My Zulu Wish List

[Gary Tayman]

Just a little feedback after having taken Zulu to a few gigs and getting some practice in.

 

A few comments; things I would like to see improved:

 

1. I'm really making great use of the "Search" feature. Example, someone requests "Love Me Tender" by Elvis. I can type "Elvis", or "tender", or "love", and immediately get a short list of Elvis songs, or songs with love or tender in the title. But when I locate the song and load it, I must remember to immediately go back and backspace out of the search window. If I don't, every song it selects will be from that short list. I would like to see the search window clear once I make a selection.

 

2. This is a minor issue, but when playing music I want the control buttons to be big and dumb -- the "Keep It Simple Stupid" concept. When I'm trying to select music, and people are trying to chat with me and there are all sorts of other distractions, I can't always think straight to do a procedure. One of the wonderful things about the old cart players was the fact that there was only one button, and it was big and green. Push it, it played the song or spot, then re-cued the tape and stopped by itself. With this in mind, I'd like the play and pause buttons to be more prominent, and preferably green and red. Think about this for the next upgrade. Maybe crossfader could be enlarged as well.

 

3. The little blue cue mark is very hard to move. The mouse must be in the exact spot, or it might make a loop instead of moving the cue. Sometimes I do it wrong three or four times before getting it right.

 

 

4. Last but not least, is there a way to add multiple songs to a playlist? Particularly when starting anew, you have to Add, select, add, select, etc. I'd like the ability to add a block of songs, or select several to add before clsoing the window.

 

Any comments on these would be welcomed.

[Gary Tayman]

Again I'll reply to my own question. How would I have known that as I was asksing, a brand new update was just being released? I just upgraded from version 2.37 to version 2.38, and I see some definite improvements.

 

First off, the Play buttons are larger -- not by much, but larger. I would like them larger still, and possibly colored green to make them easy to spot in a second. Remember, my opinion of good software, especially for something "on the fly" as this, is big and dumb. Hit the play button and let's go -- not "sit there and read the book", or try and figure out where things are. Features are great, but when I'm playing tunes and people are badgering me with requests, questions, and even shooting the breeze, it's nice to be able to click, click, and the music keeps going without having to think. Zulu itself shines in this department already -- the reason I picked it over several others, but this is just another suggestion.

 

As for adding songs to the playlist, with the new version I can hold down CTL and select several songs without closing the window. This is what I wanted -- for some reason this didn't work with the old version, don't know why but who cares now.

 

I also noticed the cue buttons underneath the deck -- makes it a bit easier to set cue marks. It appears it's on the old version too -- but something about the arrangement of the new version makes it easier to spot.

 

I'll put some practice into the 2.38 version, and later come back to comment. Overall, this is a FANTASTIC program! One DJ friend has already purchased it on my recommendation, and several others are considering it -- simply so we are all "on the same page" when we talk music, or even fill in for each other.