What Decksi Does
Decksi enables DJs to find each other, connect their DJ controllers into a shared session, and perform together in real time. DJs communicate set ideas, share playlists, before exchanging live musical actions to co-create music. Each participant operates their own equipment, in their own location, while co-operating live in a single musical collaboration. At its core, Decksi is co-creation. It supports rehearsal, practice, and performance between DJs who want to learn together, play together, and build meaningful musical relationships with their peers from across the globe.
What Is Latency in Music Performance?
Latency refers to delay times as data travels from one point to another over the Internet. We’ve always lived with latency on the Internet, but music is far less forgiving. Beats and rhythm are the bedrock of modern popular music; where hip-hop, house, techno, rock and EDM are all defined by stable rhythmic grids. Our minds anticipate the next pulse so we can tap a foot, nod our head, or dance, and each time dopamine is released, its intoxicating. If timing skews even slightly, this relationship collapses. This is why attempts to make live musical actions together over the Internet has struggled in the past. Latency deforms rhythm, the feet stop tapping, the vibe is gone.
How Decksi Deals with Latency.
The challenge: how can DJs co-create from remote locations while preserving musical integrity? Telemidi founder, Dr Matt Bray, spent ten years researching this problem through post-graduate study and extensive testing, culminating in the TEMPO protocol (patent pending) that drives Decksi. The solution involves minimising network distances via cloud-based routing, as well as addressing how and when DJs perform their actions. Modern DJ’ing features track analysis to define tempo, quantising, beat-sync, loops and other digital tools to ensure lock-tight adherence across tempos commonly centred around 120 BPM. Once tracks are digitally aligned, many performance actions occur in predictable musical windows. TEMPO leverages this reality and aligns the playback between two locations to sync within a few milliseconds of each other, from which DJ actions can be shared with an increased musical accuracy.
Modern DJs Are MIDI Masters!
Modern DJ controllers operate through MIDI: Play, EQ, loop points, beat-rolls, jog wheels, tempo adjustments, effects, etc., are all transmitted as MIDI messages. Each controller model uses its own MIDI mappings, but the underlying language is the same. Decksi employs a custom translation layer called TUM (Telemidi Unified Mapping). TUM ensures that when ‘DJ A’ triggers an action on their controller, the equivalent action occurs on ‘DJ B’s’ controller, despite using different hardware and MIDI mappings. Decksi allows any controller to communicate with any other controller. Further, every single action is transmitted with a millisecond timestamp.
Keep the TEMPO in Time
TEMPO is the system that coordinates this exchange. Cloud-based servers act as a conduit, transferring time-stamped MIDI data between DJs with the lowest possible delay. Because actions are time-aligned, they can also be re-sequenced to produce a perfectly synchronised output for online or hybrid audiences. This means two DJs can collaborate from opposite sides of the planet, while audiences experience the result as a single, unified performance. The same framework can extend to visual artists, lighting designers, and other collaborators, all contributing in real time. TEMPO preserves musical coherence while enabling large-scale shared performance.
Summary
Decksi brings together years of research, testing, and engineering so DJs can focus on music.
You log in. You map your decks. You find other DJs. You connect in a live session. We take care of the complexity so that your collaboration stays human.
If DJing matters to you as a shared practice, Decksi is ready when you are.
