By FRANCIS PRÈVE
FOR SOME DJS AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC PERFORMERS, THERE’S MORE TO
rockin’ the house than beat-matching two tracks. Korg Kaoss fans twist their music with
realtime effects, and Ableton users are well acquainted with the power of incorporating
loops, adding drums or percussion, and playing synth riffs over existing mixes. This is
why I’ve fallen in love with Meta.DJ for iPad. It blends real music production tools with
tempo-synced track players, delivering a truckload of fun and creativity.
The basic concept is simple: You see four quadrants,
each of which can contain one of the
following musical devices: Track Decks, an
iTunes-integrated track player; Drumtron, a
drum machine; the One Shot sample trigger pads;
Looptastic, a loop player with up to eight custom
loops; Riser for adding rises and whooshes; or
Sampl3r, a sample-based synth/arpeggiator. If
you want two Track Decks, a One Shot, and a
Looptastic, no problem. Want two Looptastics,
a Sampl3r, and a One Shot? Go for it. Full configurations can be saved and recalled for different
parts of your performance.
Once you’ve selected your devices, picked a
track or two from your iTunes library, and dialed
in some presets for Looptastic or Drumtron,
you’re ready to play. Everything is synced to your
master tempo, including the Track Decks (in the
+/- 10bpm range, their time-stretching algorithms
sound especially clean), so improvising
is absolutely painless. In Drumtron, you can add
preset rhythms and individual drum patterns by
simply tapping one or more buttons. Looptastic
includes multiple faders, so you can add drum,
synth, or sound effects loops to a track with
simple gestures. One Shot is great for tapping out
drums or triggering sound effects, and Sampl3r
comes with a bunch of useful arpeggios for adding
flourishes to drum-heavy compositions.
Alone, these tools would be fun for days, but
SoundTrends also includes up to three simultaneous
touchpad effects for each device. Tap the FX
button on any device channel and it flips to reveal
an X/Y pad with a massive selection of effects
including filters, rhythmic gates, four different
stutter/glitch effects, bit-crusher, delay, reverb,
and several others. All of these effects have useful
X/Y assignments and sound great in context.
While several of the devices let you customize
your sounds and (in some cases) load your own
loops and samples, there’s also in-app purchasing
of new loop packs and device presets from an
expanding range of providers, including Beatport.
Nicely done.
Meta.DJ goes far beyond beat-matching and
“hitting play,” venturing into musical performance
territory. While a trifle sluggish on a firstgen
iPad, it works well enough to get the hang
of it without too much instability. On an iPad 2
or better, the experience is like buttah. If you’ve
been looking for an Ableton-like experience from
an iOS DJ app, Meta.DJ is the ticket.
Snap Judgment
PROS Elegantly combines
DJing and instrument-based
live performance. Integrated
X/Y pad effects. Intuitive
user interface.
CONS Requires an iPad 2 or
better for the full experience.
BOTTOM LINE An addictive mix
of realtime DJ and musical performance
tools.
$19.99
soundtrends.com