What Are Your Initial Thoughts About Esperance??

[Jumpin' Jeff]

Bravo JohnnyTheFox. Great comparison to our jobs as DJs, it really sucks when even one person at an event gives a scathing remark on our performance. Respect and politeness are attributes we should encourage. Thank you.

I totally agree Dr. Respect and politeness will get you much further in life than being rude and disrespectful to others.

[Jumpin' Jeff]

hope none of my comments were seen as being rude,, certainly didnt mean to be

obviously got total respect for the ots boys,, as i use 1.85 all the time and love it

really the fact that im not changing just shows how good 1.85 actually is.....

Jeff, You comments are mild compared to some I've seen on FB.

[Darryl]

I think that the core members on this forum remember the efforts of Jeff (and other moderators, but mostly Jeff) have made over the years to discourage members from launching into personal attacks on people and generally treat each other with respect - something that seems to be rife in the more popular social media outlets where moderation is perhaps less strict.

It is probably the only reason why this forum has survived where others didn't.

[DJ Postie]

I love this Forum and everyone's comments. ....... much better comments here than on face-book.

I'm still a 50/50 man with this new update (still having some pops & crackles when using the mouse on the scroll lists) but it's someone different to look at now with a new sexy screen.

[Zakdj]

Well I used both tonight. I see that OTS is a business and has to make money and I also think they will take everything into consideration that we post here, our likes and dislikes about the new software. After all, feedback from the the customers is how most businesses become successful.

Here's my 2 cents so far:

The search is a very nice touch, just to start typing in a specific item and get the results, although you can't select the text you've typed and just start another search, you have to right click and select delete or backspace through it.

I use the media library to search for ranges of songs, I might be looking for a song in the 128 BPM range or a song by Katy Perry to play and I liked that I was able to click on a column and sort the library that way by BPM. Clicking on the Artist, Title, Time, BPM etc headers was easy. Now I have to do extra clicks to achieve the same results. Put the column headers back. I have all my videos and music categorized and it was easy to click on a category at the top of the Media library and have it displayed, I wanted the old version to let us change the top categories to whatever we wanted, The all items, albums, categorized and CD Audio. I didn't mind the Uncategorized tab, I used it often. There is no uncategorized option now as far as I can see.

I like the ability to have extra panes open, I don't have much use for the Karaoke tab and will turn it off after I figure out how. I always wanted to have extra tabs/panes to display different categories. like the ability to have my playlist and 3 media libraries open at the same time so i could display my dance, rock and Latin categories all together and being able to change the column width is something that I believe should be put back.

The new graphics are nice, but as most of you have mentioned, the background, the 3 black colors need some improvement, I particularly liked the LCD color scheme of the old one. Text is hard to read and I turned off the lines that jump around in the background, I already have to deal with smoke filled rooms and dangerous decibel levels all night. I don't want my computer flashing at me, If it was a VU level meter or something to that effect it would be better for me. maybe they could move the dynamics processor levels back there and provide a option to change it. I'm glad they provided a option to turn it off. The younger DJ's I'm sure will love it. I liked the background style of "Colour" on the last version.

Everything looks smaller too. the Icons, text, video monitors. I particularly liked the "AIR" monitor bigger, but the controls on the decks are very small, a slight shake of the mouse and your hitting the next button. I like the layout of the decks, I wish when i turned off the turntables the decks would get a little larger, It seems like so much wasted space. I don't scratch so the turntables there just not for me, why not let us display toggle between the turntables and the album cover like the old version, and or make the decks bigger. I use a Denon Media controller for most of my gigs but there are a few gigs where I'll just click away.

The looping function is great, Ots did a good job here, i needed it and it is fantastic. In future releases i would like to see a flanger, echo and some effects.

I miss the CD audio, say there is a contest going on and someone brings me a CD of their music, Happened tonight, I don't have time to talk on the mic, line up songs and then convert a CD to a Otsfile on another computer put it on a thumb drive and scan it into my "AIR" computer. Please put this back.

