Netbooks

[Mr Awesomer]

So it seems the latest trend in mobile computing has been little cheap "netbooks."

You can get then in XP and Linux flavors, so there are plenty of established software options for DJs. (I wish the MacBookAir had been a true "netbook" but instead it's just a smooched gimped MacBook.)

You can get them with enough USB ports to do your job (and without needing an extra hub.)

You can get them with enough storage for your entire music collection (unless it's insanely big or you run lossless files.)

Depending on how you configure them they are pretty damn cheap.

The gadget whore in me is very tempted to pick one of these up and turn it into the perfect dedicated self contained DJing machine (since they don't really have the balls necessary to do much else then surf the web.)

The only downside, that I can see, are the tiny screens. I love my current screen real estate... and it would be really hard to let that go.

Thoughts? Discuss!

[CountBasi]

Your line 'the only downside...' would be the deal-breaker for me too. Can't disagree with any of your other thoughts.

Nice avatar.

[SoundInMotionDJ]

The processors on these are not standard "intel" or "amd" based designs. VIA is a big player in this kind of space. The processors tend to be underpowered for a DJ platform. I have not seen any machine in this class that meets the box minimums for the DJ software I would use. What's more important is that none of the boxes come anywhere near the "recommended" specs. Perhaps these would be OK with iTunes or winamp based playing...but that's certainly not enough for me.

The screen size also plays into a relative lack of graphics capability. That's not inherently bad for DJing...unless you want to KJ or VJ. But that's probably not an issue for anyone here.

Because of the lack of CPU power, I wonder how easily these machines would handle basic music editing functions - even if you were not trying to play music at the same time.

As a blackberry on steroids, I like it. As a really small laptop, I think they are too underpowered for my $$$.

--Stan Graves

[Toon Town Dave]

I think they're great and would probably meet my use case for a portable computing device better that a laptop (too big) or a PDA (too small).

The new models from Asus and even Gigabyte look pretty good.

I agree with the screen real-estate in the context of current software. If someone were to re-think the user interface and come up with something optimized for a UMPC (ultra-mobile PC), it would change the landscape of digital DJ'ing. Not only for the UMPC but for integrated/embedded devices. Sort of like the Numark CD-MIX devices combined mixer and CD player functionality. Something that's a nice mix of software/GUI controls physical controls ... I still don't want to give up my faders.

It'd be really cool to have a mobile DJ set up that was just one little box, two powered speakers and only two audio cables and three power cables or lesss to hook up. It'd be quicker set-up and less cables and connectors to cause problems.

[lipi]

The processors on these are not standard "intel" or "amd" based designs. VIA is a big player in this kind of space.

at least half the netbooks currently available use intel celeron processors, another few use amd geode processors, and the rest indeed use via c7s.

i have no experience with the latter two, but the celeron is a true x86 processor and quite standard.

The processors tend to be underpowered for a DJ platform. I have not seen any machine in this class that meets the box minimums for the DJ software I would use. What's more important is that none of the boxes come anywhere near the "recommended" specs. Perhaps these would be OK with iTunes or winamp based playing...but that's certainly not enough for me.

o.k., this begs the questions: what software do you use and what on earth is this software doing? what are its minimum requirements?

even the slowest x86 processor on the market today is absurdly over-powered for searching a database of 40,000 tracks (and i bet that's on the large side for most people here) and decoding even the ugliest of compression schemes.

Because of the lack of CPU power, I wonder how easily these machines would handle basic music editing functions - even if you were not trying to play music at the same time.

depends on the software and how poorly it was written, of course, but if you are just loading a wave file and cutting an intro or fading an ending, you shouldn't have any headaches.

[Mr Awesomer]

I think we'll be seeing some more "powerful" setups onces the OEMs start putting Intel's "ATOM" to use.

Like lipi said, more then enough power to run DJing software... especially if you've setup the machine to be dedicated to DJing. Of course most of us are DJing more casually and don't need over the top DJing software, though I question why a wedding DJ would need it either.

