A truth about DJ software is that it generally forces you to do stuff the way it wants. To a greater or lesser extent all the main programs have a big element of “my way, or the highway” about them. Not so the One, which finally arrived today. Currently only available for PC (with a Mac version promised for later in the year), The One – from Finnish Company Audio Artery – offers a completely modular workflow, where you can drag and drop decks, timelines, mixers, even your audio routing between elements to create a DJ workflow that’s totally “yours”.
Sound complicated? It is if you want it to be – but with DJ controllers becoming more modular (look at the Traktor Kontrol Z1, or that other victim of the announce-then-wait syndrome, the whole new Behringer CMD range), modular software kind -f makes sense. You can map the software to the controllers that you want, using the functions you want – in theory, at least. The software promises advanced Midi from the off.
One of the big things that caught my eye about The One at the various demos I’ve had of it at shows this last couple of years is the “timeline DJing” angle, where you can plan mixes in advance by slotting tunes or sections of tunes together in a timeline of what’s coming – a bit like Mixmeister, but a more performance-based take on it. This is something the (equally mammothly delayed) Virtual DJ 8 has been promising too, in a slightly different guise.
Anyway, enough of discussing hypothetical gear pairings with hypothetical software – the One is here, now, and you can grab it for your PC in either its full-priced (€49.99) version or try out a demo. Review coming soon.
• More information from The One website.
Does this look intriguing to you? Could you see yourself pulling together a bespoke hardware/software set-up to suit your style of DJing using this? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Phil Morse
