Laptop DJ'ing

PaulG1

I've always wanted to give it a go and now that technology has come on so much I really want to start DJ'ing with my laptop. I am a total beginner and basically all I have right now is a big music library and I just downloaded Virtual DJ which seems like a pretty decent programme.

I understand you need a mixer, an amp and some speakers. I don't even know what a mixer does :eek: (as I thought the laptop replaced all of the old equipment).. Can anybody help clue me in???

Sky King

Get a phono to minijack cable and plug it into the headphone output of your laptop and into the aux input of any decent stereo.

That'll get you started anyway. You wont need a mixer with DJ software on a laptop.

PaulG1

Cheers , are mixers a basic requirement for a gig, if so, what purpose do they serve?

Sky King

Your two sound sources (i.e. two CD decks or two vinyl turntables) are sending an audio signal into the mixer when they are playing their media.

The idea of having two sound sources.... (though many clubs will have 4, i.e. 2 CD and 2 vinyl and you can also plug a laptop into a mixer and use it as a music source) ..... is so that the DJ can prepare the next track in his headphones while the crowd are dancing to the one on the soundsystem. this is called 'cueing up a track'.

The DJ uses the mixer to control which one the crowd hears at any time. He (or she!) use the faders to smoothly (in theory anyway) transition from the outgoing track to the incoming one.

You also have bass mid and treble dials on the mixer, and many mixers have FX on them such as flangers which add a sweeping phasing sound to the music, filters which cut out certain frequencies and delay which creates an echo at a prescribed time interval.

If you are just dicking around with a laptop then you don't really need a mixer as the software will allow you to transition betweenthe trackds. if you only have the onboard soundcard on the laptop then you can cue up visually using the waveforms on the screen and smooth transitions dont really matter if you are playing indie or rock or pop music. But drag out a sh!tty mix to a crowd of dance enthusiasts and you won't last too long.

Laptops are a point of contention though. Many dance purists don't like them... some people see it as 'cheating' but others have embraced the technology.

They are ideal if you're just doing 21sts and stuff because you could carry 20,000 tunes around with you on the lappie and not have to worry about rooting out CD's. Just be aware that it could crash though, leaving a couple of hundred people standing there staring at you going WTF?

The best way to learn this stuff I think is to have a good chat with someone who does it already because you'll save serious heartache trying to figure it all out. Go to a bar where there is a laptop DJ on but go early in the night when it is quiet and buy him a drink and he'll be happy to fill you in, most of them are bored ****less playing Lady Ga Ga.

A whole other aspect of DJing is reading the crowd and picking the right tunes to keep the buzz going. Again, if you're doing partys and stuff, be prepared to develop a thick skin. if you have a whole load of dolly birds and grannies on the dance floor that you are being paid to entertain, then you're not going to want to out on hard dance... but you'll always get some p1ssed up A-Hole that likes hard dance coming up to you telling you to 'turn off that ****e and throw on Tiesto'.

If you are doing purely dance gigs you probably wont have this problem (unless you've totally misread the style of the night) but remember every dude with a laptop and a cracked version of Traktor is calling himself a DJ now... you have stiff competition and you probably won't get any money out of it.

Hope that helps!

Charlie Haughy

Just a quick question, thought it would suit here, as didnt want to start another thread on it but, what is the problem with laptop djing? Why do some people not "respect" them or take alot of them seriously? Is it purely on beatmatching as when I do a set I dont use the sync button 90% of the time, or is it something else?

I can beatmatch on vinyl decently and have no problems on cdjs but just prefer the digital route as its far cheaper and handier to have all the songs with me. But im not an effects wh*re or slave to the sync button either.

Executive Steve

Charlie Haughy wrote: »

Just a quick question, thought it would suit here, as didnt want to start another thread on it but, what is the problem with laptop djing? Why do some people not "respect" them or take alot of them seriously? Is it purely on beatmatching as when I do a set I dont use the sync button 90% of the time, or is it something else?

I can beatmatch on vinyl decently and have no problems on cdjs but just prefer the digital route as its far cheaper and handier to have all the songs with me. But im not an effects wh*re or slave to the sync button either.

