BeatJockey : A New Tool for Enhancing DJ Skills

We present BeatJockey, a prototype interface which makesuse of Audio Mosaicing (AM), beat-tracking and machinelearning techniques, for supporting Diskjockeys (DJs) byproposing them new ways of interaction with the songs onthe DJ's playlist. This prototype introduces a new paradigmto DJing in which the user has the capability to mix songsinteracting with beat-units that accompany the DJ's mix.For this type of interaction, the system suggests song slicestaken from songs selected from a playlist, which could gowell with the beats of whatever master song is being played.In addition the system allows the synchronization of multiple songs, thus permitting flexible, coherent and rapid progressions in the DJ's mix. BeatJockey uses the Reactable,a musical tangible user interface (TUI), and it has beendesigned to be used by all DJs regardless of their level ofexpertise, as the system helps the novice while bringing newcreative opportunities to the expert.