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Developer:
eJay
Release Date: Out Now
Avg. Price: $49.99, £24.99
The Dance eJay series of music creation
grabbed the world by storm when people in a matter of
minutes had the possibility to create dance music on their
home computers. Adding such things as vocals, bass lines and
some great drum beats all made the attraction of the program
universal.
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After no
less then four predecessors and other genres of music styles
covered, we now have the brand spanking new update number 5.
So what is different in this latest version and does it
still maintain the appeal? |
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Buy from Amazon.co.uk! |
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Anyone who
has tried one of the earlier versions will know that Dance
eJay is basically a program that uses loops of instruments
to make a music track. Anyone who doesn’t know what a loop
is? Well put simply it’s a short recording of an instrument
ranging from a few seconds and maybe a little longer that
can be used over and over again, hence the name loop. The
problem with loops is no matter how many the developers add
to a program, you are quite limited in what you can achieve
and other people obviously getting the same identical loops
can stem individuality. This is where Dance eJay 5 has made
good progress. |
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Featured in this release is the ability to create your
own bass lines, chord generation and the ever faithful
drum loop maker. With these extra options for your music
creation, you have a much more unique and much less
rigid program in your hands. The days of wow what a
fantastic background but there are no decent catchy
melody’s are now not a problem as you can still quite
easily make a catchy tune and add it to your track
yourself.
Also using the power of your 3D card you can create
music videos to go along with your track. Although this
feature is quite impressive and there are many
variations you can try, this is certainly not as fun as
the pure music aspect of the program, but for those who
like to publish there work maybe in video format for
added interest, then this option does make the task all
that easier with some nice effects.
The interface is still very like the previous versions
except the loops are now hidden and stored away in an
archive button rather then always on screen allowing for
more buttons and features to be put on screen.
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Loops
can be resized to a shorter length for more stabbing in
instruments if required making some breaks in the track
less predictable and more interesting for the listener.
Contained within the program is a rather useful mixer
panel for changing stereo positioning, reverb, echo and
all sorts of interesting effects which can be tuned to
your liking.
All the loops are in CD quality and you have a 48 track
arranger to position your loops, basically meaning that
you can have 48 different loops running at once. On
completion of your music you can export to wave but not
MP3. You can only import MP3 to Dance eJay 3. Seems a
little odd that this has been left out, but there are
many free programs out there that can convert wave to
MP3 or indeed other formats like WMA (Windows Media
Audio). Not only dance music is covered in this program.
You can also dabble at Latin, Eurodance, House, Rave,
Techno and Trance styled music.
Graphically Dance eJay 5 has a fantastic visual look
using the power of your 3D graphics card to good use.
Fancy animations, glorious colour use and moving
background and lighting make for a much more pleasurable
experience when plonking down your loops. However with
all this visual nicety you do have some down sides.
Older computers will struggle to play the loops and cope
with all the visual niceness that is presented onscreen.
The program has the tendency to crash on my Windows XP
setup even with a couple of updates installed. The Audio
can go out of sync and what was a masterpiece turns into
something a 3 year old could have written painfully to
your ears.
This is quite a downside to the program and the
background animations although nice to look at behind
your loops, can cause the system to run slower and their
appears to be no options to tweak the graphics and get
rid of the moving background for a static one.
Once the small but irritating issues are sorted Dance
eJay 5 will surely be the king of quick, creative
creation for the PC. Now with more creative and unique
programming of tracks you can truly say that it is your
own work without feeling you have cheated somehow. |
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| Graphics
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9/10
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Lovely visual
pleasures, but at a price. |
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| Design : |
9/10
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Easy navigation and
interface keeps music creation fun and interesting
for most age groups. |
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| Content : |
7/10
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Full of 5000 loops and
many features to make your tracks your own. Although
some of the loops are to strange for my liking. |
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| Longevity
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8/10 |
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Plenty of loops and
features to allow for plenty of hours spent tweaking
your tracks. |
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| Learning
Curve : |
10/10
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Different from the
earlier ones, but once you have worked out the
differences in finding loops etc you will be making
music again in no time. |
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Overall
: 40/50
A major leap
in the series no doubt with some truly great
ideas. Graphical loveliness however is at a
rather obvious cost, but once these minor
niggles are sorted Dance eJay 5 can deliver a
powerful and fun application with style and
grace for a staggering low price. |
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