DJing on a Laptop - opinoins

paddylonglegs

Have been tinkering with idea for a while but not sure,playing my mp3s instead of CDs.Seen one guy do it one night but he had his mixer hooked up to his laptop.I think this is essential cos there's no input for your headphones on a laptop if you're mixing straight from the Desktop.

So...anyone tried it?Anyone got any ideas how it might be possible to hook a mixer up to it but still be able to use the two seperate channels to mix with?

Cheers

sturgo

You'll need an external sound card with a couple of outputs. One output to use as a monitor and another for what the audience hears. The cheapest option would be to go for something like a USB Sound Blaster Audigy NX. But if you are really serious about DJnig I would recomend looking at the M-Audio or Miglia websites. You can pick up a really good external Firewire unit for less than €300.

As far as software goes, I've used PCDJ, which is quite good. But you could actually get away with using Winamp.

Zascar

best software I have used is www.virtualdj.com. Free trial downlaod availible. Native instruments Tracktor is good too but a little over complicated for me.

I have a Hercules DJ console, highly recommended. There was a very detailsed thread about it a few weeks ago, go back through this forum and you might find it...

edit: here it is:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=317726

Dyr

sturgo wrote:

You'll need an external sound card with a couple of outputs. One output to use as a monitor and another for what the audience hears. The cheapest option would be to go for something like a USB Sound Blaster Audigy NX.

Word of warning: the USB audigy i have picks up static/noise when the laptop is running off mains, thus making it useless. It seems to be a common problem with them. :mad:

sturgo

Bambi wrote:

Word of warning: the USB audigy i have picks up static/noise when the laptop is running off mains, thus making it useless. It seems to be a common problem with them. :mad:

I've used the Audigy NX for the past two years in many different venues and to it's credit I haven't experienced any problems regarding unwanted noise. Having said that, it's by no means designed for professional audio use.

If you're really serious about it PaddyL I suggest a Mac Powerbook + Hercules DJ console. Hands down beats any PC / Windows setup.

Helix

creative cards are complete and utter dross

dont bother

m audio for a budget card thatll do a decent job

Doc_Savage

if it's good enough for paul van dyke.........;)

Bard

I use the old external Creative box, the Soundblaster Extigy connected to my laptop along with AtomixMP3 software for gigs and it works just fine.

Eddie Brennan

Doc_Savage wrote:

if it's good enough for paul van dyke.........;)

who's more than likely getting paid to use it. never mind that **** about this or that DJ uses it cos most of them are paid to use it.

Eddie Brennan

im actually going down the Serato Scratch Live route. About to buy it from the states. 500 euro shipped to my door. its supposed to be the best of those things. i bought a CDJ 1000 but i just dont like CD's so vinyl mp3 is the way for me to go. I wouldnt like DJ'n purely on a laptop! Very unexciting id say!!

Selik

sturgo wrote:

But you could actually get away with using Winamp.

Only if you plan on crossfading tunes and doing absolutely no beatmatching + no fx + no sample etc... boring!

Oh and I'll 2nd someone here who stated how good Virtual Dj is. It's what I use and it's brilliant.

There's a thread about all this here in Dance/Electronic from a few months back but I can't find it coz the search function is mysteriously disabled.

If anyone's interested in what Virtual DJ is capable of coupled with some practice, patience along with an understanding and love of dance music then check out any of my mixes from the link in my sig. All done with VDJ and an external mixer.

sturgo

Giles wrote:

Only if you plan on crossfading tunes and doing absolutely no beatmatching + no fx + no sample etc... boring!

I've heard playlists mixed in Wimamp that sounded better than some club DJs.

kc66

I'v used Atomix MP3 and BPM Studio which I've found easy to use.

paddylonglegs

Cheers lads for all the tips,had no idea initially how to go about it.nice one.

When I get the cash up I may invest in one of these: http://www.stantondj.com/v2/fs/prod_fs2.asp

On paper,it looks perfect.being able to run mp3s through analogue records to scratch and mix.Was trying to get onto xmusic on the quays a while ago to put on a demo some day but no go yet.

