing or streaming radio. You must complete your mix compositions before they are ready for use. You begin by using click and drag - or menu import options - to bring music into the application which doubles as a music library. BPM values are automatically but slowly calculated, taking approximately 8 to 12 seconds per track, and are generally accurate - usually miscalculating in predictable ways those songs that have complicated beat patterns (such as Drum and Bass). Improvements in this area and others are promised.

 

   For those of you familiar with nonlinear digital audio editors, this should be a cakewalk. You create and name a new mix and drag your initial song selection to the mIx timeline. You then drag your subsequent selection to the timeline and overlap the spectral displays where you want them to mix. Clicking and dragging the X-Fade button to the overlap area automatically beat matches and fades one song to the other. Additional effects are applied via drag and drop, and there are select manual adjustment options per effect which can be previewed in real time. Some effects can be overlapped, and all are nicely color coded for instant visual identification.

 

   As the automated beat matching is decent, it is sufficient for the purpose. The editing and effects processes are non-linear, non-destructive (originals are preserved) with almost unlimited trimming and adjustment via clicking points on effect "lines" and dragging said points - similar to clipping path adjustments in applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. A mouse with scroll wheel is a must for rapidly expanding or contracting the timeline. Beat matches can also be more accurately made by expanding the timeline to visually layer one beat on top of another, while adjusting the individual BPM values of either track for a perfect fit. Mixes are saved as meta data, conserving tremendous amounts of space while allowing for easy portability and re-editing.

 

   While arguably not a full replacement for the options and flexibility of a real DJ setup, the power here is in its simplicity and automation, allowing novices to accomplish the work of experts sans a multiplicity of functions and options - Apple Computer style. While I have found it a little buggy and awkward to use in its beta version, Pacemaker Editor provides just the essentials for mixing music and applying effects, with the great advantage of tweaking mixes and effects to perfection with no real-time constraints. After some practice, one can become quite adept at using the provided tools though limited in their scope. However, there are two serious caveats to consider before using this version of the application.

 

caveats

1. Pacemaker Editor will not allow you to open a mix if it cannot locate any of the tracks used, and may still refuse even after the track is back in its expected location. It also does not provide an option to redirect the application's reference to a missing file. A major omission, one that made me lose access to a hot mix I had begun work on. My workaround was to bundle the application and tracks used in the same folder in the Applications directory on my Mac, so that when I moved it from my desktop to my laptop - along with the necessary preference directory (/Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Tonium), the paths and saved mixes were preserved. Also, as a precaution, I re-saved each mix under a new name so as to have two working copies on two different machines. For Windows users, the same approach can be used with the corresponding directory path (C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Tonium). In Windows Explorer, you may first have to go to Tools-Folder Options-View and select the option 'Show hidden files and folders' to see the 'Application Data' directory.
2. Output options are to your audio out jack/headphones or a digital upload to the Pacemaker website itself - with no option to save to a file. On a Mac, using any audio hijacking application such as Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack Pro ($32, www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/), you can save the audio to music file. I recommend 320 kbps (bit rate) 44.1 kHz (sample rate) VBR (Variable Bit Rate) Joint Stereo mp3 to get the best tradeoff between space, compatibility and quality. These are the high quality options used by two of the most popular House music download sites, Traxsource and Beatport. On Windows, there are several applications for hijacking audio, such as Total Recorder Pro Edition ($35.95, www.highcriteria.com).

recommendations

   Other than these major issues, some specific user functionality options would be welcome additions, such as:

1. Custom mapped keyboard buttons for single step 'nudging' in the timeline and effects areas - which are more precise than mouse gestures.
2. The ability to scan forward or backwards in a previewed track, select a cue point, and have it preserved when dragging the track to the timeline.
3. Custom looping parameters for the playback head so that a selected portion can be looped automatically as one goes about tweaking effects or BPM values at each pass (which currently can only be done by manually capturing and dragging back the playback head).
4. The ability to manually change BPM values.

conclusion

   All told, this is an auspicious start for what I am sure will be a great application. Music for mixing can be obtained from a myriad of different sources. However, unlike the play through end to end functionality of an iPod, a user can get creative and personalize what they listen to via custom mixes and remixing. BeatHive itself is a goldmine of varied sound loops that can be used as material for remixing tracks with that personal touch, many of which I have purchased myself for just such usage. Check back soon for the second installment in the 'Instant DJ' write-up, where I will introduce software for Audio Mastering and smoothing tracks, and for automatically calculating and labeling tracks with Musical Key values for harmonic mixing.

For your enjoyment, I have attached the I did with Pacemaker Editor and captured with Audio Hijack Pro (6 minutes). It showcases several of the effects available. You may view updates and direct questions to me at my blog on the Beathive website, under the topic "Pacemaker Pocket Size Portable DJ System".

Attachment	Size
pacemaker.jpg	4.83 KB
pacemakerEditorTools.jpg	10.29 KB
DJ.Free_Pacemaker_Efx_Demo.mp3	16.39 KB