Laptop DJing

It's all about the equipment

Moderators: Mr Awesomer, JesseMiner, CafeSavoy

Locked
Message
Author
User avatar
Mr Awesomer
Posts: 1089
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2002 10:21 pm
Location: Altadena, CA
Contact:

#316 Post by Mr Awesomer » Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:30 am

Shanabanana wrote:You could probably get it for cheaper. I priced the same setup (minus longer-life battery) for <$1100 in December. Of course, it was a month after I paid $1200...
So I just bought a new rig for home last week (desktop, not laptop.) Having noticed that Dell is always having random sales I was curious to see how much the same rig would cost just a week later. Well, I configured an identical rig this morning and it came out to be $411.91 MORE then it cost last week. Looks like I bought just at the right time, woo hoo!
Reuben Brown
Southern California

User avatar
WindsorSwingKid
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2003 4:05 pm
Location: Windsor, Ontario / The Blues House
Contact:

#317 Post by WindsorSwingKid » Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:41 pm

On the topic of Dell systems, you could try configuring the "same" system through the Home division or Small Office division... There are some price variations depending on the model line...

John...
Next Stop: ???

ScottieK
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2002 2:56 pm
Location: Sacramento, Ca
Contact:

#318 Post by ScottieK » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:01 pm

You can go to www.gotapex.com and get pretty good coupons on Dell machines

User avatar
Bob the Builder
Posts: 525
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 6:53 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

#319 Post by Bob the Builder » Thu Apr 14, 2005 6:53 pm

Ok I'm thinking about PC Processors

I hear that Intel® Pentium® M Processor is better than the Intel® Celeron® M Processor for the kind of use we would give it. Is that true or false?

Brian
Image

lipi
Posts: 789
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 3:26 pm
Location: menlo park

#320 Post by lipi » Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:18 pm

no, that's probably false. ("probably", because it depends on your exact use.)

technical bits: the celeron m is a pentium m with less level 2 cache (512k for the celeron, 1 or 2 mb for the pentium) and a crippled speed step unit (the bit that lowers the processor's clock rate to conserve power).

practical bits: playing and ripping mp3's will go as fast on the celeron as on the pentium. the extra level 2 cache is not going to buy you anything for playing, certainly, and it's extremely unlikely ripping will be significantly affected, either (though a trial run is the only way to know for sure). the celeron m laptop will have a shorter battery life than the pentium m one, because the processor can't slow itself down when it's mostly idle. is this a big deal? probably not. you'd be crazy to go dj without a power adapter, anyway.

in short: if you care about battery life, get the pentium m. if you don't, you're likely better off saving yourself a few hundred american dollars and getting a celeron m.

there are quite a few articles on the web comparing the celeron m and pentium m. check tom's hardware guide, anandtech, etc. or googlify.

daryl
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 5:10 pm
Location: was utah, then ann arbor, now cleveland

USB Thumb audio card

#321 Post by daryl » Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:39 pm

Has anybody seen this tiny sound card? You can get it alone for $30 or with noise cancelling headphones for $60. Quite a bit less bulky than my last sound card, which I broke.

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/product ... advantage/
othewise known as "some guy"

User avatar
Bob the Builder
Posts: 525
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 6:53 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

#322 Post by Bob the Builder » Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:49 pm

Looks very good. It would be superior to the iMic if they put an "in line" on to it. I'll have to keep my eye out for it.
I'd be interested on how it's output is like side by side with an iMic.

Brian
Image

daryl
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 5:10 pm
Location: was utah, then ann arbor, now cleveland

#323 Post by daryl » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:20 pm

I doubt anything you record on a device like this would have decent sound. As far as DJing purposes though it seems like a good product.
othewise known as "some guy"

User avatar
AlekseyKosygin
Posts: 204
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2003 6:59 am
Location: Jersey, Home of the Lion, the Lamb and the Brute...

#324 Post by AlekseyKosygin » Mon May 09, 2005 6:42 pm

This sounds awesome, I just bought one off of Buy.com for $26.70, price includes S&H...I'm gonna compare it to my Sound Blaster MP3 which is a lot bigger and bulkier...I'm thinking it's gonna be better though because Turtle Beach is known to be a pretty good company...

Alex

User avatar
Bob the Builder
Posts: 525
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 6:53 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

#325 Post by Bob the Builder » Tue May 10, 2005 7:05 pm

I’m interested in knowing how many people are laptop DJing and putting the two line outs through a mixer? I’ve started do it recently, and have found it a great advantage.
First of all, it is adding the hands on approach.
It allows be to listen hear the music on the floor through the head phones, which gives be better real time sound quality understanding.
Most mixers can act as a pre-amp, so the input quality to the amp is a bit better.
You also then have any of the advantages of mixers like, cross fading, microphone, good previewing facilities, output meters ect, ect.
It also may save my laptop if the Amp decides to surge.

It does mean I have to carry around a mixer with the laptop.

Brian :D
Image

User avatar
GemZombie
Posts: 772
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2002 2:46 pm
Location: Alpharetta, GA (Formerly SLO, CA)
Contact:

#326 Post by GemZombie » Wed May 11, 2005 7:42 am

The Software I use (BPM Studio), has a mixer built in. It's quite good and also allows me to save certain mix information per song. I know that takes away from the hands on approach, but it's a nice addition in my opinion.

I have used a mixer before, but found it to be no different than using the software mixer unless i needed another input.

User avatar
CafeSavoy
Posts: 1138
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2002 6:25 pm
Location: Mobtown
Contact:

#327 Post by CafeSavoy » Wed May 11, 2005 11:07 am

Bob the Builder wrote:I’m interested in knowing how many people are laptop DJing and putting the two line outs through a mixer?

Brian :D
Have you looked in the usb mixers? There's a review on www.dj1800.com about the Numark DXM01-USB Mixer. It seems like a good accessory. You could send both lines out through usb, or you could use one usb line for recording.

DXM01 USB DXM01 with 2 USB Connectors
Image
CM200USB DJ Mixer
Image
DM950USB DJ Mixer
Image

User avatar
Bob the Builder
Posts: 525
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 6:53 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

#328 Post by Bob the Builder » Tue May 31, 2005 7:12 am

Ok,
I'm not happy with the output level and quality of my laptop sound card or my iMic. I'm looking for a better approach.

I'm trowing up between
Sound Blaster

&

Echo Indigo DJ

There may be something else good at the same price range too.
What would you buy?

Thanks
Brian
Image

User avatar
Shanabanana
Posts: 116
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 10:29 am
Location: Boulder CO
Contact:

#329 Post by Shanabanana » Tue May 31, 2005 3:38 pm

Before you do anything too drastic, keep in mind that the default volume of the imic seems to be medium, so you have to manually go in and change it to get full output. This setting seems to stick, so you'll probably only need to do it once.

User avatar
Bob the Builder
Posts: 525
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 6:53 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

#330 Post by Bob the Builder » Tue May 31, 2005 3:52 pm

Hi Shanabanana.
I've done a lot of experementing with my iMic. I've gone into its properties and set all its volumnes to their maximun, and I'm still not getting my required output level out of it.
Thanks for trying to help. The iMic is fine for previewing but when I put mine up against the output of my Newmark CD Players its not even close.

Brian :D
Image

Locked