Hercules DJ CONTROL AIR and DJUCED Reference Manual
DJ CONTROL AIR and DJUCED™
Reference Manual
More information (forum, tutorials, videos...) available at www.HERCULESDJMIXROOM.com
DJUCED™ and DJ Control AIR
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A. DJUCED™ o v erview .............................................................................................. 3
1. Browser area ................................................................................................................................. 4
a) Definition .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
b) Organization .................................................................................................................................................................... 4
c) Folder browser ................................................................................................................................................................. 4
d) Files browser ................................................................................................................................................................... 5
e) Search area ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8
f) Optional browser area ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
g) Browsing controls on DJ Control AIR .............................................................................................................................. 9
2. Deck (A = left or B = right) ........................................................................................................... 10
a) Definition ........................................................................................................................................................................ 10
b) Organization .................................................................................................................................................................. 10
c) Loop area ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10
d) Play & Stop area ............................................................................................................................................................ 13
e) Cue point area ............................................................................................................................................................... 13
f) Pitch area ...................................................................................................................................................................... 15
g) Platter area .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
h) Effect rack area ............................................................................................................................................................. 19
i) Waveform area .............................................................................................................................................................. 24
j) Text information area ..................................................................................................................................................... 25
3. Mixer area ................................................................................................................................... 26
a) Definition ........................................................................................................................................................................ 26
b) Organization .................................................................................................................................................................. 26
c) Headphones commands ................................................................................................................................................ 27
d) EQ commands ............................................................................................................................................................... 27
e) Volume and crossfader commands ............................................................................................................................... 28
4. Configuration ............................................................................................................................... 28
a) Audio settings ................................................................................................................................................................ 29
b) Skin menu ...................................................................................................................................................................... 29
c) Keyboard menu ............................................................................................................................................................. 30
d) General .......................................................................................................................................................................... 30
e) Browser ......................................................................................................................................................................... 31
f) About ............................................................................................................................................................................. 32
B. Mixing in D J UCED with DJ Control AIR ............................................................... 32
1. Preliminary operations................................................................................................................. 32
a) Locating your songs ...................................................................................................................................................... 32
b) Analyzing the songs ...................................................................................................................................................... 32
c) Placing cue points (= bookmarks) in your tracks ........................................................................................................... 33
d) Creating playlists ........................................................................................................................................................... 33
2. Mixing .......................................................................................................................................... 34
a) Finding a track ............................................................................................................................................................... 34
b) Loading the track ........................................................................................................................................................... 35
c) Browsing within the track ............................................................................................................................................... 35
d) Previewing the track ...................................................................................................................................................... 36
e) Synchronizing the track ................................................................................................................................................. 37
f) Checking that the tracks are synchronized.................................................................................................................... 39
g) Playing the track for the audience ................................................................................................................................. 39
3. Scratching and effects ................................................................................................................. 40
a) Scratching ...................................................................................................................................................................... 40
b) Effects ............................................................................................................................................................................ 41
c) Samples ......................................................................................................................................................................... 43
d) Loops ............................................................................................................................................................................. 45
C. Frequently asked questions .................................................................................. 46
1. DJUCED ...................................................................................................................................... 46
a) Is DJUCED for DJ Control AIR a time-limited version? ................................................................................................. 46
b) Does DJUCED support other DJ controllers than DJ Control AIR? .............................................................................. 46
c) Can DJUCED support other audio interfaces than DJ Control AIR? ............................................................................. 46
d) Can DJUCED support both ASIO and WDM (Windows Driver Model) modes in Windows? ........................................ 46
2. DJ Control AIR ............................................................................................................................ 46
a) Can DJ Control AIR support other DJ software than DJUCED? ................................................................................... 46
b) How can I set DJ Control AIR to ASIO mode in Windows? ........................................................................................... 47
c) Is the AIR sensor compatible with other DJ software? .................................................................................................. 47
d) How does the AIR sensor function? .............................................................................................................................. 47
e) Is there a risk that the AIR sensor may sends commands accidentally? ...................................................................... 47
3. Mixing with DJUCED and DJ Control AIR ................................................................................... 47
a) How can I use the jog wheels to browse within a track? ............................................................................................... 47
b) How can I change the effects assigned to a pad? ......................................................................................................... 47
c) How can I use the AIR sensor? ..................................................................................................................................... 47
d) Can I use the AIR sensor for other settings in DJUCED? ............................................................................................. 48
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D. DJ Control AIR MIDI messages ............................................................................ 48
1. MIDI channel ............................................................................................................................... 48
2. MIDI Input .................................................................................................................................... 48
a) Definition ........................................................................................................................................................................ 48
b) Commands .................................................................................................................................................................... 49
3. MIDI Output = control on LEDs ................................................................................................... 51
a) Definition ........................................................................................................................................................................ 51
b) Commands .................................................................................................................................................................... 51
E. Technical Support ................................................................................................ 53
F. Warranty information ............................................................................................ 53
G. Additional warranty provisions .............................................................................. 54
H. Trademarks .......................................................................................................... 54
I. Declaration of conformity ...................................................................................... 54
J. Copyright .............................................................................................................. 54
K. Disclaimer ............................................................................................................. 55
L. End-user software license Agreement for Hercules software ............................... 55
M. End-user software license Agreement for DJUCED™ software ........................... 55
N. Environmental protection recommendation .......................................................... 55
Manual version 1.0
DJUCED™ and DJ Control AIR
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Introduction
DJUCED™ for DJ Control AIR is a DJ tool adding beauty to the power of mixing audio tracks,
scratching and recording your music creations.
