Laptop DJing

It's all about the equipment

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GemZombie
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#466 Post by GemZombie » Tue May 01, 2007 8:07 am

Hey John, where are you DJing?

televandalist
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#467 Post by televandalist » Tue May 01, 2007 12:38 pm

Hi Jesse,

I'm going to be covering one of the sets at the upcoming ASEDA dance at Glenn Memorial on May 19th. You should come check it out!

televandalist
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#468 Post by televandalist » Wed May 02, 2007 7:53 am

CafeSavoy wrote:Welcome aboard. Good luck with your first gig. Those programs sound interesting and are multi-platform. I will have to give them a try. I know some other djs use linux but i think they used to primarily use xmms. I'm not sure what people are using now.

http://mixxx.sourceforge.net/ (linux, os x, xp)
http://prokyon3.sourceforge.net/ (linux, xp)
Thanks for the welcome! One thing I noticed last night is that prokyon3 actually doesn't let you search by BPM. I got it confused with another program that I use as my personal player, Amarok, which also uses a mysql-backed library.

But...I've started working on a patch to add BPM searching to prokyon3. If I'm successful, I'll send it to the developers to hopefully be included in the next release.

televandalist
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#469 Post by televandalist » Fri May 04, 2007 11:30 am

So I went ahead and bought a Griffin Powermate and fired up my DJ software only to find that the functionality was lacking, to say the least. Luckily, mixxx is open-source, so I got to work.

Two days later and now I've got it doing some pretty useful stuff. When I spin it, it controls the crossfader between the two mp3 decks of my DJ software. When I click it, it polls the mp3 decks and if one deck is stopped and the other is playing, it starts the deck that is stopped. If both decks are stopped or playing, it starts or stops, respectively, the deck with the lowest crossfader value. Pretty useful for previewing and also switching between decks at the end of songs.

All that plus it just looks cool with the blue LED in the base that glows and pulses to the music of whichever track is playing. Again, if both tracks are playing, as in previewing, it pulses to the music playing on the deck with the highest crossfader level.

All in all, not a bad couple of days work. I only did this for the linux version but if the mixxx devel team likes the work, I might do it for the MS version, as well. Sadly, it seems there is no powermate support in the OSX version of mixxx...and I don't have a mac, anyhow. Sad day.

Bronwyn
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#470 Post by Bronwyn » Fri May 11, 2007 10:04 am

Zot wrote:Sorry, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in this thread before, but there's also Disco, another Shareware DJ solution for the Mac:

http://www.discosw.net/disco/index.html

I'm taking another look at it after not having seen it for a few versions. It does support full playlists, and has BPM calculation as well. Just thought I'd mention it.
I'd just like to note that his messed up my new macbook. i have serious questions about it compatiblity with intel macs. I removed it and things seem back to normal, thankfully! Besides it closing in the middle of a song, i like the interface a whole lot. I do miss being able to see which songs I have played though.

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Serg
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#471 Post by Serg » Sat May 12, 2007 3:23 pm

I recently have started DJing with my laptop. However I am having some issues that I need help. My set up is similar to some of you here. I have a Dell Laptop. I use ITunes to preview and Winamp to output. I am using a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro USB Card to output the music to the DJ system. My problem is the following: Both ITunes and Winamp are outputting to the Turtle Beach USB. I want ITunes to output to the laptop internal sound card so I can preview.

I've been playing with ITunes preference for a while and I cannot get this done. Can someone throw me a bone here.

Serg

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fredo
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#472 Post by fredo » Sat May 12, 2007 3:55 pm

Serg wrote:Both ITunes and Winamp are outputting to the Turtle Beach USB. I want ITunes to output to the laptop internal sound card so I can preview.

Its a matter of sequence. I'm not sure the technical reasons why this occurs, but here's the order I open things to make sure all the sounds goes where you want it to:

1- open itunes (this should set it to your internal sound card)
2- plug in your external sound card
3- open winamp (go into preferences:output:DirectSound [configure]

This should put everything in it's place. (hopefully)

Toon Town Dave
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#473 Post by Toon Town Dave » Sat May 12, 2007 5:21 pm

It took be a couple of times before I figured out exactly what's going on.

iTunes will use the system default audio device in Windows. You can change it or verify what it is through the control panel. If you remove the default device (hardware) from the system while software is using it, it can confuse the software. Similarly if you connect something new and it's driver tries to make it default. iTunes doesn't seem to be bothered but Windows Media Player can get really confused. Winamp can use the default or a specific device, it's smart that way.