I'm disappointed that Ots Studio was not upgraded to support MP4, I know they are working on it. but I feel this should have been a top priority along with support for other formats. You should be able to support all the formats that VLC supports. and also I was hoping that the DMX support would be included in this release. I hope they are still working on this.

I have other things but I think I'll wait for the documentation to come out before I comment. I wanna make sure I'm doing it right as there are no help files as of yet.

I think the lack of documentation is holding me back a little, Maybe most of the things I mentioned above can be done. I'm very interested in reading it.

I'm just one person out of many who is basically beta testing this now, all my comments are meant for positive input and in no way are trashing anyone. I have always been impressed with OTS and think it is a far superior product to others out there, I read some where here that Ots needed to step into the new look. but i feel that the look became more of a priority than the function. Looping was a priority and you did a great job on that.

My wishlist for future development is getting Studio to convert MP4, as every service I subscribe to only furnishes MP4.
Get the DMX thing working.
Add some effects.

Thank you OTS for you hard work and I'm sure that all of our (your customers who tell other DJ's that this is the best software out there) input will make this even better.

Zak

[jeff wood]

why are people so bothered about mp4,,,, its not the end of the world just to convert mp4's to mpeg2 and then to .ots

doesnt take long.

[Dj Buik]

Very nice review zakdj.

I think Ots need to add to their new 1.91 release more user options to change the user interface colors and font(s) sizes. Also a option to turn of the audio processing graphics.

I'm an old school dj, and my eyes do not getting better over the years.
The young djs like flashing stuff all over the place, i do like more stuff that matters.
Users need to have the abilty to change the gui a little bit to their needs.

The same thing goes for broadcast users i think.

I wait for the next upgrade from Ots, before i start using 1.9x for my gigs.
I will be missing the looping function and the better search capabilty, so be it.....

[mel garland]

Zakdj, thanks for your informative post how Esp performed on the night.  I have a gig on Saturday which I have only just got (don't you just love last minute bookings) and was hoping to have a week to play around with Esp but your and other guys write ups have giving me faith for the gig. Got a feeling I'm going to be on my toes all night trying to remember where everything is laid out lol.

Got to agree with you on one point is the absence of CD import.  You and a few other guys have mentioned this fact and I think this is a backward step.  OTS Adam calls it old school tech but it was a tech that is still very useful in today's high tech enviroment.  Please Adam/Steve could we please have this back.  I can see problems when someone brings you a Cd to play and you inform them sorry but my software does not allow me to play Cd's. Is OTS the only software that does this?

Mr Jeff Wood, remember you from years ago on mfdj forums how are you?  I can understand your problems with the search/cat part of the software and to tell you the truth I had these same thoughts but after reading a few threads on here about how to set up the media library to the way I want it I feel alot more confident using it. Yes I can see a few problems happening before I master it but that is progress.  Not to sound rude but I think you need to spend some time with this because I can't see OTS changing or going back to how it was done in 1.85, mind you adding a drop down button to show cats can't be that hard,  which will leave you with two options either embrace it or get left behind. Once again buddy please don't take the last sentence the wrong way it is just the way I see it.

[Darryl]

The search is a very nice touch, just to start typing in a specific item and get the results, although you can't select the text you've typed and just start another search, you have to right click and select delete or backspace through it.

Press <Ctrl>+<Backspace> to clear the contents of the search/OMQL fields.

[Jumpin' Jeff]

Press <Ctrl>+<Backspace> to clear the contents of the search/OMQL fields.

Although that works, so does plain old pressing the delete key by itself.

[Darryl]

Cool - thanks Jeff - I didn't know that the <Del> key cleared the content.

[ianforest]

Ok just got around to installing Esperance as i've been away in Spain for the past 3 and a bit days.