It's because it's cheaper to take up, it's easier to learn to do competently, it effectively removes every single barrier of access to music while making it easy to play pirated music and because the vast majority of heads I've come across who are into their laptops have absolutely no clue about the music they steal.

Beatmatching isn't the be-all and end-all of music, but at least with vinyl it takes a good few years before you're really at the standard where you can rock a club competently and consistently - this keeps the jokers, the wannabes and the generally clueless away, as very very very few people bother with the expense and the frustration of buying equipment and building a record collection and learning to mix.

Whereas when you can take a Dell craptop and a €150 midicontroller to a club and play the tech-house torrent you grabbed that very day and ran through a keymixing plugin and knock it all together with a few weeks practice you haven't really done the same thing as a "real" DJ.

Charlie Haughy

Executive Steve wrote: »

It's because it's cheaper to take up, it's easier to learn to do competently, it effectively removes every single barrier of access to music while making it easy to play pirated music and because the vast majority of heads I've come across who are into their laptops have absolutely no clue about the music they steal.

Beatmatching isn't the be-all and end-all of music, but at least with vinyl it takes a good few years before you're really at the standard where you can rock a club competently and consistently - this keeps the jokers, the wannabes and the generally clueless away, as very very very few people bother with the expense and the frustration of buying equipment and building a record collection and learning to mix.

Whereas when you can take a Dell craptop and a €150 midicontroller to a club and play the tech-house torrent you grabbed that very day and ran through a keymixing plugin and knock it all together with a few weeks practice you haven't really done the same thing as a "real" DJ.

Well I suppose the same argument could be given to CD-Djs about torrenting music but thats never really brought up, but the sensible will realise you need at least a 320kps mp3 or a wav music file for it to sound good and that beatport are really the only place that offers that service on new music so torrenting music isnt that useful really, so thats one way of seeing who actually knows what their doing.

But ive seen people spend a few K on a numark NS7 controller for serato and a mac and still use the sync button and sound like shít so I guess its a tough argument.

ED E

I'm learning to DJ on a laptop right now and I will admit, it starts you a few extra steps up the ladder but I would say to get very good you'd need a similar amount of practice to somebody on CDJs. Also jog wheels cannot be compared to real decks, so in that sense you are limited. If you do practise though you can get to the level of the likes of Ean Golden, that chaps got skills(must get me some arcade buttons, the Nocturn doesnt cut it).


IMO there's a good bit of begrudgery there too. We start quicker for less and dont end up with broken backs.

hans aus dtschl

Pretty simple reason why laptop dj's get more hatred: the barriers to entry are very low.

If the point is the end goal (the sound from the speakers) there's no problem. If the point is the process (what you're doing to make the music come from the speakers) then people are going to be upset if you've found a way around the hard work. So there's two trains of thought there.

eeloe

I started off DJing over 10 years ago, using ****ting synergie cd players.

around 2002 when i really got in to it, i wanted to upgrade my gear, and as the CDJ's we're still horribly expensive, i got 1210's and started playing vinyl.

came in to some money in 2005 and bought some CDJ's and used them aswell with a DJM 600 playing off 4 decks.

Moved to france for 2 years and sold off all my gear before moving, and drank most of the money while i was in france, while i was there i picked up some more ****ty numark cd players and a mixer.
it was fine, but i hated playing them so they just sat there.

When i came home in 2007 money was a bit tight, so i picked up a laptop and started using that.

So i've went through all the popular platforms of playing music, and for me, personally, with the setup i have i'm happy playing off a laptop.

I can see where the vinyl heads are coming from, as it takes the hard work out of learning to beat match, and stuff, but i just prefer playing off a laptop and a VCi-100

Also, hans has seen me play Vinyl(UCC Battle 2005) CD's (ucc battle 07) and use a midi controller(Battle 09) and as he said himself....it's the end goal that matters

PaulG1

Cheers for the answer flyer, at the moment I think it would be starting out small i.e. your 21sts, anniversaries, Christenings etc...so do you think that having my laptop and some decent speakers I would be well enough equipped to do gigs of this size?