Heard they had some trouble with the first version but its been ironed out in the newer version

Eddie Brennan

as i said b4 Rane Serato Scratch Live all the way!! Just found out Hawtin uses it too when everyone thought it was Final Scratch he uses!

paddylonglegs

Eddie Brennan wrote:

as i said b4 Rane Serato Scratch Live all the way!! Just found out Hawtin uses it too when everyone thought it was Final Scratch he uses!

Eddie are you using Serato scratch and have you had any problems with it?Are you able to compare between it and final scratch?Is anywhere in Dublin or Ireland selling it?

Helix

from what ive read ss is more stable than the first final scratch

the second fs is meant to be an immeasurable improvement tho

Eddie Brennan

paddylonglegs wrote:

Eddie are you using Serato scratch and have you had any problems with it?Are you able to compare between it and final scratch?Is anywhere in Dublin or Ireland selling it?

i havnt bought it yet but i am buying it as soon as i get a reply to an email from a seller on ebay in the US. Its $549 and so thats about 470 euro and then 50 quid is about the tax ill need to pay customs. its about 799 in aquarius i believe so ill save a lot and the seller is a shop and has a seriously good feedback score. the seller was recommended to me by someone who bought it off them already.

i was talking to Richie Hawtin's guy who sets up his decks etc and once i noticed hawitn uses serato rather than final scratch i asked him y and his response was its more stable that final scratch, he did say that richie will be converting back to Final Scratch next year because of the Tracktor facility on FS that will give him more options but i just want something more stable that i can use rather than CD players.

derrylahan

can someone recomend me a laptop and sound card setup for starting off..
been messing around with dssdj mixing tracks for fun for the last whatever months and then i got virtual dj and realised that i might be able to get into djing to play a few gigs and wat not with it and a laptop..
how much would i be looking to spend?
would mp3s be good enough quality to play gigs??

cheers

sturgo

If you're DJing with MP3s try and make sure they're all encoded at 320Kbs anything below 196Kbs will just sound crap played through a powerful PA.

Personally I think the best option would be to go for a Mac Powerbook or iBook with a USB or Firewire audio interface. (I use a Miglia Harmony for home recordong, but I've heard the M-audio stuff is very good.) The Mac platform is by far faster, more stable and easier to use compared to most PC setups. I just don't trust Windows when it comes to live performances of any kind.

I reckon an iBook + Soundcard would cost you about 1200 yo yo's.

Eddie Brennan

thats a bit low of a figure for anything decent and Windows is fine. I just spent 2150 on a laptop. She's a beast. As long as it doesnt get a virus itll be fine. Mine was custom built too so i have different logins/partitions for different uses so even if i do get a virus on the internet section it wont effect the audio section. I have the M-Audio Firewire 400. Its a grand soundcard for starting off. Well it does me fine atm anyway

sturgo

iBook €1050 + Sound card €200.

Eddie Brennan

obviously not the best of spec and if u wanna use this stuff out in clubs u'd wantb a decent system!

Anima

I wouldn't let that laptop near the internet at all Eddie. Way too dodgy imho plus you wouldn't need to run an anti-virus program or firewall either.

jimi_t

A reasonably specced Dell Latitude, something like a P3 1ghz, with a stable, stripped down release of Win XP, all the latest drivers and a decent PCMCIA ext soundcard is a perfect setup for something like Virtual DJ 3.0. It'll run full speed like that and there's no huge benefit from upping the specs even more proportionate to the cash you'd be spending. You might want to get some external USB controller like the Hercules DJ Console but otherwise you wouldn't need anything more expensive: Maybe an outlay of 600-700 for the lappy second hand and the software/hardware first hand. Until you start pulling in regular money from gigs there's no point spending over a grand on a computer setup - put the money saved towards a nice PA and a few lights.

sturgo

Eddie Brennan wrote:

obviously not the best of spec and if u wanna use this stuff out in clubs u'd wantb a decent system!

All you're actually doing is crossfading MP3s and maybe adding some realtime FX. None of which take up any serious amount of system resources. If you think 512MB of RAM with a 1.4GHz processor running Tiger isn't good enough to DJ on, you need to learn a thing or two about how computers work.

You also need to re-think your anti-virus setup. Partitioning drives doesn't mean you're automatically protected from viruses / spy ware / malware...

