Accessible Mac Apps for DJing and Mixing in 2022?

By Gus Pacleb, 8 May, 2022

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hello,
I hope this finds you well. I am currently a user of DJay Pro 2 but am interested in possibly upgrading to something newer as I know this version of the app has stopped receiving updates. I have tried DJay pro AI some time ago but had issues navigating my music library and some of the advanced features of the app such as stems.
I know that virtual dj has an accessibility plugin, however I have not heard anything regarding how well this works on the Mac.
Any suggestions as to what people are using for gigs and mixes would be appreciated.
Stay well,
Gus

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Comments

By Matthew Whitaker on Thursday, June 2, 2022 - 20:32

I'm curious on this as well. I've been wondering the same thing.

By Gus Pacleb on Thursday, June 2, 2022 - 20:32

I have been playing with virtual dj for a good bit now and unfortunately I'm saddened to say that even with the accessibility plugin, there is still a good bit lacking in accessibility. I was able to get it up and running, and it's a shame it can't be used more as I really love their effects quality. There also does not seem to be a way to sort tracks by BPM, as there is in DJay. The actual act of playing, mixing, accessing effects, and even stems are accessible thanks to the plugin, but unfortunately to change settings with in VDJ itself, including controller behavior, assignments, slip mode settings, or anything having to do with Virtual DJ's settings itself requires sighted assistance. Even if OCr was an option , I'm unsure how far that would be able to help since the settings panels are very complex. This includes the box that comes up when you plug in a dj controller if you have one.
As for DJay Pro AI, accessibility has definitely gone downhill since DJay Pro 2, and I would suggest as many people reaching out to the developers as possible, as they seem very eager to assist in getting accessibility working once again.

IN better news, I was able to get VoiceOver to go through Channels 3 and 4, (the channels for headphones) on my dj controller.
Hope this helps!
Gus

By Stoo on Thursday, June 2, 2022 - 20:32

Hi, I've been using DJay on Mac for years now as a full-time professional DJ and I'm totally blind.

I would say that DJay Pro AI is currently very good for accessibility using voiceover and with a few tweeks it can be as useable as it is for anyone with sight.

If there are any specific reasons why you guys are finding it is inaccessible, drop a comment and I'll see if I can help figure out how to get around your particular problem.

For clarity, I use a Pioneer controller that is MIDI mapped to the most common functions, so I never have to touch the laptop at all for any reason during a gig, unless it's to search for a particular song.

By Gus Pacleb on Thursday, June 2, 2022 - 20:32

Hi Stoo,
For me with DJay Pro AI, I'm having issues navigating my music library. VoiceOver seems to treat every song and element when browsing my library as an unlabeled image. I would be curious how exactly you are using DJay Pro AI, especially knowing what effects and how the best way is to access the Neural Mix features. I also use a Pioneer controller, in particular a DDJ400, I'd be curious what you are using on your end.
Gus

By Stoo on Thursday, June 2, 2022 - 20:32

Hi Gus.

If I understand you correctly, then within one of the tables you are finding a bunch of unlabelled icons/images instead of song/track data.

There are two buttons next to each other which are labelled "Compact Grid" and "Collection".
If you have the "Collection" button selected, then your list will appear as images, but if you select "Compact Grid", then Voiceover will read all the information for each track in that table.

You can then navigate into that table and press the following keys to move the order of the items in the table around by pressing the VO keys with shift and the key to the left of the Return key, which is either \ or # depending on your keyboard layout.

It's also possible to remove certain columns in that table by using the VO+Shift+M combination to bring up the context menu and uncheck the details you don't want in the list.

With regards to knowing what effects are activated, or indeed other information like the current BPM, or remaining time of the track, I set a hotspot for each bit of info.

There will be an area marked as "Decks", which if you navigate into, VO should read out tons of details for each deck and all the visual buttons and options available for each.

I pick what is relevant for me to know from within the "decks" area and then map a key on the keyboard to read out the information under that hotspot or to turn on monitoring of it so that Voiceover reads it's status.

There should be guides on here for how hotspots work if you're not familiar.

I use a DDJ1000 which has more MIDI buttons available than the 400 you are using, so I've mapped the spare buttons and EQ knobs to activate the Neural Mix functions and other effects.

One of the drop down menu items is marked as MIDI, just go into your controller on there and you can enter the table of commands available.
Press a button on your controller and it will then read out what that current button is mapped to and allow you to change it to one of your choice.

Hope this is of some help.

Stu

By Ahsan Khan on Thursday, June 2, 2022 - 20:32

You can sort tracks in virtual DJ. by pressing s. I haven’t had any problem with it and I can also set the effects parameters with the Pad pages using control and the number keys
All the OCR dialogues are accessible with the virtual DJ 8, however virtual DJ 2021 requires you to use your OCR functionality..
You can either have both of the versions installed and change settings that way, or change settings within the speech software.
There’s also a Google groups and WhatsApp group if you would like to ask the creator of this software any questions.

By Gus Pacleb on Thursday, June 2, 2022 - 20:32

Thanks Stoo for your response. I'll be contacting you shortly as I have some other questions for you that do not have to do with the scope of this post. I am actually aware of the VO backslash command to sort tracks via specific atribute. The compact grid was our issue with the music library.
Thanks,
Gus

By Gus Pacleb on Thursday, June 2, 2022 - 20:32

Hi,
I was able to set up some hotspots and turn on so I could watch the ones I was interested in, however I seem to be getting unreliable or delayed feedback when changing values. A prime example in my case is the effects on a given deck. When changing to the previous or next effect, VoiceOver takes about 5 seconds or is often delayed before announcing a change. How have users overcome this?
Thanks so much,
Gus