DJUCED™ is designed to make mixing user-friendly, thanks to a unique graphic interface and userfriendly features.
A. DJUCED™ overview
DJUCED can be split into 4 main sections:
- Browser area (bottom area): track library = where tracks are stored
- Left deck area = deck A: where you can load a track, play and control playback
- Right deck area = deck B: where you can load another track, play and control playback
- Mixer area (central area): to mix the left and right decks, with crossfader, volume and
equalization controls
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1. Browser area
a) Definition
The browser is an explorer to browse the drives and select the files to load on decks.
b) Organization
To the left: folder browser
In the middle: files browser
To the right: search area
c) Folder browser
(1) Definition
Folder browser = area to explore the folders, playlists and drives tree structure of the computer.
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(2) Use
Press the DJ Control AIR Folder button to access the folder browser.
Press the DJ Control AIR Up & Down arrow buttons to move up and down in the folder tree.
Press the DJ Control AIR Folder button again to expand a folder (to see its subfolders).
Once you have accessed the target folder, move to the files browser by pressing the DJ Control AIR
Files button.
(3) See all tracks stored on the computer
To see all tracks from folders you have already v i sit ed, go to Sound Libraries > All Songs with the
folder browser.
d) Files browser
(1) Definitions
(a) Files browser
The files folder is the area where you can explore the list of tracks included in a folder or a playlist.
(b) BPM (Beats Per Mi nute )
The beat is an audible and short peak in sound, the succession of which creates the rhythm of the
music. The beat is generally easier to identify in drums or bass, but can be play ed by any instrument,
including guitar or the human voice, or by a combinat ion of several instruments.
Once you hear the beat, counting its repetiti on per minute gives you the BPM (Beats Per Minute) rate.
If you hear no beat in the music, dancers will find it difficult to dance, as dan cer s naturally align their
pace to the beat of the music, in the same was as a jogger naturally aligns his or her pace to the beat
of music (that is why so many joggers run with an MP3 player).
(2) Use
Press the DJ Control AIR Files button to access the files browser.
Press the DJ Control AIR Up & Down arrow buttons to move up and down in the files list .
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Type the first letter of the track’s title on the computer keyboard to find the track.
Once you have accessed the target track, load the track on a deck:
- Press the DJ Control AIR Load A or Load B buttons to load the track on deck A or B; or
- Drag and drop the track on the platter of the virtual deck.
(3) Right-click menu
(a) BPM analysis (Beats Per Minute)
Before you start mixing with DJUCED™, analyze the BPM of all tracks, since the B P M rat e tells you
which tracks can be mixed together (mixing tracks wh ose B P M rat es are close is better than mixing
tracks with very different BPM rates: for example, mixing tracks within 15% of difference is acceptable;
DJUCED lets you mix tracks with larger BPM differences, but the higher the BPM difference, the more
you change the original track when synchronizing it with the BPM of another track, and so the lower
the audio fidelity).
BPM analysis is CPU-intensive: you should analyze all your tracks before mixing, as analyzing BPM
while mixing slows down the computer and reduces the audio quality.
To analyze the BPM of one or more tracks or a list of tracks:
- Select the tracks to be analyzed using your mouse/pad.
- In Windows: right-click to display the BPM menu.
- On Mac, either right-click, click with 2 fingers, or click+Ctrl to display the BPM menu.
Then click Analyze.
Analyzing BPM before mixing is necessary to read the BPM of the track(s) in the files browser.
(b) File info
Editing the file info lets you manually update the t ag of an audio file (the tag is the text which lists the
name of the track, of the artist, of the album. ..).
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(c) Relocate
Relocate is an option to update your tracks’ location if:
- You have moved/renamed the folder where the trac ks are st ored; or
- The driver letter of the storage unit has changed.
(d) File operations
The operations that you perform on a file in an explorer: delete, rename, copy or move the file.