Eddie Brennan

im so sorry for giving my opinion. Im not saying it wont do it at those specs but the quicker the better and if the guy is serious about it he might as well get a good setup.

philius

My advice,

Traktor, a decent sound card, and a mid range pc.

Its possibly not as simple as cross fading a few mp3's cause if you had crap computer and you were loading in a long track, it could get a little shaky and effect the sound.

if you were playing live, i reckon that could be an awful.


virtual dj is a horrible program, stear clear of it.

You could dj through abelton either, if your into effects and stuff.

clint_silver

If you can afford get one of the of aldi/lidl laptops, think they were 1299 last time out. Ive my gericom a year (100gb disk, 1gb ram). More bang for your buck.

Im getting a hum/buzz when using it off the mains too, but only in certain places (about 50% of the time). Anyone know if theres a soundcard that can reduce this or at least something that can regulate the power, Id hate to get a dodgy battery one night.
Im currently using (laptop headphones out > mixer > rig) but maybe me missus will take hint and get me the hercules card for xmas.

An awful lot of time is spent at home sorting out mp3s. setting beat markers, intro/outro points. But Im with philius, I find Traktor better then ableton, pcdj red and virtual DJ and Ive gigged at least once with all of them to try out. Each to their own tho I suppose.

Hub

clint_silver wrote:

But Im with philius, I find Traktor better then ableton, pcdj red and virtual DJ and Ive gigged at least once with all of them to try out. Each to their own tho I suppose.

Surly your not suggesting that Traktor is a better programme than ableton??

Eddie Brennan

that would be crazy! ableton is the way forward

sturgo

Eddie Brennan wrote:

im so sorry for giving my opinion. Im not saying it wont do it at those specs but the quicker the better and if the guy is serious about it he might as well get a good setup.

Thats ok. Apology accepted.

Eddie Brennan

mmc_electerick

Eddie Brennan wrote:

Mine was custom built too so i have different logins/partitions for different uses so even if i do get a virus on the internet section it wont effect the audio section.

That's always a great idea to have seperate operating systems for different uses. I do the same, i have a seperate partition and drive for all my music production, and it's so much quicker to boot-up and you have barely anything else hogging the cpu, like anti-virus or anti-spyware software.. If you do have your audio section on a different partition make sure that you have that particular partition/drive hidden from your internet partition, just as an extra precautionary step to protect all your music work if your music Operating system does not have anti-virus software installed... while on the main system drive and operating system that connects to the internet (right-click my computer, go to Manage, Disk Management, select the drive/partition your unprotected audio partition is on, right click, "change drive letter and paths" and remove the drive letter) this will hide the audio partition/drive from your internet operating system... this is just what i do anyway, it's only personal advice, i won't be held responsible for any mishaps you might encounter (very very unlikely) ...but it does work...

mmc_electerick

Eddie Brennan wrote:

that would be crazy! ableton is the way forward

If it was legal in this country to marry inanimate objects, i would be husband to my copy of ableton live 5 right now

Selik

philius wrote:

virtual dj is a horrible program, stear clear of it.

You're full of sh*t man. Prove me otherwise if you know what you're talking about.

bush

Eddie Brennan wrote:

who's more than likely getting paid to use it. never mind that **** about this or that DJ uses it cos most of them are paid to use it.

I think he was sponsered by final scratch but hes using Serato. Funk dvoid did the same as far as I know.

bush

Eddie Brennan wrote:

thats a bit low of a figure for anything decent

In fairness to him Serato would run on 700 quid laptop.

Anima

If you do have your audio section on a different partition make sure that you have that particular partition/drive hidden from your internet partition, just as an extra precautionary step to protect all your music work

That makes absolutely zero sense. The ONLY way to make sure that your computer is free from virii is to not be on the internet at all. Otherwise you need security up the wazoo.

sturgo

Anima wrote:

That makes absolutely zero sense. The ONLY way to make sure that your computer is free from virii is to not be on the internet at all. Otherwise you need security up the wazoo.

That's the truth. The only solution loads of security. Even better... take XP out of the equation and buy a Mac. Liam Howlett uses two Power Books when playing live.

bush

How the hell do people manage to get virus's. Never got one in the 5 years I use the net.

philius

Giles wrote:

You're full of sh*t man. Prove me otherwise if you know what you're talking about.

