DJMesh turns the phone itself into the record. It measures how the platter
turns and plays the audio at that speed and in that direction. Slow the platter and the
track slows. Stop it and there is silence. Turn it backwards and it plays backwards.
Put a record or a slipmat on the platter, then lay the phone flat on top of it.
Fix it so it cannot slide. A strip of adhesive or a sticky mat is enough. This matters
more than anything else on this page.
Start the platter.
Tap the load button at the top left and pick a track from Files or Music.
There is no scratch mode to switch on. Reverse, stop and pitch are simply what the
platter is doing.
A turntable. Direct drive and belt drive both work.
Something that keeps the phone from slipping.
Optional: a Mac on macOS 14 or later, on the same local network.
A display with 120 Hz gives the smoothest result. A 60 Hz device runs, but the display
timing is rougher.
The app needs permission to use motion sensors, and permission for the local network if
you want to use a Mac as the audio host.
Views
The app picks its view from the sensors. You do not have to switch anything.
Groovy
The phone sits over the spindle. The waveform is drawn as rings, a groove, and it
turns with the record while the playhead and the readouts stay put in the room.
Pure
The phone lies further out on the record, where the ring stack no longer fits on the
screen. Picture-disc look.
Wavey
The phone is in your hand or on the table. Flat band view with its own touch grammar
and pinch zoom.
Calibrate
The app has to learn how the phone lies on the platter before angles mean anything. If
the direction or the speed reads wrong, run the placement calibration in the app settings
and follow the steps on screen.
Two things help it: lay the phone down deliberately rather than dropping it, and give the
platter one full slow turn afterwards.
Anything the app learns about your setup is thrown away whenever you install a new build,
so a fresh install always starts from a clean slate.
Mac host
A Mac on the same network announces itself, and the phone streams its platter angle to
it. The Mac plays the audio on the house system while the phone stays the authority for
where the playhead is. Because both sides always sit on the same position, handing
playback from phone to Mac is a change in gain, not a resync.
Unzip the file and move DJMesh.app into Applications. It opens with a
double click; macOS asks once for network access.
Same build on both sides
Phone and Mac have to run the same build. The build number is shown at the bottom of
the settings on both.
Your crates
The host reads your music from the Music and Downloads folders, and from any folder
you choose yourself. Crates elsewhere, for example on the Desktop or an external
drive, need that folder chosen once.
On the Mac you get a crate of cover art. Drag a track onto a deck slot to load it.
Cue points, loops and beatgrids are read from Serato-style tags in the file. Other tag
dialects are not read, and nothing is ever written back into your library.
Serato mapping
DJMesh drives Serato DJ Pro over MIDI through the Mac host: the platter drives the deck,
and transport, cues, loops, the library and the waveform travel back. Serato needs a
mapping to know what those messages mean. The host brings it along — there is nothing to
download.
Start order
Start the DJMesh host first, then Serato. If you restart the host while Serato is
running, quit and restart Serato too.
Save the mapping
When the host sees Serato and the mapping is missing or outdated, it offers to save
it. Click Save and keep the suggested folder. You can also do this any time from the
host settings: Save Serato mapping.
Load it
In Serato open Setup, go to the MIDI tab, enable the DJMesh MIDI Bridge device and
load the DJMesh mapping. Set the deck to INT with Instant Start. Switch off every other
custom MIDI device: Serato sends everything to every enabled device, and two devices on
one deck get in each other's way.
After every Serato start
Load the DJMesh mapping again. Serato forgets part of it when it quits, and without
it the library and the waveform stay empty on the phone.
The mapping belongs to a build. After an update the host offers the new one by
itself.
Network & permissions
Phone and Mac talk over the local network. They find each other by themselves; nothing
needs to be typed in, but the network has to let them see each other.
Same network, no isolation
Phone and Mac must be in the same Wi-Fi or LAN. Guest networks and “client
isolation” / “AP isolation” block the devices from finding each
other — switch that off or use the main network.
Wi-Fi channel
Use 5 GHz on a fixed channel without radar detection. In the EU: channel 44
(36–48 are the channels without radar detection). In the US: channel 44 as well, or
149–161. Channels with radar detection (DFS) can make the router jump to another
channel in the middle of a set, which drops the connection. Older Apple Watch models
(Series 4) only use 2.4 GHz, so keep 2.4 GHz on if you use the
watch.
Mac on cable
The Mac may sit on Ethernet; phones on Wi-Fi reach it as long as both are in the
same network.
Permissions on the phone
Local Network — required
Finds the Mac host and exchanges deck position, waveform and tracks with it. If you
declined it: Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network → DJMesh.
Motion
The gyroscope and compass measure the platter; this is what the app is.
Bluetooth — optional
Only for a Bluetooth MIDI controller whose crossfader controls the mute.
Microphone — optional
Only used in the calibration and measurement mode to analyse timing signals.
Permissions on the Mac
Local Network — required
macOS asks once on first start. If you declined it: System Settings → Privacy
& Security → Local Network → DJMesh.
Your music
The host reads the Music and Downloads folders and any folder you choose
yourself.
Fixes
The phone creeps or slides while I scratch
Nothing in software can fix this. Use adhesive, a sticky mat or a phone ring, and
check that the record itself does not slip on the slipmat.
Playback direction or speed is wrong
Run the placement calibration, then give the platter a slow full turn.
The view keeps changing when I do not want it to
The switch is driven by where the phone is, so a hand turn can look like a platter
turn. Lift the phone and lay it down again to re-arm the detection.
The Mac does not appear on the phone
Both devices have to be on the same network, the Mac app has to be running, and both
apps need Local Network permission. Check it under Settings, Privacy and Security,
Local Network on each device. A guest network or client isolation on the router will
block discovery.
No cue points or beatgrid
They come from tags written by Serato software. A file without those tags shows none.
The waveform lags on a long track
Known limitation on long files. It is on the list.
Privacy
DJMesh has no accounts, no analytics, no tracking, no ads and no third-party SDKs.
Audio files stay on your device. Communication between your own devices runs over your
local network only and is never routed through a server. Sensor readings are processed on
the device while you play.
If a build asks you to send measurement data, that is an explicit question with a
Yes and a No, and nothing leaves the device unless you send the mail yourself.
Contact
Write to info@radikarl.de. One person reads it, so
plain and specific gets you an answer fastest.
Useful to include:
Device model and iOS or macOS version
The build number shown in the corner of the app screen
Turntable make and model
What you did, what you expected, what happened instead