Gadgetell Review: The Tonium Pacemaker

What is it:

The Tonium Pacemaker is a DJ tool that lets you make mixes using songs on its 60GB internal hard drive using a combination of buttons and a circular touchpad. Controlling tempos, effects like reverb, audio properties such as treble and bass are done via the circular touchpad through a series of gestures.

While the Pacemaker does have a screen, it is not designed for video playback, but can act as a simple music player. The Tonium Pacemaker is available at Amazon for $499.99.

The Good:

The Pacemaker has a solid design with a good screen and a responsive touchpad. It definitely feels like a sturdy device (and it should for that price).

Unlike so many other devices, the Pacemaker does not come with a CD of software. Instead, the “Pacemaker Editor” software is right on the device for both Mac and Windows. Just connect the included USB cable to grab the software and you are good to go.

The documentation is very helpful. The Pacemaker ships with an instruction sheet that is packed with the information you need to know in a clear and concise manner. Since the Pacemaker is not exactly an interface I have ever seen before, these instructions were invaluable.

Making mixes on the device is very simple. Tell the Pacemaker that you want to play one song and start it up. Then you click a track selector button to switch tracks. From there, play your second song. From there you can navigate back and forth between songs to change audio properties and tempos until you have something that sounds good.

The included Pacemaker Editor software is clear and easy to use. It analyzes your music to determine data like beats per minute to easier create mixes. You can make mixes on your PC and then take them on the go using the Pacemaker device. Tonium is now allowing its Pacemaker Editor software available for free to anyone who signs up for a free account with them.

The Bad:

There is a bit of a learning curve to the Tonium Pacemaker. In order to use the Pacemaker to its full capabilities, you must learn gestures and button combinations to access functions. You can’t just pick up the device and go. That being said, the Pacemaker really is a musical instrument. Very few can simply pick up a guitar and start playing like a guitar legend.

Learning the gestures can take a little time, but how necessary are the gestures over buttons? Then again, if you had dedicated buttons for each Pacemaker function, you would be looking at a much larger device that would not be as portable.

The Pacemaker Editor software must analyze the songs before you can import the songs to the Pacemaker. If you have a large library, you might want to set the software to analyze your music and go for a cup of coffee. Then come back and import your songs to the Pacemaker.

The In Between

Make no mistake about it, the Pacemaker does let you create mixes very easily. However, just because this is easy to use, don’t expect matching any two songs will yield a good result. In my tests, I was responsible for some truly awful mixes. The Pacemaker can help you by matching the tempos of the songs, but sometimes songs just don’t gel. That’s not a fault of the Pacemaker, it is just something to be aware of.

You can lose a lot of time just playing around with the Pacemaker. Obsessive types may lose days trying to craft the perfect mix since the Pacemaker makes it very easy to alter songs.

The Crux:

At $499.99, the price can seem very steep if you just want to play DJ. However, if making mixes is a passion of yours, the Pacemaker is incredibly useful. While I am not a DJ, I believe that you could work out rough mixes on the Pacemaker while on the go and perhaps put together a more complete product using additional software. This is a musical instrument — if you are willing to learn how to use it, you will get better with practice.

Product Site: [Pacemaker.net]
Download: [Pacemaker Editor]