Who do you think you are? Use and defend you crap programs if you want but dont be under any misguided belief that people who might want something more than instant usability are somehow the philistines.

Very quickly, the sound is awful, the options and effects are disgusting, its bug ridden and crashes too easily, it looks and feels nasty, the file organisation system is clunky. Oh, and the filters and the absolute incapability to handle bass.

what next? Should people swap abelton, cubase and reaktor for reason or fruity loops?

Idiot.

paddylonglegs

ok chaps,had a bit of a wander around town at the weekend and had a chat with a few people from laptop stores,and a few people from DJ stores.Neither of them could really tell me the best way to go about hooking my external mixer up to my laptop via soundcard.

but it did occur to me that whatever dj package I use on the lappie,the channels on the screen will somehow have to be able to correspond with the channels on my mixer.is this done via midi or something?

sorry if these are dickhead questions,just not too educated on this malark:D

philius

paddylonglegs wrote:

ok chaps,had a bit of a wander around town at the weekend and had a chat with a few people from laptop stores,and a few people from DJ stores.Neither of them could really tell me the best way to go about hooking my external mixer up to my laptop via soundcard.

but it did occur to me that whatever dj package I use on the lappie,the channels on the screen will somehow have to be able to correspond with the channels on my mixer.is this done via midi or something?

sorry if these are dickhead questions,just not too educated on this malark:D

i might be way of but i dont think that what your looking for as described in the above tread is possible.

I mean, you could get a midi controller, from which you could assign knobs to do said work, but to hook an actual mixer up wouldnt work i dont think,

best thing to do, as has probably been described by others in the thread would be to get a sound card with two outputs, hook them into the mixer via phono and then filter/fx/cross fade from your mixer. But it seems like the long way around as, you can do all your mixing, effects, beat matching through a dedicated program, which, with a two out put sound card, you can use like you would a mixer.

Im rambling now, but you get the message?

clint_silver

f it was legal in this country to marry inanimate objects, i would be husband to my copy of ableton live 5 right now

sorry, just coming back to this post now. I made my selection of traktor about 14-15 months ago after trying the the others (virtual dj, pcdj and ableton).
Traktor has never let me down and does everything I want, which I will admit, is not a whole lot but still.
I found ableton to be, well, convoluted. note: I cant remember what version it was at the time. I found traktor easier to get to grips with and I wouldnt be a stranger with PCs so that why I find traktor better. not saying in a laptop DJ showdown that an experienced ableton user wouldnt beat the pants off an experienced ableton user, but hopefully you get my gist.

mmc_electerick

clint_silver wrote:

sorry, just coming back to this post now. I made my selection of traktor about 14-15 months ago after trying the the others (virtual dj, pcdj and ableton).
Traktor has never let me down and does everything I want, which I will admit, is not a whole lot but still.
I found ableton to be, well, convoluted. note: I cant remember what version it was at the time. I found traktor easier to get to grips with and I wouldnt be a stranger with PCs so that why I find traktor better. not saying in a laptop DJ showdown that an experienced ableton user wouldnt beat the pants off an experienced ableton user, but hopefully you get my gist.

yes tracktor dj studio is good if you just want to do the regular, beat-match fade in and fade out type thing... but if that is what you are after then yes traktor dj studio is definately the package to get, and would definately recommend it to anyone who wants it for that purpose. Definately have nothin bad to report about Traktor, it's fun..
If you want to be a bit more adventerous and innovate a bit and break away from the norm then Ableton Live is the package to choose... Live has a higher learning curve for the beginner i'll admit but if you have some music production experience, it's easy to get into.. it is definately one of the more inovative diverse music software packages ever made.. there are no boundaries as to what you can do..it can be used for production aswell as being used as a dj tool... the only one hangup i have about it is you can't rewire Reaktor to it.. but i can get over that cause you can plug in vsts, it has a large library of effects, its now capable of reading mp3s, and it now has Ableton Operator for synthesis...get some midi device to go with it and welcome to many a late night staying awake playin with it and keeping the neighbours annoyed... oh crap i'm gonna blow my load again! :eek:

philius

mmc_electerick wrote:

... the only one hangup i have about it is you can't rewire Reaktor to it..QUOTE]

i think you cant re-wire Reaktor to it but you can get the same results via , i'm not sure, will get back to you tonight about it, but i think it just depends on what way you've made Reaktor file, but im sure you can control it if you edit the midi in the source...


