Ejay Dance 6: The Evolution

Details: Category: Computer; By ccgr; 01.Jun; Hits: 13981

System Requirements Windows 98/ME/2000/XP 450MHz processor 256MB RAM 650MB-1.2GB hard drive space 4MB OpenGL video card DirectX 8 Compatible sound

Dance Ejay 6 is the latest offering boasting 4,000 new song samples. It even has backwards compatibility with Dance Ejay 5 and Techno Ejay 4. You can use your old sound samples, add or make your own, or download them from the web from the program itself. The only downside to this program is that it?s only available in the UK. I got mine from Ebay for $30 brand new. Be careful, as many sellers are only selling ?copies?.

So what?s new?

Probably one of the coolest new features is how you can manipulate each sound sample. By simply clicking on it, you can adjust the individual volume for it. The Recording studio has improved as well. You can now record from any sound card input such as MIDI, what you hear, grabbing from CDs etc. The Sample Search feature really helps you add some new grooves to your songs. You just specify the instrument type and tempo you want, and then see what?s available to download. It?s great! Another time saver is that you can now export your song to mp3 format as well as wav. There is a FX Studio where you can edit wav files too. There are some Mophonix programs where you can make your own Supabass riffs and polyphonic melodies in Mophonix II Synth. There is a Live Jam mode where you can trigger looped samples with your keyboard or the click of a mouse.

What?s the same?

Many of the generators make their way back into Ejay 6. The Groove Generator lets you make your own drums beats, except now you can shuffle. The Voice Generator hasn?t changed at all in my opinion. The Bass X Generator lets you put custom bass beats in your mix. Finally, the Hyper X Generator lets you program polyphonic melodies into your mixes. The 3D VJ is still around with 2,000 new objects you can use to make your own visualizations for your songs.

Can anyone make music?

If you can drag and drop, you?re well on your way to making some cool dance songs! Just choose the instrument type and arrange the samples in any order that pleases you. There are thousands to choose from. My one complaint on the interface is that you cannot delete a sound sample unless the archive browser window is closed. They made importing and creating sound samples easier which is always welcome.

How good are the sounds?

There are lots of great new keyboard/synthesizer, bass and drumbeats. There are even some new vocals to toss in your mixes as well. I must admit that I think the vocals in Dance Ejay 5 were better; thankfully Dance Ejay 6 is backwards compatible. Again I can?t stress how cool the new Sound Sample downloader is. That really expands the life of the program.

Graphics

Although this program?s main goal is to make sounds it does add some graphical effects. You can make your own AVI movies to go with your mixes using 3d VJ. The colors in Dance Ejay 6 are not as vivid and I liked the color scheme better in the previous version. Each of the different instrument types is color-coded and the new colors don?t stand out as much. It doesn?t affect the sound any though.

Stability

When you launch Dance Ejay 6, occasionally you?ll be asked if you want to download program updates. As of this date, there are no updates available yet. Although the program can stopped responding a couple times with the graphical enhancements, it?s not nearly as bad as Dance Ejay 5. Many users have complained about that stability issues with Ejay 5 & 6. But Dance Ejay 6 is more stable if you ask me.

Appropriate?

On the cover of the box you see a lady wearing a bikini and DJ headphones. Some of the vocal samples have some suggestive ?oooohs? in them. Other suggestive choruses are ?Love me tonight, love me again and again? etc. Other than the sexual themes, the rest are usually about love, broken heartedness and singing about heaven. Not in the religious sense but more of a state of mind emphasis. Finally some of the vocal has swearing in them.

Conclusion

I still would highly recommend this program to any Dance Music enthusiast. It?s really fun and easy to make your tunes. It?s a shame that this program is not available in the USA. You can get it on Ebay though. It?s also a shame that the appropriateness has gone down a bit too. If you want to hear some songs I have made with the Ejay prgrams check out http://music.ccgr.org/listen.html the last couple songs were made with version 6.