Yes, you read that right — after all too many “why oh why oh why can’t we have some decent DJ software for Android” comments (because Android couldn’t handle it is the answer), Mixvibes have gone and made Cross DJ live up to its name. After Cross for OS X, Windows and iOS 7, Cross DJ for Android claims to be the first to fill the Android void.
Here’s the word from Mixvibes HQ:
Mixvibes introduces the 1st pro DJ app on Android
Cross DJ, a popular iOS DJ app developed by Mixvibes, launches its longawaited Android app. “Our users kept complaining that there was no decent DJ app on Android. So we started thinking: Hey, why not bringing our expertise in pro DJ software to this platform?” says CEO Eric Guez. A few months later, after having overcome many technical limitations, Cross DJ is the world’s first Android app that offers pro DJ tools in an intuitive design.
Mix tracks in perfect sync
Cross DJ detects the BPM of your tracks, right down to the last decimal. Why? Because it has the same engine as its desktop version. Sync your tracks once, and they’ll never go out of phase. You can tell by looking at the parallel waveforms, to visually check if your tracks are synced. Also, if needed, you may manually adjust the pitch & pitch bend. And if you’re into complete customization of your tracks, you can edit the downbeat with just one press of a button.
Exclusive Quantize mode
Eric Guez says: “We know from experience that mixing on a small screen can be tricky. That’s why in addition to having optimized the app for 4”, 7” & 10” screens we introduced an exclusive Quantize mode. It basically keeps on the beat all the actions you perform.” Set a hot cue or a loop, and Cross DJ puts it automatically on the beat. This also works with the peakview waveform. Fastforward with just a touch: the music goes on seamlessly.
Outstanding audio performance
Cross DJ for Android stretches the boundaries of audio on Android. With its incredible low latency, music instantly reacts to your actions. To test how good it is, try the scratch feature and hear its extremely realistic sound. Another nice example is that there is virtually no loading time when startingup the app.
Complete DJ system
The app replicates the industry standard DJ setup: 2 decks, 1 crossfader and a fullfledged 3band EQ mixer. Tweak your sound with 15 awesome effects, just by swiping on large effect pads. Remix your tracks with 16 hot cues pads. As Eric Guez states, “Cross DJ is the easiest way to start DJing. When you step up to regular decks, you are already familiar with the industry standard layout.”
Access your music and record
Direct access to your device’s music, with multiple sorting options (title, artist, album, BPM or length). Record your mix for an unlimited time, and save it in high quality. Edit your mix info, share it or remix it directly within the app.
Is Cross DJ really the first for Android?
Before the makers of DJ Studio, DJ Pro and suchlike get all huffy and post that actually they were first, it’s worth qualifying this bold statement as being the first that people have heard of and trust, and is way ahead of Traktor, Serato, Virtual DJ and the other lesser established DJ software brands. So you can be pretty sure that it won’t be some barely functioning piece of app trash either. Mixvibes has worked incredibly hard to rise above earlier incarnations of their original software, and these days are all about quality and reliability. Pioneer wouldn’t work with hem if this wasn’t the case.
Not having an Android tablet, I can’t fire it up to try it. But the one thing that did strike me was that it doesn’t look like the iOS version at all. I have no idea if this is through choice, be it technological limitations, or just wanting the iOS and Android versions to have their own identity. The only issue I see (and it’s likely to be a very small issue) is for people who use both platforms — the lack of consistency in the different interfaces could be a problem.
But it does look like Cross DJ for Android has all bases covered, and shouldn’t suffer from the much talked about technology limitations of Android as a professional DJ platform. This was generally considered to be latency and multi-channel audio handling. But if Mixvibes have written an app, it’s clear that at least one professional player in the DJ industry considers Android ready for primetime. We can only hope and pray that this is true, and not a pre-emptive strike on the obvious next-big-thing Android DJ market.
There are however limitations imposed by Mixvibes. You’re going to need at least Android 4.1, and 4.3 if you want to record your sets. 4″ screens and above are supported, and you’ll need 1Gb of RAM and a dual core processor. I have no clue who that includes or excludes, but I’m sure someone will moan.
On Google Play, Cross DJ for Android is listed at £3.29, a paltry sum for what promises to be the first professional DJ experience for Android. So… with the Android flood gates opened, it can surely only be a matter of time before the like of NI and algoriddim get busy on Google’s mobile platform. The mobile platform just got a lot more interesting for DJs. Good work Mixvibes! I’m still not buying an Android tablet though. Not hate — just don’t need one.
I do have an open question that comes from a lack of knowledge — how does Android handle music? I’m used to the iTunes store, but don’t know how this will work with Android. I expect a lecture from the team about how iTunes is Orwellian and Android is about freedom or something.