Here's my "safe" procedures for setting up and taking down, similar to what fredo does:

1. Start the system with all audio programs closed, no system sounds enabled.
2. Connect my external sound blaster
3. Go in to the Windows Control Panel (Audio/Sound Devices) and ensure the internal card is the default and the external shows up in the drop-down list.
4.a. Launch Winamp (if I'm using Winamp to preview), initially configured to use the default device. Ensure it plays to the internal device as preview
4.b. Launch iTunes (if I'm using iTunes to preview), ensure it plays to the internal device as preview.
5. Launch Winamp (for playback), it will initially be configure for the default device. Change the settings to use the external device.
6. Open two windows for the audio levels for each device, getting at it through the control panel. Adjust the levels as apporpriate.
To shutdown:
7. When done, change the winamp settings to use the default device and close it (both if I'm using Winamp for preview). Close iTunes if it's my preview software.
8. Disconnect the external soundblaster.
9. Double check through Windows control panel that the system default sound device is the internal.

This has never caused be a problem.

I've found iTunes and Winamp are pretty sane when a sound card is removed, Windows Media Player on the other hand can get really confused, in one case to the point where I had to remove and reinstall it to fix it.

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Serg
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#474 Post by Serg » Thu May 17, 2007 1:53 pm

OK guys, thanks a lot for your help. I played with the sequence of events that need to take place and here is what is working for me:

1) Turned on my laptop
2) Plugged in my sound card
3) Opened Itunes. The output comes out of the laptop speakers.
4) Opened Winamp. Change the output setting to the external card.

When I opened Itunes and then plugged my sound card. Itunes got confused and it would no play any songs. I don't know why.

SErg

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#475 Post by Toon Town Dave » Fri May 18, 2007 1:30 am

I've seen the something similar. I think what's happening is iTunes uses the windows default sound device. When you plug in the external sound card, it's driver changes it to be the default (at least my soundblaster does).

I now attach all the hardware first and twiddle the windows settings before launching software. After I'm done, I close software, double check Windows settings and remove hardware.

Since I started being more methodical about this, I haven't had any problems with stuff getting confused or behaving oddly.

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Lawrence
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#476 Post by Lawrence » Fri May 18, 2007 1:46 am

Serg wrote:I recently have started DJing with my laptop. However I am having some issues that I need help. My set up is similar to some of you here. I have a Dell Laptop. I use ITunes to preview and Winamp to output. I am using a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro USB Card to output the music to the DJ system. My problem is the following: Both ITunes and Winamp are outputting to the Turtle Beach USB. I want ITunes to output to the laptop internal sound card so I can preview.

I've been playing with ITunes preference for a while and I cannot get this done. Can someone throw me a bone here.

Serg
Another solution is to use JR Media Center, which allows you to manually set which sound card you use for each sound zone (Main and Cue). The browsing has the same interface as I-Tunes, but has additional tools, as well. Also, you can edit the actual MP3 tags, instead of editing a proprietary ITunes database that doesn't travel with the MP3.
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http://www.AustinLindy.com

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Shanabanana
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#477 Post by Shanabanana » Fri May 18, 2007 12:06 pm

Lawrence wrote:Another solution is to use JR Media Center, which allows you to manually set which sound card you use for each sound zone (Main and Cue). The browsing has the same interface as I-Tunes, but has additional tools, as well. Also, you can edit the actual MP3 tags, instead of editing a proprietary ITunes database that doesn't travel with the MP3.
Can you import an iTunes database into it?

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#478 Post by Ferrix » Sat May 26, 2007 2:44 pm

I've just recently set up my macbook pro (new and shiny) with a creative sound blaster live 24-bit external. It sounds quite nice and I'm probably going to purchase dj-1800 to spin from as detour won't work on the new intel macs.

A cool setup. Thanks to this thread, should have found it earlier, would have made things simpler.
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Surreal
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#479 Post by Surreal » Tue Jun 05, 2007 4:07 pm

Toon Town Dave wrote:I've seen the something similar. I think what's happening is iTunes uses the windows default sound device. When you plug in the external sound card, it's driver changes it to be the default (at least my soundblaster does).

I now attach all the hardware first and twiddle the windows settings before launching software. After I'm done, I close software, double check Windows settings and remove hardware.

Since I started being more methodical about this, I haven't had any problems with stuff getting confused or behaving oddly.
Dave pretty much hit the nail on the head. Always load up all your hardware first (and configure it), then start your audio programs. Close the programs when done, reset your settings if need be, then unload the hardware last.

I typically use itunes for previewing, then media player as my output.

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djstarr
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#480 Post by djstarr » Tue Jun 05, 2007 6:06 pm

Toon Town Dave wrote:I've seen the something similar. I think what's happening is iTunes uses the windows default sound device. When you plug in the external sound card, it's driver changes it to be the default (at least my soundblaster does).
lol, I think I'm having the same problem with jriver. I tried the headphone zone again last night and it still sent it out to the turtle beach card even though I had it configured on jriver properly as far as the zones are concerned. I had the headphone going to the "primary sound driver" so maybe that did get jacked to the turtle beach card. Something more to work on. Thanks for this thread!

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