Now...upon launch I was sent various screenshots and my immediate reactions were...EURGH

But...on reflection, having now installed it, and played with it...I quite like it.  The interface, if a little umm gimmicky (is that a word?) does work quite well.

I like the turntables, I like how they work.  I'd like to be able to put my own graphic on them though 

I like the multiple lists across the bottom.

I like the looping.

So...even though i'm not an active user of this package anymore, I really like the update so well done guys!

I think once there's some better support in there for controllers and a few more tweaks here and there i'd probably consider ditching my mac and Traktor to come back to this.  Yes I really did just say that, but it does need a few more refinements though.

Certainly when the controller support comes in, some of the smaller buttons on the interface would cease to be a problem.  Being able to quickly pick up a 4-beat loop and double/half it on an MC6000/MC3000 would be superb, as would the ability to use multiple cues.

So yep, well done guys, big thumbs pointing up from me to you.

You know what it's like...how many times do people moan at Facebook for their upgrades...and then a month later everyone loves them.

[jeff wood]

Mr Jeff Wood, remember you from years ago on mfdj forums how are you?  I can understand your problems with the search/cat part of the software and to tell you the truth I had these same thoughts but after reading a few threads on here about how to set up the media library to the way I want it I feel alot more confident using it. Yes I can see a few problems happening before I master it but that is progress.  Not to sound rude but I think you need to spend some time with this because I can't see OTS changing or going back to how it was done in 1.85, mind you adding a drop down button to show cats can't be that hard,  which will leave you with two options either embrace it or get left behind. Once again buddy please don't take the last sentence the wrong way it is just the way I see it.

Hi Mel,,hows it going ?

And mate, I'm not having any problems,, I just dont like it  

The previous search and category way is much better to use.

I can understand the system being ok for some dj's, but for someone who moves fast the old way is better.

ALso,,,whats bugging me,,,,,


People talk about the new search system, and OTS saying how powerful it is etc etc etc

But lets be honest,,,unless you're a complete dumb ******,,,,you shouldnt have any problem finding what you want with the old system...

I mean, its laughable sometimes..

I see people say, oh you can type in beatles and love ..

Well.,,,if i want a beatles song with love in the title, i'll just type beatles in the search box and scroll down to the one I want..

why the OTS guys felt the need to spend their valuable time working on the search method is beyond me when theres so many other things they could have been working on..


I could go further and say that the ONLY thing the old search system needed was more category boxes....

[ianforest]

I hear you Jeff...but I too wanted more category box shortcuts many years ago until I really got into the OMQL.

An integrated search box and media library is very very powerful indeed.

I did have to alter my category names however from 90's to 90s (i.e. losing the apostrophe) but being able to just search

90s & dance & bpm=130

Is incredibly powerful...and very very quick too.

Searching for "beatles & love" is infintely quicker than clicking on search, typing in beatles and then browsing to the file you want.  How can you not see this?

Adapt mate...you'll thank us for it.  I know you can be an old stick in the mud sometimes 

It's not going to change back so adopt the changes now so you can enjoy the groovy new features in the future.

[jeff wood]

Ian,,Im no stick in the mud,,

but I do speak my mind as you know

so you're saying youre happy to actually type in the name of the cat you want, instead of just clicking on it ??

I know you can alter the names of the cats,,but you've still got to type them in..

how on earth is that better or quicker

If you want 90s, you need to type that and hot enter

I just click on 90s



Same with your other example..

you actually gonna type in 90s and dance & bpm = 130

damn you must like typing


I'll just click on 90's dance and scroll to want I want.....




and same with the beatles example....

how the funk is it quicker to actually type beatles and love

rather than just type beatl and then scroll to the one you want...



Fair play,,I spose if poeple like typing then fair enough

personally the only time during a gig I use the keyboard is for when I need a specific song..

no way in the world im gonna be typing out the name of the cat I want to browse everytime..


honestly think about it, the old system was much better