Key Of Grey

January 8th, 2009 – Okay, the thumbnail photo on the main page of this site is a little misleading, the actual meat and potatoes of this post is better represented with the above screen-capture. For of those of you who are unfamiliar with the Pacemaker, it’s a device that stores mp3′s and plays them back. What makes it different than an iPod or Zune is that it allows you to mix songs together, apply basic effects, and cue points; the idea is that you can DJ a basic set with this device.

The device itself has been updated, and supposedly sports an easier to use UI, auto-beat matching, as well as less disk space. For more information about it, you can visit Engadget here.

Now that all that background information is out of the way, we can get down to business. Interested in the device, but slightly off-put by the potential price (the last version retailed for around $900 and only had 120gb), I visited the Pacemaker website to try and get more information on how much the next generation might cost. It was here that things got interesting. It appears that the website is mostly built for individuals who own Pacemakers already. Of course, there are sections where you can find out more about the device itself, but the Pacemaker site is largely concerned with user mix sets.

Apparently, you can publish mixes you make with your Pacemaker. Other users can listen and comment on your remixes, as well as implore you to listen to their own (as with other sites like IndabaMusic and MySpace). What interested me most, is the free downloadable Pacemaker software that allows you to create mixes on your desktop. What a coincidence, since I’m currently working on a remix of a Rihanna song in Logic. This would allow me to compare Pacemaker’s software to my tried and true DAW.

After providing my email address, and signing up for their community, I was able to download the Pacemaker software. It’s available for both Mac and PC for those of you interested in checking it out. The first thing I noticed was its simple and attractive interface. The photo I’ve posted above is exactly what the software looks like. There aren’t extra workflow or tool windows; everything is self-contained. Since I’m working with a remix, my main concern is that the software has an easy way for me to find and adjust tempos and pitches. Finding the BPM and adjusting it is a cinch, but there is no way to adjust pitch, not that I would expect that from free software.

The bottom table in the UI lists your library. Pacemaker does not automatically find your music, you must import it. Doing so is as simple as any program and once it’s imported, the software automatically determines the BPMs. This is very handy and reminds me of the days of Sonic Foundry’s (now Sony’s) Acid Pro. My experience so far is that it’s accurate. Once you have created your library, you drag songs into the middle table to create and ordered track list for your mix. Right away, you can tell that this software is not meant to edit, but rather to arrange.

The middle table becomes your mix, and the top waveform allows you to apply effects, cross-fading, and otherwise arrange the tracks as long as your tracks are kept intact. You cannot cut pieces of one track and have them appear in the next track, nor are you able to create multiple overlaid tracks for fancy editing.

So if you can’t do any real remixing, what does the Pacemaker software allow you to do? It allows you to put together a track list and do some very basic things to allow them to mix together properly. It’s basically iPod DJing to a more advanced level. It’s an easy tool to whip up a basic mix track, but you won’t be winning any remix contests with it, that’s for sure. Regardless, it’s free and a gives the wannabe Pete Tongs out there an easy way to segue into music  production. Plus, it’s free.

Still, give me a real DAW or two Teks anyday. In fact, give me both.

Pacemaker.net