(4) Files browser fields
Album: album containing the song
Artist: artist playing the song (generally the group or singer name)
Title: song name
Match: how this track matches with the last track loaded
BPM: Beats Per Minute rate, a critical piece of info in DJing
Genre: music type
Length: track duration, in minutes and seconds
Rating: your rating for the song
In the files browser, you can:
- Choose the fields to display, by right-clicking (or Ctrl+click on a Mac touchpad), with fields
such as: Title, Artist, A l bum , BPM, Genre, Length, File size, Year, Comment , File Path, Key...
- Drag and drop the fields.
- Sort the tracks by field by clicking on the title of any field.
- Access a track by clicking inside a field and typing the first letter of the track.
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e) Search area
In the SEARCH field, type the title of the song or the artist whose track you want to look for.
To search files in all folders you have already visited, use the Folder browser to go to Sound
Libraries > All Songs, and then enter the string of letters you are looking for.
You can reset the search by clicking on the icon.
You can select the search criteria by clicking on the icon .
f) Optional browser area
In both deck areas, clicking on the button (to the left, below the platter in the software interface)
calls up a browser area, and clicking on restores the deck display.
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You can restore the platter display by clicking on the icon.
g) Browsing controls on DJ Control AIR
DJ Control AIR has 6 browsing controls:
• Folder button sets the pointer on the folder browser.
• Files button sets the pointer on the files browser.
• Up button moves up in the browser.
• Down button moves down in the browser.
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• Load A loads the selected track on deck A.
• Load B loads the selected deck on deck B.
2. Deck (A = left or B = right)
a) Definition
The virtual deck gathers the controls of the track’s playback, similar to the controls on a CD player.
b) Organization
Bottom: the Loop area and the Play/Stop area.
Center: platter, pitch and cue points area.
Over the platter: effect rack area.
Over the effect rack: waveform area.
On top: text information area.
c) Loop area
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(1) Definition
Loop: a portion of an audio track that is played repeatedly. Its symbol is .
(2) Use
Looping, or making a loop, is a way for the DJ to make a rhythm last longer.
The DJ can either:
- Manually set the start and the end of the loop; or
- Set the length of the loop in beats.
(3) Commands in the software
Loop commands are:
- In / Out = Loop In / Loop Out: Loop In places the starting point of the loop, and Loop Out
places the end point of the loop (and clicking on Loop Out again exits the loop playback).
- 1, 2, 4, 8, 16: number of beats per loop.
- Move the loop ,
- Change the loop length
- Loop split function splits the loop into 4 samples: this function is processed by the Magic
button, on DJ Control AIR.
- Easy loops (EZ) function sets the Loop In/Loop Out function to match a fixed beat
number, so that the even if the track plays 4.4 beats (for example) b etween the moment you
enter Loop In and the moment you enter Loop O ut, the EZ setting fixes your loop on exactly 4
beats.
(4) Loop commands on DJ Control AIR
On DJ Control AIR, you can:
- Set the 4 pads to Loop mode by pressing the Loops button in the center of DJ Control AIR.
- Send a Loop In command on pad 1.
- Send a Loop Out command on pad 2.
- Reduce the loop length on pad 3.
- Increase the loop length on pad 4.
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(5) Display
If you are in a loop, the loop is visible in 2 areas:
- In the waveform display: the part of the t rac k outside of the loop is grey ed out.
- On the platter: the loop is displayed in pink.
Each concentric circle of the platter lasts 1 m i nute (if the track doesn’t exceed 6 minutes), so the pink
area located on this circle shows:
- The loop in the first (outer) circle = in the first minute of this track.
- The loop in the last quarter, starting at 0:48 and ending at 0: 52.
(6) Saving loops in the sampler bank
To store a loop in the sampler, display the sampler area by clicking on the square SAMPLER button
over the platter (and over the SEQUENCER button):
- Either drag and drop (with your mouse) the loop from its pink area on the platter to the
sampler player on the column of 4 sample players; or
- Press the button labeled Magic on DJ Control AIR: it cuts the loop into 4 parts of equal length,
and stores these 4 parts on the 4 sample players, to let you control the playback of samples
on the platter’s touch pads; or
- Click on the Loop split button in the DJUCED graphic interface, whose action is the same
as the Magic button.
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d) Play & Stop area
On each deck:
- The Play / Pause button switches between playback and pause on the deck (Pause
stops playback at the current position in the t rack).
- The Stop button stops playback and returns to the track’s start ing point.
The Play/Pause button in DJUCED has the same function as the Play/Pause button on DJ Control
AIR.
e) Cue point area
(1) Definition
Cue point: a bookmark that you place in a track, allowing you to instantly access this exact point.
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(2) Use
Cue points are necessary for DJs, allowing them to:
- Instantly access a point in the track where the beat is audibl e, to avoi d a slow start and
instantly go to an audible rhythm.
