What Are Your Initial Thoughts About Esperance??

[Dj Buik]

As i stated in my other threat, i'm a little disappointed.

I like the new search options, and the looping functionality.

I absolutely not like the color scheme. it's too dark for me.
I'm color blind and the contrast is too low.

I also would like to see if the Dynamics Processor graphics can be turned of. I do not use it anymore.
I use Breakaway for my gigs.

I'm not using version 1.90 with my gigs, i stay on the old version.

Waiting for the next upgrade 2.0

[Darryl]

I've found a negative - You cannot resize the columns in the Media Library - if you have two items that start with the same few characters (e.g. all my Promo Only DVDs are named "Promo Only Chart 2012 07 July" for quick searching on the month) all I can see in the list is "Promo Only Char..." - there's no way of seeing the full title (in the past I would resize the column).

[jeff wood]

the thing thats bugging me most at the moment,

is that to find a category, you need to click on the down arrow, then click show all items,,

so two clicks needed to get to your list of categories !


if only there was an option to have a proper list of categories to the left,,instead of the output level meter,,

now that would good,,,


cant understand it,,,surely everyone uses categories when they are DJing

[Nicolee]

Ok having used the software for a few hours now as I have a gig on Saturday these are my positive and negative points.


Positive

The new search function is great, much faster and seems not to slow the system down on big library's such as my own.
I love the new decks with the moving pickup arms, gives a visual glimpse that the track is about to end.
The scalability to size the program window is a bonus.
Having a Playlist, Prepare, Library & History window make a huge difference a nice touch.
I now like where the clock has been placed, it fits in well with the layout.


Negative.

One of the most serious issues is the location of the looping controls, they are way way too close to the Eject Button and Load New Track. This has caused me problems already. This needs fixing ASAP.
I have noticed what maybe a bug, when altering the key of a deck whilst a video is playing the video will jitter, pause and play catchup. The audio is unaffected.
The oscilloscope down the bottom of the screen doesn't work, just get a flat line now.
No MPEG-4 support, this is a must. I get all my videos from Promo Only in MPEG-4 format its an ever increasing pain to convert them. MPEG-4 is now the industry standard.
Still no DMX support, would have thought a very simple DMX controller would have been here by now.


Not really a gripe but considering how long we have waited for the upgrade, I don't really see much difference unless there is hidden code in there we don't yet see. As I said not a gripe just an honest observation.

[jeff wood]

....hang on , whats going on now

if you type a song into the search box, it only searches in whatever category you're in ??

that cant be right can it ?

[Glen J. Millar]

Unfortunately the choice of 3 shades of black does not help when you are in a location where there is a lot of light on the screen (outdoors) where the choices of the other color schemes that were available did help when doing outdoor gigs.

I also miss the option of having the playback decks on either top or bottom (my preference and that of my DJ's was to have them on the bottom).

I had been hoping that we would get a 3rd playback deck and Effects "Hotbuttons" (something I know our radio users also were looking for).

The ability to see 3 different windows related to the Media library is nice. As is the simple "type to search" ability.

I miss having the Categories where you can see them quickly. I use categories for specific items I want on the fly and having to search now, well it is less user friendly than it was in 1.85.

I think that if all the icons were together along the bar, it would make a bit less confusing for some moving from 1.85.

Clicking the upper left icon to get to the menu can be frustrating if you do not know to do so...and some of the things that you once could do, you no longer can do (change deck position, or to a color other than "black or shades thereof").

I will miss the CDDA ability as well. I was close to dumping my CD player totally because of CDDA but with v1.90 if you want to play a song off CD, you will still need a separate unit.

Some of us OtsAV users are older, and the smaller buttons will be hard to transition to. My senior DJ has just asked me NOT to upgrade his unit for this exact reason.

This is going to be my harshest comment...but in the quest to deliver a product that looks more like a popular competitor, I think that Ots lost some of what makes OtsAV the choice of so many here...the ease of use and ease to navigate the software on the fly.

Adding the looping will address one of the requests of members here, but there is soooo much more yet to be done. We are only at v1.90 so we do have a way to go to v2.0.

In the end, some people will be unhappy, some will be happy, and some will be VERY happy with Esperance, and some (like myself) will stay with v1.85 for now.

[Nicolee]

Oh yeah forgot this one......

What happened to the third deck......?

[melchz]

testing out the trial before i put it on my machines but:

My main thing is not being able to have the decks at the bottom...preference and all...im sure ill get use to it just seems like a strange feature to take out.

also took me awhile to find the file/edit/view item...

seeing as i dont use karaoke, being able to edit, delete, hide that list in favor of a second prepare list etc would be nice...maybe its in there and i just cant find it...let me read the manual.....oh wait.

still getting use to the look...not saying i like/dislike it...just feels a little more video gamey to me...im 50/50 on it.

[Darryl]

Yes - you can hide the karaoke list and just have the playlist + media library or you can have three lists playlist + media library + Prepare area - or indeed any combination of the above.  You can remove a list with the X button in the top-right corner and add a new one with the + button on any of the lists - that is nice and flexible - a positive addition.

[melchz]

ya with the karaoke list i was just thinking of actually being able to hide the word karaoke or edit that list to say "prepare 2" etc

[Darryl]

The karaoke list is still a bit useless - you can't put a singer name against the request.  It's a nice idea, but not complete.

[Jigger]

The karaoke list is still a bit useless - you can't put a singer name against the request.  It's a nice idea, but not complete.

Thats what Adam or Steve said in the annoncement

[hubert17]

i change my mind...

esperance is not actually worth the yearful wait.
But im happy with most of the new feature.

[sweet-lovelle]

I've found a negative - You cannot resize the columns in the Media Library - if you have two items that start with the same few characters (e.g. all my Promo Only DVDs are named "Promo Only Chart 2012 07 July" for quick searching on the month) all I can see in the list is "Promo Only Char..." - there's no way of seeing the full title (in the past I would resize the column).

Agree! It would be great to have an option to get a standalone search list/window wich we can resize to full window if needed to find long Artist/Title informations.

Beside that I like the new look and feel

I guess we all need to learn and find out all the new features now.

[mel garland]

Well I've had Esp fired up for over 7 hours playing a generated playlist and so far it has been rock solid, which is the main reason I and many of us use it, so I feel confident for Saturdays gig. But, there is always a but , most things have changed places and will need to get use to this but the 2 things that I,m not happy with is 1) everything is black (is that the new in thing) please in the next upgrade bring back the choice of colours and 2) my biggest grip, they have taken away the ability of playing a Cd directly into Esp.  This was a very useful tool at events IE majorate com pitions where the contestants brought along their own mixed Cd's etc.

So has the wait been worth it?  To be honest to me the answer would no on first real play with it.  There was no real in your face screaming thing that jumps out and says I'm back where I belong at the top of the pile.  This to me is a reworked 1.85 with some added functions added which will be added to in future upgrades, but I hope we don't have to wait 3-4 years before the next upgrade.

And the main thing it's still ROCK SOLID.