Laptop DJing

Message

Bob the Builder · #376 Post by **Bob the Builder** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 6:06 pm

Just getting back to Sound Cards for Laptops

I've now had my Echo Indigo DJ card for a few months and have tested it in very large venues / sound systems down to smaller rooms / sound systems.
I'm really happy with it as a piece of hard ware. It gives me everything I want.
The only thing that I would like to see improved is the graphic interface of the mixing software that comes with it. It works fine, I just think the graphic side of it could be improved which would make it more user friendly.

Brian

Mr Awesomer · #377 Post by **Mr Awesomer** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:57 pm

Interesting factoids of the day:

The Lindy Showdown DJ Staff consists of 5 DJs.
All 5 will be DJing from laptops... no CDs.
4 are on Apples, 1 is on a PC.

How times have changed.

julius · #378 Post by **julius** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 4:59 pm

Time to start bringing a huge magnet to events.

What?

Swifty · #379 Post by **Swifty** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 8:05 pm

Shut up, there's prize money to be won and you're letting them onto my plan.

GemZombie · #380 Post by **GemZombie** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 9:09 pm

GuruReuben wrote:Interesting factoids of the day:

The Lindy Showdown DJ Staff consists of 5 DJs.
All 5 will be DJing from laptops... no CDs.
4 are on Apples, 1 is on a PC.

How times have changed.

I still content that my laptop (PC) and software (BPM Studio) are loads better than iTunes. However, I recongize that it might not be the most cost effective solution.

So Reuben, does that mean when I come to Sugarfoot to DJ, I can use my laptop easily?

Mr Awesomer · #381 Post by **Mr Awesomer** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 11:51 pm

We've been laptop friendly since day one.

Lawrence · #382 Post by **Lawrence** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:55 am

GuruReuben wrote:We've been laptop friendly since day one.

How can you be "laptop-unfriendly?" All you need is a patch cord (RCA plugs to mini-stereo plug) that plugs into the laptop. Same connection as a CD player or mixer.

julius · #383 Post by **julius** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 11:31 am

Big magnets surrounding the door.

CafeSavoy · #384 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 11:47 am

GuruReuben wrote:We've been laptop friendly since day one.

Oh i forgot to ask, with your new mac are you djing off the harddrive or are you using an external drive?

GemZombie · #385 Post by **GemZombie** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 12:02 pm

Lawrence wrote:
GuruReuben wrote:We've been laptop friendly since day one.
How can you be "laptop-unfriendly?" All you need is a patch cord (RCA plugs to mini-stereo plug) that plugs into the laptop. Same connection as a CD player or mixer.

I asked myself that too... then I went to DJ at the Sac Exchange last year... and well, it wasn't laptop friendly.

Mr Awesomer · #386 Post by **Mr Awesomer** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:19 pm

CafeSavoy wrote:Oh i forgot to ask, with your new mac are you djing off the harddrive or are you using an external drive?

Little bus powered LaCie drive, has both Firewire and USB... I use the Firewire and keep my USBs free for soundcards, mice, etc.

lipi · #387 Post by **lipi** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 2:17 pm

GemZombie wrote:
Lawrence wrote:
GuruReuben wrote:We've been laptop friendly since day one.
How can you be "laptop-unfriendly?" All you need is a patch cord (RCA plugs to mini-stereo plug) that plugs into the laptop. Same connection as a CD player or mixer.
I asked myself that too... then I went to DJ at the Sac Exchange last year... and well, it wasn't laptop friendly.

o.k., fine, you were enlightened, but i'm still asking myself: "what does that mean?" _how_ was it laptop unfriendly? they bit you when you asked for an outlet? they threw you out when they saw you were running windows?

happyblues · #388 Post by **happyblues** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 10:15 am

Hi there,

I am brand new at DJing - but I already have a partial set up on my laptop from playing music at my blues beach parties the last 2 summers. Now that I'm DJing for real, I need to figure out what kind of external sound card set up to get - fast! (So I can actually listen to songs with headphones while DJing)

I have NO computer knowledge, and I've skimmed through this thread and through Jesse's article, but what I really need is someone to tell me step by step what to buy and do.

My laptop is a PC and I believe less powerful than most of yours. It says:
"Celeron (R) CPU 2.20 GHz" and then below that it says "2.19 GHz, 224 MB of RAM". I use I-tunes to DJ. And it has Windows XP.

Thanks!!!

Lydia

GemZombie · #389 Post by **GemZombie** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:11 am

happyblues wrote:Hi there,

I am brand new at DJing - but I already have a partial set up on my laptop from playing music at my blues beach parties the last 2 summers. Now that I'm DJing for real, I need to figure out what kind of external sound card set up to get - fast! (So I can actually listen to songs with headphones while DJing)

I have NO computer knowledge, and I've skimmed through this thread and through Jesse's article, but what I really need is someone to tell me step by step what to buy and do.

My laptop is a PC and I believe less powerful than most of yours. It says:
"Celeron (R) CPU 2.20 GHz" and then below that it says "2.19 GHz, 224 MB of RAM". I use I-tunes to DJ. And it has Windows XP.

Thanks!!!

Lydia

You're laptop is plenty powerful enough to DJ from.

The only thing I'd recommend buying is an external sound device... I think the Sound Blaster MP3+ is perfect, as it sounds good, is bus powered, and is inexpensive. Oh ya, buy some decent headphones too

GemZombie · #390 Post by **GemZombie** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:13 am

lipi wrote: o.k., fine, you were enlightened, but i'm still asking myself: "what does that mean?" _how_ was it laptop unfriendly? they bit you when you asked for an outlet? they threw you out when they saw you were running windows?

Their rig wasn't capable of handing RCA inputs. When I got adapters to do so, they couldn't figure out what combination of buttons/dials and such to push to allow that source to be used. It was quite frustrating. Eventually (after I DJ'd) someone accidentally stumbled across the right combination, and someone else was able to do it... but for me it was too late. Fortunately I had my discs with me