Compatibility • iPad • Mac
Learn more: www.reloop.com
Available from: www.amazon.com
Price: £369/$TBA
Algoriddim’s djay 2 has already established itself as one of the most versatile DJ apps out there, able to stand up in both live situations and more creative environments. But the hardware accompaniments that have surfaced to give musicians even more control over the iOS devices haven’t always been as worthy.
Reloop’s Beatpad aims to solve that problem, presenting itself as a rugged and fully featured controller with more than enough power to perform under the pressures of a live set.
Out of the box, the Beatpad certainly looks and feels the part. The black metal casing makes it a bit of a brute to carry around, but that’s almost definitely a good thing – giving you more than enough confidence that it’ll stand up to life on the road. The rotary dials, faders and pads don’t disappoint either, feeling just as sturdy in the hand and proving themselves dependable after a spell of rigorous use.
Setting up was a breeze – the included 30-pin and Lightning adapters ensure the Beatpad is capable of working with any iPad that’ll run djay 2. Once we’d hooked up our iPad mini, given ourselves some amplification (the Beatpad has both auxiliary and XLR outputs, making it brilliantly versatile) and powered it up, we were good to go.
Despite coming with a relatively basic quick start manual, we were able to get creative with the Beatpad almost instantly. Controls are clearly labelled and not mapped to more than one or two functions (an area in which many of these hardware controllers fall down), so it didn’t take long to load up a few songs in djay 2 on the iPad and pull off a perfect mix. On a couple of occasions, when we sent more than a few commands to our iPad mini in quick succession, djay 2 would freeze, but this could well have been a software or iPad issue.
We’d have also liked a more definitive physical response to the 0% point on the pitch shift fader, but we really are just getting picky – this is a seriously great piece of kit. The Beatpad is worth every penny and certainly capable of holding its own among the professional DJ crowd.
Buy Now?
Pros: Weighty, well-built and more than adequate for professional DJs
Cons: The £6.99/$9.99 djay 2 app is an almost essential extra