One last thing — it looks like my video handiwork for algoriddim has inspired the makers of this promo video. Time to raise my game. ;)
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nice! finally some android love!
I’ve just purchased it. It just pulls tracks from your music folder. Just Hook up to your PC and drop the files in the folder like a USB drive. Take that, iOS!
So you have to manually move them? How terribly 1990s.
How easy and intuitive! And you don’t have to use iTunes!
The cool thing about android is that it allows you to download things in the same manner that you would on a computer… their is no middle man software to limit how and when you can place music on your phone… for example, if your favorite artist drops a new remix on soundcloud, you can download said remix DIRECTLY from soundcloud to your phone.
unlike the iphone, there are a million 3rd party options out there to handle your music. Most manufacturers have their own software for doing this. Some are good (HTC), some are bad (Samsung). Thankfully there are a ton of options on the app store and even some that just let you use itunes as normal if your that way inclined.
Congrats!
yesssss! just tested it, really nice app! really rocks the android Audio stack!
Bout fucking time.
What’s the cue situation? Does the app offer left/right channels for using one of those split mono master/headphones “DJ cables” or are external interfaces supported?
Purchased it immediately!
Unfortunately, it has TERRIBLE LATENCY, compared to the usual pro DJ software experience. The lag is very noticeable.
Tested on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with Android 4.3, no other app running. So my device can not be the problem.
for an initial release for less than $20 we still got a great deal, it’ll get better.
The marketing says: “With its incredible low latency, music instantly reacts to your actions.”
Other software companies are still ignoring Android because of the big latency. So, those words are a big fucking LIE.
Still better than ALL the other DJ app on Android.
Android latency depends of the device. I have very good result on my nexus lg.
Seems like you are a Mixvibes agent? The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the strongest Android device man…
No it isn’t. The LG nexus 5 is.
I have this running well on a Pipo S1 (China quadcore with 4.1.1 running)
and it’s amazing on the nexus 5 …. (and I have other apps running at the same time) …at almost zero latency.
if you’re running a stock ROM on a note 3 most of your RAM is being occupied by samsung bloatware, freeze those apps with titanium backup then give it another test.
Tested according to your suggestion. No change. Big latency.
bummer
Nice to see that Android finally is beeing recognized.
running great on my Galaxy S4, this post made my day! thanks mates!
Mixvibes – doing things properly as usual.
With the integrated browser, bpm analysis, and playlist features, you don’t need a separate music player app like itunes. It would be cool if it read itunes playlist though.
I just ran Cross through it’s paces on my Nexus 7. The Hot cues, loops, playlist/browser, and FX work great, quantize is turned on by default for some reason. Big mistake. It makes the hot cues seem like bad latency. Once turned off everything is responsive. The scratching algorithm while sound decented has bad platter control, there is a lagging ramp up once you release the platter, plus no options for curve or hamster on the crossfader, Basically no convincing scratching or turntablism on this app. If a developer isn’t going to implement the platter behavior correctly (at least CDJ 800 level), please don’t tease us and just leave it off. The screen real estate could be used for better things.
With all that said, even at version one, Cross leapfrogs all the previous Android DJ apps just by being actually usable and not a toy. Is it too early for feature requests? How about unified page with access to the mixer, fx, and looping at the same time? or an “auto DJ” mode? USB audio for cueing and DVS timecode support?
Hey coolout, thanks a bunch for the feedback and requests.
This really help us on understanding what you want and why.
We’ll keep you posted as soon as we release something in this way.
On the download right now.
Good amount of effects but I can’t seem to set my own cue point?!
Waveform is pretty small so it would be good if it was possible to zoom in and use the jog to set a cue point. …. would also help for setting hot cues as well. .. .. anyone know if this is possible?
I’ll certainly keep playing with it though.
Sussed it. You can zoom in to see the channel waveforms then use the jog to move to the point you want and hit cue. You can also do this for hot cues. It works well. Liking it.
Nice nice nice! I was so frustrated to see MIXVIBES on iOs and not on Android. I purchased it yesterday and used it this morning in the train. Five stars app!
Does anyone know if this supports headphone out as well as a main out?
Apparently it is incompatible with my HTC One, despite it more than meeting the min requirements?
About Cross DJ for Android and latency:
In our development process, we have struggled with the legendary Android latency problem. We got pleasantly surprised that on some Android devices -with some secret tuning- we could reach a latency as low as on iOS devices.
That’s why having a low latency on an Android DJ app is possible with some devices, but not all. Indeed, with 1500 devices running on Android and 4 different Android versions, it’s hardly impossible to test all configurations.
That is also why we developed a quantize feature, in order to make DJing easier even on less powerful devices.