- Instantly access different points in the track, if the beat changes.
(3) Commands
In DJUCED, clicking on Cue buttons 1, 2, 3 :
- Sets cue point 1, 2 or 3 at the current position in the track, if there was no such cue point
already set in this track.
- Moves to cue point 1, 2 or 3, if this cue point is already set
(if the cue point is already set, the button is slightly bel ow t he buttons of cue points which are not
set: in the example , cue points 1 and 2 are already set, while cue point 3 is not set).
- Clicking on the button deletes the last cue poi nt you have used.
- Clicking on the button (either in the DJUCED graphic interface or on DJ Control AIR)
moves playback to cue point 1, or sets cue point 1 at the current position in the track if cue
point 1 doesn’t already exist.
(4) Display
(a) Around the platter
The cue points are displayed in the track overview ar ound the platter.
The full track length is represented as the ring of small circles around the platter, so:
- Cue point 1 in red (close to the first small circle) means that cue point 1 is located at the
beginning of the track.
- Cue point 2 in red (at around one quarter of the complete ring) means that c ue point 2 is set at
around ¼ of the track’s length: so for a track of 5:11, this means that the cue point is set at
around 1:15.
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(b) On the instant waveform
The largest waveform display, showing the cu rrent position in a track, shows the cue point as a
vertical red bar with the cue point’s name (Cue 1, Cue 2 or Cue 3).
f) Pitch area
(1) Definitions
(a) Pitch
Pitch is the control of the playback speed:
- A -6% pitch means slowing down the track by 6% compared to i ts default playback speed.
- A 0% pitch means that the track is played at its original speed.
- A 15% pitch means that the track is played 15% faster than its original speed.
(b) BPM
The BPM rate is the Beats Per Minute rate, i.e. how many beats y ou can hear within 60 seconds of
music:
- 80 BPM is a slow beat.
- 100-120 BPM is a standard range for most pop and rock music.
- 140 BPM or higher is fast.
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The BPM rate measures a track’s rhythm.
(c) Pitch fader
The pitch fader is a slider that lets you speed up or slow down playback of the track:
- You slow down playback by moving the pitch fader up.
- You speed up playback by moving the pitch fader down.
- You set playback at its default speed by setting pitch fader at the center.
The music keeps its latest speed when you stop moving the pitch fader (i.e. it is not automatically
reset to its initial value, as is the case when using the pit ch bend function described below).
The pitch fader amplitude is displayed, in %, over the pitch fader in DJUCED.
The pitch fader amplitude can be changed (6%, 8%, 10%, 12%, 16%, 20%, 25%, 50%, 100%):
- The larger the pitch fader amplitude, the larger the BPM change y ou set on the pitch fader.
- The smaller the pitch fader amplitude, the more precise t he pitch fader is to set a precise
BPM.
- You can click on the % figure to change the amplitude.
(d) Pitch bend
The pitch bend buttons are below the pitch fader i n DJUCED (and over the pitch fader on DJ Control
AIR). The pitch bend – and + buttons are buttons that let you TEMPORARILY slow down or speed up
playback: when you release the pitch bend button, the track returns to its previous speed.
(e) Pitch reset
The pitch reset command lets you set the track’s playback at its original speed, and cancels the
previous actions on the pitch fader.
You can reset the pitch:
- By clicking on the button labeled 0 located close to the center of the pitch fader in DJUCED; or
- By moving the DJ Control AIR’s pitch fader gradually to the central position (which you will feel
with a click).
(f) Sync = Synchronize
Sync = Synchronize, which means setting:
- 2 audio tracks at the same speed, with the same BPM.
- Both tracks with the beat occurring at the same instant.
You can manually synchronize with the pitch fade r and the pitch bend buttons, or you can synchronize
automatically by pressing the Sync button.
The Sync buttons are located:
- In the DJUCED graphic interface: below the pitch fader and the pitch bend buttons.
- On DJ Control AIR: above the pitch fader and the pitch bend buttons.
Pressing the Sync button on one deck aligns its BPM with the BPM of the other deck.
(2) Use
A DJ needs to control the track’s playback speed, to play the track:
- at the same speed as the previous track, and
- with the beats of both tracks occurring at the same moment,
for the dancers to hear both tracks at the same beat during the transition between t hese 2 tracks:
- so that the dancers’ pace fits in one rhythm, with no rhythm conflict between the 2 tracks, and
- so t
(3) Commands
There are 6 commands related to the pitch.
(a) Pitch fader
The pitch fader is the vertical slider in DJUCED that lets you change t he pl ayba ck speed.
You can move the pitch fader on the controller, or in the graphic user interface with the pointer:
- Moving the pitch fader down speeds up the music.
- Moving the pitch fader up slows down the music.
hat the dancers don’t need to jump one step to adjust to the new track.
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