Tonium Pacemaker

This is the second generation of Tonium’s Pacemaker, an all-in-one music player aimed at turning musical novices into DJ legends.

The package comes in two parts: the Pacemaker, a pretty, beautifully constructed handheld player and track mixer, and Pacemaker Editor, an editing application for PC and Mac.

The Pacemaker is an audio mixer with two virtual ‘decks’ that allows users to match beats and add effects, filters and loops to perform DJ sets or create unique compositions from the user’s pre-loaded music. It has a 60GB internal memory, a processor that handles sound effects, and professional-quality audio output, making the unit both powerful and versatile.

Battery life was around five hours while mixing and 15 hours for playback, and charging took three hours through the USB connector or one-and-a-half hours using the supplied mains adapter.

The array of channel control buttons and pads used to create a mix and add effects were tricky to handle for the first few days because they have to be combined in various ways.

However, the software controls are adjustable. Reading the manual is therefore essential, though it could have been clearer, and the addition of diagrams would have been useful.

Persevering is worthwhile, though, because the Pacemaker invites creativity while allowing you to raise the roof in the process.

Pacemaker also allows users to save their mixes on the device, copy them to the software, refine them further and upload them to the Pacemaker website to share with others. Mixes are produced in the Ogg format, so your fans may need to download some software to listen.

The on-board effects, including automatic beat matching and pitch-shifting, among others, were generally very good, though we found the time-stretch function, which manipulates the playback speed to match the tempo of other tracks, produced inconsistent results.

Though it seems expensive, the Pacemaker is cheaper than a full DJ setup, but more fiddly to use. The editing software worked well and supports many major music file formats, so it is a worthwhile addition.

The asking price may be too high for most casual music fans, though, and the kit will appeal mostly to people already involved in mixing music.