Also, i'm just learning to use Pure Data at the moment, but that should do the above as allegedly you can download some add on that turns it into a Re-Wire or a Vst

clint_silver

yes tracktor dj studio is good if you just want to do the regular, beat-match fade in and fade out type thing... but if that is what you are after then yes traktor dj studio is definately the package to get, and would definately recommend it to anyone who wants it for that purpose. Definately have nothin bad to report about Traktor, it's fun..

Yes, I only use it for its run of the mill DJing features, but I do use it for a lot more then fun. $$ cha-ching $$

Selik

philius wrote:

Who do you think you are? Use and defend you crap programs if you want but dont be under any misguided belief that people who might want something more than instant usability are somehow the philistines.

Very quickly, the sound is awful, the options and effects are disgusting, its bug ridden and crashes too easily, it looks and feels nasty, the file organisation system is clunky. Oh, and the filters and the absolute incapability to handle bass.

what next? Should people swap abelton, cubase and reaktor for reason or fruity loops?

Idiot.

You still haven't proved otherwise mate. I'd love to know how you've come to the conclusion the sound is awful. Listen to any of my mixes and come back to me.

Bug ridden??? No program is perfect but it's in no way bug-ridden and it hardly ever crashes if you have a decent spec pc. Of course you've probably only tried a cracked version in which case you're whole argument is down the pan as the cracked versions always screw up. I used one briefly before purchasing the software when I realised this myself.

As for it looking and feeling nasty... That's a matter of taste of course but bear in mind that there's tons of skins to choose from aside from the basic default (which I agree is pretty crap btw...) and you can even design your own one. I use the Pioneer one and it's by far the best skin imo.

philius

Giles wrote:

You still haven't proved otherwise mate. I'd love to know how you've come to the conclusion the sound is awful. Listen to any of my mixes and come back to me.

Bug ridden??? No program is perfect but it's in no way bug-ridden and it hardly ever crashes if you have a decent spec pc. Of course you've probably only tried a cracked version in which case you're whole argument is down the pan as the cracked versions always screw up. I used one briefly before purchasing the software when I realised this myself.

As for it looking and feeling nasty... That's a matter of taste of course but bear in mind that there's tons of skins to choose from aside from the basic default (which I agree is pretty crap btw...) and you can even design your own one. I use the Pioneer one and it's by far the best skin imo.

I dont have to prove you otherwise. I dont care what programs you use to mix your records. We arent children. Dont freak out about me not liking the program, it isnt really for me, i have used it loads and don't rate it, but who cares? i looked at your mixes and all the music is totally irrelevent and regressive to me, is it also a problem for me to have an opinion on that? Or the fact that you have a photo of yourself on that website and links to your mixes via your posts here, i find weird and needy. But these are my opinions. If you want to bebunk me of them, fine, but at least do it in a constructive manner.


RE: crashes, and your accusations about me using cracked software (pathetic!)

I used it on a very good laptop, but its not the crashes that were the main problem, as someone who read the post could see.

I think you are a little defensive about the program, maybe you should use traktor or abelton so you can see where i am coming from?

Otherwise, as stated above, i dont really care about getting into discussions about a program that i find totally irrelevant to my tastes.

paddylonglegs

mmc_electerick wrote:

yes tracktor dj studio is good if you just want to do the regular, beat-match fade in and fade out type thing.QUOTE]

Yeah,agree with mmc.This can get quite boring after a while.Especially with the automatic sync thing you can do for the automatic beat matching,albeit it might get you out of a sticky situation if you're f**king up your beatmatching,but its pretty good otherwise.

Think I'd prefer the more hands on approach of finalscratch,hooking the laptop up to turntables.The dude in Sounds Around is looking for 900 blips for it,seen it for nearly half that from the UK.

Maybe Sant O'Claus might be my saviour