DJ'ing from a Laptop.

conZ

I just got this notion into my head a few weeks ago. Basically, I hear there's decent enough money in DJ'ing pubs and shiet in town. I was in two pubs and a club last night, and the Dj's sucked ass - load's of awkward silences between tracks, and a brutal range of music.

I've been reading a few threads on different forums, now I know that there are programs that let you mix, arrange and manipulate music. The pubs in town generally play Pop/Rock/bit of dance kinda shiet, so there wouldn't be much mixing to be done.

I was thinking along the lines of a Sony VAIO TGP2 series laptop (10.2'' screen) - brother got one of these from the states, and another brother is going over there for the summer, so I could get it for around €1300. But I was also thinking of an Applie ibook 12''.

Then, a USB sound card - creative Extigy or something with better quality?

Then, programs. I've seen Finalscratch, and a few more - cant remember the name.

Also, what would be the legality of playing downloaded MP3s in a pub? Pure illegal i'm sure .

2 cents, experience etc. appreciated.

Edit - What sort of delays etc. would be experienced if I used a USB2 HDD to store all the MP3's?

SuprSi

If you're not beat matching, mixing on a laptop is a doddle. Some of the programs you could use are Native Instruments Traktor, MixMeister, or BPM Studio. I used Traktor for ages with a multi-in/out soundcard and it was amazing.

And as far as I know, unless you can actually prove that you bought/own a piece of music, playing it live on mp3 format is illegal. I might be mistaken though.

The Extigy might be ok, but it depends on what sort of inputs the mixers have at wherever you're playing I guess.

As for the USB disk - if you pre-load the track, there wouldn't be much of a problem. To load a 7 or 8 minute tune over USB 2.0 may take around 30 seconds, so no big deal.

conZ

Cool cool.

Any suggestions on Laptops now? I want something portable - as I said, the brother has a Sony PCG-TR2AP 10.6'' laptop. Perfect size, but he's having awful bad reliability issues.

I'll be buying the laptop online, and getting it sent to San Fran, USA - do I have to use a US credit card, or can I use my Irish one and get it sent to SF? The plan is to get the brother to bring it back home in September, past cutsoms etc. I was thinking about a Mac (low spec 12'' powerbook, or decent spec 12'' ibook.) Powerbook or Ibook?

I've been suggested the Hercules DJ Console (front page - http://europe.hercules.com/index.php ). €200 - 250 though, but Guru3d ( http://www.guru3d.com/article/sound/100/2/ ) says it's worth every penny.

Hmm, USB2 HDD then... I suppose a medium sized disk would do (40-80gig) so, I'll leave that til I go to buy the laptop - If all goes well, in late August.

Helix

live mixing on laptop = cubase sx2

conZ

Yea, I have a load of Steinberg programs etc. - brother does a bit of production.

garthv

i saw a bar in new york that had a laptop in the middle of two decks,he set one mp3 for one deck and another mp3 for the other deck but when he moved the vinyl a sensor picked it up and altered the track accordingly,real handy stuff

Nietzschean

Originally posted by conZ
Yea, I have a load of Steinberg programs etc. - brother does a bit of production.

higher portability -> less usb ports which could hinder later addon's of more equipment like

i saw a bar in new york that had a laptop in the middle of two decks,he set one mp3 for one deck and another mp3 for the other deck but when he moved the vinyl a sensor picked it up and altered the track accordingly,real handy stuff

with what you've said you already have a requirement of 2 usb ports which rules out most of the smallest laptop's without a usb hub, and that ain't an option with the external sound card, they eat as much bandwidth off a usb2 controller as they can get.

ibooks and powerbooks are nice but you would lose the range of software available for the pc and some of the pc hardware too.

eth0_

You should go to Electric City in the Metropolitan on a Thursday, there's usually one DJ doing a laptop set most weeks, you could ask them for help, they don't bite

Cake Fiend

I'd say there wouldn't be bad money in it for someone who looked like they knew what they were doing - most of these muppets just slap CDs into CD decks all night, any monkey could do it. If you can do one better than your average pub "DJ", you could nick his job! As long as you don't mind selling your soul to play pop/RnB chart crap all night. If you're going the laptop route, probably the best thing to do would be to get your hands on as much popular mixing software as you can, try them out and see what works well. Playing illegal mp3s would of course be a bad idea, but all you need to do is buy whatever CD singles are in demand at the moment and rip them. Hell, even if you did play illegal mp3s, I doubt anyone would notice/care.

