DJ App LoopJ Wants You to Interact with Your Music

LoobJ isn't shy about the grandeur of its vision. Created by Amidio, Inc., to show off their new music format, .loopj, the iPad app boldly claims to be the first "interactive DJ station" and seeks to make music more "interactive." The folks at Amidio believe that most dance tracks can be split into five "layers" that will always sound good together, so accordingly LoopJ allows you to manipulate five layers for every track. From the app's description:

Think of LoopJ as of a mini DJ-optimized version of Ableton with fixed layout, optimized for touch-screen performances, always ready when you're on the go.

You don't need a separate MIXER, since there are 2 .loopj decks always playing together at the same time, always TIME-STRETCHED to have the same BPM, so you're always guaranteed a perfect mix. Loading new tracks is seamless and doesn't interrupt the mix.

You can even spice the mix with LP/HP multitouch filters and 3 built-in FX - Rhythmic Delay, Gate Splitter, Glitch Repeater. You also have a Global HPF Filter which is basically a Fast-EQ.

Since LoopJ is in large part a showcase for Amidio's .loopj format, the app is entirely free and includes five free tracks to get aspiring musicians started. However, this also means that to import your own music, you'll need to convert tracks into 20 .wav loops, four loops per five layers. Or, a separate in-app purchase allows you to record to .wav from within the app.

LoopJ's main interface is bright and colorful, with an array of different colored blocks that seem to encourage exploration. I highly recommend watching the embedded video to get a sense of LoopJ in action, because it's difficult to convey how a DJ app works with simple words. There's an impressive amount of functionality packed into this app, and it's free—do you need a better excuse to start playing with your music?

LoopJ is available in the App Store now, for iPad only.