Sound again for the answer, very helpful!:)

Executive Steve

eeloe wrote: »

I started off DJing over 10 years ago, using ****ting synergie cd players.

around 2002 when i really got in to it, i wanted to upgrade my gear, and as the CDJ's we're still horribly expensive, i got 1210's and started playing vinyl.

came in to some money in 2005 and bought some CDJ's and used them aswell with a DJM 600 playing off 4 decks.

Moved to france for 2 years and sold off all my gear before moving, and drank most of the money while i was in france, while i was there i picked up some more ****ty numark cd players and a mixer.
it was fine, but i hated playing them so they just sat there.

When i came home in 2007 money was a bit tight, so i picked up a laptop and started using that.

So i've went through all the popular platforms of playing music, and for me, personally, with the setup i have i'm happy playing off a laptop.

I can see where the vinyl heads are coming from, as it takes the hard work out of learning to beat match, and stuff, but i just prefer playing off a laptop and a VCi-100

Also, hans has seen me play Vinyl(UCC Battle 2005) CD's (ucc battle 07) and use a midi controller(Battle 09) and as he said himself....it's the end goal that matters

Of course, I'm not discounting the fact that there's people doing savage **** with laptops / technology / midi controllers etc; we had Surgeon down at our night on Friday sure.

At the end of the day until it stops being the weapon of choice for ****ehawk blow-ins there's always going to be a whiff of the suspect dangling over the technology as a whole though.

Jev/N

Executive Steve wrote: »

At the end of the day until it stops being the weapon of choice for ****ehawk blow-ins there's always going to be a whiff of the suspect dangling over the technology as a whole though.

Well put, that's exactly it.

jtsuited

Charlie Haughy wrote: »

Well I suppose the same argument could be given to CD-Djs about torrenting music but thats never really brought up,

I'll bring it up now so.....Cd djs are an even worse brand of cúnt for looking down on laptop dj's when their own medium is the (other)spawn of the devil.:p

Logical Fallacy

I've seen discussions on line about people ripping tracks from Youtube and playing them at gigs.

What.the.****?

dubsbhoy

every single dj forum the world over has 10 of these threads and it doesn't look like it will ever end.

I've a pain in me gee reading about it but if you have never played using vinyl i don't think your cheating, i just think your missing out.

hans aus dtschl

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

I've seen discussions on line about people ripping tracks from Youtube and playing them at gigs.

What.the.****?

I know some pretty well-known DJ's that do this, actually.

~Marky~

I was speaking to a DJ a few weeks ago and he told me he did this was shocked :eek: would the quality not be absolute crap?

Zascar

Youtube quality is awful

ED E

192 at best.

seannash

Zascar wrote: »

Youtube quality is awful

dont they have some sort of high quality upload thing,like if you use a still image you can upload a better quality file.

not advocating it just asking.i definetly wouldnt risk it

electrogrimey

dubsbhoy wrote: »

if you have never played using vinyl i don't think your cheating, i just think your missing out.

I like this a lot.

I started DJing on a laptop, and then went and learned to beatmatch and mix on CDs, and now I do both. I don't consider myself any more of a DJ now, I just like that I have the option using either. I personally prefer using a laptop at a high profile gig, because it means instead of spending most of the track lining up the next one, you can look up at the crowd, make sure they like it, and put more effort into smoother mixing, and putting in bigger build-ups in the track with EQs and effects etc.

LaughOrDie

I've a pain in me gee reading about it but if you have never played using vinyl i don't think your cheating, i just think your missing out.[/QUOTE]

You've hit the nail on the head there, I got a set of basic direct drive turntables a year ago. While they take a lot of getting used to, when your messin round in your room there's nothin more rewarding.

I had a go with my mates omni control and traktor a while ago and found it really boring. Pick tracks, hit sync and then mix the track in. You just don't have the same 'hands on' approach as you do with vinyl. It was almost too easy.

Sayin that the convenience of MP3s is undeniable. Recently treated myself to Traktor Scratch Pro with the timecode vinyls and it's the perfect balance for me. The convenience of mp3s with the hands on control of vinyl. Love it.

It's all personal preference at the end of the day.