Originally posted by Garth_Vader
i saw a bar in new york that had a laptop in the middle of two decks,he set one mp3 for one deck and another mp3 for the other deck but when he moved the vinyl a sensor picked it up and altered the track accordingly,real handy stuff

That would be Final Scratch, very interesting piece of equipment. It's gaining a lot of popularity now, after a bit of skepticism upon initial launch. I'd say it would be a great way to get into bedroom DJing without having to pay silly money and spend loads of time searching for decent records. Not that I'd condone the likes of soulseek for purposes of private mixing practice of course.

DirtyDog

I'll be buying the laptop online, and getting it sent to San Fran, USA - do I have to use a US credit card, or can I use my Irish one and get it sent to SF? The plan is to get the brother to bring it back home in September, past cutsoms etc. I was thinking about a Mac (low spec 12'' powerbook, or decent spec 12'' ibook.) Powerbook or Ibook?

A lot of the US websites now require you have a US credit card billing address, you can try it but I'm almost positive on big ticket items like a laptop they will ask for the card with the same billing\delivery address in the states.

Can you ask someone you know over there to buy it and then give them the cash??

As for laptop I love that little sony you mention, I've used it before - but IMO I'd go for a slightly larger laptop bigger screen makes life easier plus they arent that much heavier, and you'll get a bigger HD. I've got the GRT, only have it a few weeks and plan on doing the same thing (DJ'ing) when i get my finger out to set it up and copy over my music.

Let me know how you get on

mob

i've heard really good things about the Hercules DJ Console (you can get it for €229.99 @ http://www.buy4now.ie/galaxy/shopping.asp?location=SD&catid=33&productid=1225) and i'm thinking of getting one my self. it seems to be the business and there's no need for an amp of any thing. as for a laptop i was thinking of on of those small light weight dell ones

Phibsboro

that hecules thingy looks the biz - i know one lad who has one and him his mate do some kind of 2 many dj's thing with 2 laptops

i do some occassional dj'ing at a big venue and use two mp2 players going through the in-house mixer - not as sexy and u ain't gonna beat match but then i don't play dance so not much call for real matched mixing.

But I have been thinking of using a computer instead and my investigations have lead me to the hercules do-da with Mix Vibes as the software (There is a special version of MV available that uses the Hercuels controls). Laptop wise, the main thing to watch is the hard disk space and the size of the screen - some of the software isn't too clever about re-sizing and requires a relatively large resolution to see both decks/channels.

Re usb 2 HD, you should certainly be able to stream MP3 direct from a usb 2.0 disk. It might struggle with something like a video edit but it would be well able to keep up with audio data. If you're worried about an initial lag, most mixing software preloads the opening seconds into memory so its as sharp as if you'd used CUE off a CD deck for example. The hercules itself only needs the old USB 1 to run both sound channels.

Download Mix Vibes free version and have a play - it works even with one audio output, tho then u can't preview the mix of course

C

Executive Steve

bear in mind that unlesss youre playing full quality 320kbps mp3's the sound quality over a proper club system will be dire. also, there are legal hassles over playing mainstream pop and rnb. most of that stuff is published by riaa members who wont be too impressed if they see you playing all that stuff out. i have a mate who plays in commercial clubs... he has to go in to record shops and buy britney spears cds. do you really want to be seen doing that???

Son of Blam

Most places in Dublin have average to poor sound systems so the average customer probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a 192kbps or better mp3 and CD/vinyl.

Executive Steve

yeah but the average punter will generally not notice sloppy mixing either [unless its really really bad] and the average punter will be happy with britney and westlife too... screw the average punter... its all about impressing the trainspotters with questionable personal hygiene.

pyramid man

I use
atomixmp3 or

virtualdj

2.8 ghz packard bell laptop

512mb ram

creative labs audigy platnum soundcard.

A kam mixer if i need to use the decks

180GB external hard drive.

external keyboard and mouse.

It works to perfection. Beat-Matching is a doddle and it provides perfect results every time.

Also get a laptop with windows 2000 pro for stability and to prevent them nasty crashes that xp has a tendancy to cause.

Dizz

Sweet software here - hook it up with a multichannel soundcard and mixer and ur set
http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?traktor2_us

chrismon

will a soundblaster live2 5.1 work?