Stay tuned!
Please include a list here about those low latency devices, so we know which Android devices to look for.
Latency is very good on Nexus 5, Nexus 4 & Nexus 10.
I have an 8″ tablet Prestigio pmp7280c 3g duo.It meets your minimum configuration,but latency is terrible.I don’t know if it’s the screen or android faults,but without sync the app is uselles.I understand that it’s not optimized for 8″ screen,but with so much latency it’s unbearable to work with the app.And Android 4.1 on this tablet is almost a stock one.
Thanks for your feedback.
We’ll take it into account for our next updates. Be sure that we are working as hard as we can on solving all potential issues.
As an expanded inquiry to the question Tim asked “Does anyone know if this supports headphone out as well as a main out?”, What are all the ways you can get sound out of the device (with this program installed), and how to you pre-listen to the Cue? I could not find this information out on the official website: http://www.mixvibes.com/products/cross-dj-android
Two key areas in which Mixvibes is generally very good at supporting are somehow not present in the spec sheet:
Sound Card and External Controller integration.
Generally, dedicated sound card devices reduce audio output latency and Mixvibes has been generally very good about incorporating sound cards so this begs the question, “What external sound card devices are compatible?” ie. Traktor Audio 2 DJ, Numark DJ iO, ESI Maya44 USB, ESI Gigaport HD, Mixvibes U-MIX44 etc. (this was not listed on the spec sheet).
Mixvibe is usually very good with controller integration, (as there is no mention of this on the spec sheet) so this begs the second question “How is the functionality with other controllers?” Is it just an oversight or does this software not work with other controllers through an Android device yet?
I can understand that there are some excited people out there who do not want to use Apple products (for whatever reason) but still want to DJ on a portable touch-screen device. While this software shows promise, without a way to pre-listen, it’s NOT “Pro gear” and it will most likely get you the user into trouble if they try to use it at a club or party (unless that party revolves around uncoordinated transitions).
I hope Mixvibes hears these concerns and addresses them soon.
While soundcard and external controller support are not available in the app’s first release, be sure that our engineers are seriously looking into it.
We are aware that those are very important features for a professional standpoint. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we release something new in that way.
you must pay the $3 extra for it to split the stereo into cue and master… this is literally the only feature I need in a DJ app and none will give it to me
does it work with htc one?
Oh I say, that’s rather good. Just d/l’d onto my S4 and it works a treat. Would be great to see a mono split option to drive the left and right decks via an external mixer (just add a pan control to the mixer section!) but in terms of its responsiveness and features so far, top marks! This could be my new backup plan in case of laptop failure mid-gig, as well as good fun to muck around with…
Tested on a Note 3 – (2.2Ghz Quad, 3GB RAM) – far away from zero latency on my machine :(
Hi, here is a blog post we published about audio latency:
http://www.mixvibes.com/blog/about-cross-dj-android-and-latency
Tested on a galaxy s4 works pretty solid but its absolutely pointless if you cant split the output like traktor dj for ipad with a griffin cable etc. If Mixvibes can sort this they will have a real winner.
Thanks for your feedback. We are definitely looking into split output, this is something we will incorporate in future versions. We’ll keep you updated.
looks cool, reminds me of “edjing” app, i have been following mixvibes every since i first bought a Umix control pro, love the ipad app, the remote app on ipad could use some work though, ill have to try this out on my galaxy. i just noticed that none the dj apps on android have “pitch bend”: though
I’m a Traktor Pro laptop/PC user (hp envy – never let me down). I use my mom iMac exclusively to video editing and used to waste time with my iPhone 4s.
Unfortunately NI and Apple made some sort of marketing agreement after I sell my iPhone.. but luckily MixVibes brought us Cross Dj :D
I could say that the app works great and with no flaws on my Sony Xperia Z (that is a way better system than iPhone 5s – and yes music and video runs incredible in some Android OS devices).
I already made a 3 hours session on my local café and it went smooth and ultra fun.
Thanks Mix Vibes ;)
Is it me, or does it have a time analyzing drum and bass? For the life of me I cannot “release” the record on time and it ends up being off beat. Maybe I’m doing it wrong…
Well, not all Android evices are good handshets despite hardware spec and Brand marketing. Well, I would say, sadly, that would be better to just make a list of the top handsets from the tops brands, or just let nexus family to download the App. I just dont want that bad reviews or bad compatibility with not so good handsets keep Android away from real apps.
PRO?
You are FUNNY!
im still looking on most so called professional djs and musicians as hard working folks, not all of them of course, so this may seem fitting to use if you are a lazy ass or nonetalented person that only have one goal in life, to push as many buttons as possible.