DJs using laptops @ gigs... how & what software Alot of DJs are taking their Laptops to gigs at the moment... Im interested to try this... Which is the best (and most DJ friendly) software????? ...And how do I connect it to my mixer so I can use both channels? I only have one sound card on me laptop?? cheeeeeeeeeeers
check out traktor and mixmeister for MP3 mixing applications. you can play, and alter the pitch of the tunes via them. you will need a 3.5mm jack to phono cable to link your sound card to your mixer. You can get one from maplins/dixons. Or......you could buy a CDJ for more fun? and its easier?
Traktor Studio 2.0 from NativeInstruments is the king of PC DJ'ing software - Its more or less the only tool suitable for Laptop DJ'ing - Ive used to use it alot to do some amateur sets to a few friends over the net. If your using a laptop you need to consider a few things. You need: a) a completely clean, defragged and virgin pc on which you should ONLY have your copy of traktor and then your MP3's b) An external multi channel soundcard or a laptop with 4 channel sound - this is needed for your "monitor" channel. c) a beefy laptop - as fast as possible, at least 512 megs of ram and as big a hard drive as possible. The need for a completely stable pc forces my first point. Although traktor crashes very very very very rarely, you need to reduce that chance to as close to zero as possible. And always have a back-up record/cd cue'd on another player in case of a crash - which you can instantly set off..... preferably a 10 minute long tune that will let you get back up, running and allow you to mix back into that tune. If you practice enough on traktor, you can do some extremely nifty stuff - loops, perfect beatmatching very quickly, etc etc.
when van dyk was on at crasher last he used his laptop with final scratch and it listed all the tunes, and the percentage pitch difference between that and the tune currently playing!!
Aye - final scratch works alongside a modified version of Traktor 2 - although it requires turntables, and a bit of hardware between the pc and the decks.
on www.nativeinstruments.de - theres a piece of hardware they recommend for laptops etc - its an external thingie.... but a good professional one. Soundblaster extigy might not be up to the job.
Buy a docking station for your laptop.. that way you can lob two professional soundcards in for use with any mixing software you like. I got one for my Dell Latitude C840.. one SERIOUS beast of a laptop which puts most desktop machines to shame, and plays ALL yer games from the onboard GeForce4 Go I've been in the PC MP3 mixing game for over 3 years .. and Virtual Turntables is the software of choice if you're mixing soley from the laptop and not from FinalScratch - i like it because of the the CD deck layout, and the number of decks on screen.. had no problems with 4 of them so far but theoretcally you can have more.. so if you want any further advice just ask.. I bought the above laptop for the purpose of MP3 mixing on the move! Some people point out that the interface looks crap.. that is until you skin it with a Pioneer HC100 graphic.. then its a joy to look at and use. Che - Out of curiosity, whats got you interested in MP3 mixing all of a sudden ?
Not all of a sudden realy, but I just think it could be useful to be able to use vinyl and mp3 together. Plus been downloading soe tunes from some "unknown" or "up and coming" producers so their stuff aint on vinyl. i know i can out it on cd but with a cood mp3 cllection theres no need when u have a decent laptop. cheers for the advice... will d/l virtual turntables and give it a shot
cheers juski, its sunday morning and time to give it a whirl cos me soundcard has got two outputs...need to find some leads first.hmmm
The latest version of Traktor doesnt use multiple soundcards - it uses soundcards with multi channel output (front, rear etc). Dont get a soundblaster live though - there isnt full separation between the front and rear channels, which means your monitoring channel will "bleed" over to your main output channel. Best way is an M-Audio or Terratec soundcard... or get a motherboard with Nforce 2 sound built in... the quality on them is fab.
well i tried it last night and it all went tits up. There is ntohing working right, I think I need someone to help set it up properley. The music is all over the place and the sound is crap. its running through a hifi aux at the moment. how can i fix this and set traktor up properly? its all baffling ?
has a mix last night using traktor on my laptop and my decks all running through the mixer. its well gud dropping in some tunes that i got from up & coming producers!!! my mixing on the laptop was quite good aswell. its good mixing mp3 into vinyl an vice versa.
You could always run the outputs from traktor in an unmixed state into a regular 3-4... channel mixer... then use the spare channels for either a cd deck, another turntable.... anything you want. Pricey but hey
It's not as expensive as you think. I'm using a Numark CM200 mixer (it's a 19" rackmount) with my decks and the PC hooked up on separate channels. The mixer has five channels (with gains eq etc on all of them) and only costs £190. I got it with a set of numark CDN22s for £349: http://www.djstore.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.pl?session=287472177&item=numcm200 Using two soundcards as well - an SBLive! for my output and a Vortex 2 card for recording (otherwise you get feedback )
Wahey! I had a vortex 2 card for about 3 years.... great cards they are/were Pity damn creative labs put Aureal out of business though...