I think I just like the potential portibility best. Sure you could get better specs in a full sized $500 notebook, but those things are rather big and bulky... and if you've already got a more powerful notebook that has turned into a desktop replacement, why not splurge a little on what's essentially a toy.

[SoundInMotionDJ]

The processors on these are not standard "intel" or "amd" based designs. VIA is a big player in this kind of space.

at least half the netbooks currently available use intel celeron processors, another few use amd geode processors, and the rest indeed use via c7s.

i have no experience with the latter two, but the celeron is a true x86 processor and quite standard.

I had not seen any of the netbooks with Intel Celeron processors - those would certainly meet the box minimums for the DJ software I've looked at.

Most DJ software minimums are 800MHz-ish, and 512MB of RAM - the first generation EeePC barely met this. Reccomended is 3GHz-ish, and 1G of RAM.

Keeping the netbook dedicated to DJing would help, but may be unrealistic for most of the people here.

The processors tend to be underpowered for a DJ platform. I have not seen any machine in this class that meets the box minimums for the DJ software I would use. What's more important is that none of the boxes come anywhere near the "recommended" specs. Perhaps these would be OK with iTunes or winamp based playing...but that's certainly not enough for me.

o.k., this begs the questions: what software do you use and what on earth is this software doing? what are its minimum requirements?

I use BPM Studio on one system, and OTS on another. The key is not "will it run" but "will it run at maximum usage without skipping" - those are very different requirements.

I commonly have three songs playing at one - two crossfading, and a third previewing. From what I have gathered, that is uncommon in the Lindy community.

For someone using iTunes or Winamp, this class of machine is probably sufficient.

Because of the lack of CPU power, I wonder how easily these machines would handle basic music editing functions - even if you were not trying to play music at the same time.

depends on the software and how poorly it was written, of course, but if you are just loading a wave file and cutting an intro or fading an ending, you shouldn't have any headaches.

The most common editing task at an event is to have songs playing while editing a song to trim an intro, or alter the tempo.

It is also common for me to have songs playing while I am doing a multi track edit with music, voice, and effects. When possible, I use a second computer for this editing...but that is certainly not in the direction of using a single netbook to save space/weight.

--Stan Graves

[lipi]

I had not seen any of the netbooks with Intel Celeron processors - those would certainly meet the box minimums for the DJ software I've looked at.

the very asus eee you mention below uses a celeron.

I use BPM Studio on one system, and OTS on another. The key is not "will it run" but "will it run at maximum usage without skipping" - those are very different requirements.

*shrug* you can't say until you try. this thread is specifically about dj-only laptops, so you can disable all sorts of nonsense in the os and strip it down to a minimum. you will be able to get away with quite a lot on the minimum requirements.

in any case: the fact that software manufacturers still list cpu requirements by clock frequency boggles the mind.

I commonly have three songs playing at one - two crossfading, and a third previewing. From what I have gathered, that is uncommon in the Lindy community.

yes, i think you're right. two is common.

For someone using iTunes or Winamp, this class of machine is probably sufficient.

itunes is actually fairly heavy, so if your software requires more resources than itunes, someone did some sloppy coding. :o)

The most common editing task at an event is to have songs playing while editing a song to trim an intro, or alter the tempo.

can't be sure without trying, but that should work fine.

It is also common for me to have songs playing while I am doing a multi track edit with music, voice, and effects. When possible, I use a second computer for this editing...but that is certainly not in the direction of using a single netbook to save space/weight.

that will stress the hardware too much, i suspect. it's more likely memory that's going to bite you, though, not the cpu.

[Surreal]

Flash hard drives should be making some big strides in the next year too, and the netbooks are going to be a big market for that.
link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080526/tc ... amsungchip

Even forgoing that, a mini laptop, external hd, a sound card and mouse, should all still be small enough to fit in a lunch bag. If all you're doing is running dj software, I don't think the small screens are that important.

The new eee's have 40 or 80gb hard drives (I think the 40 is solid state), which might be enough to house a trimmed down swing library.