Hi All

[bazboy100 0]

Hi My name is Barry and thought i'd tell you all a bit about myself.

 

I'm 41 years old married with a 3 1/2 year old little girl.

 

Ive been djing since 14 yrs old and used to do a lot of mobile and pub/club work, but gave it up around 8 yrs ago, but have always been messing around still at home.

 

I'm now seriously thinking of going back into it but now looking at using the pc instead of my old cd decks.

 

Think thats about it for now, looking forward to grtting some idea's from all of you and some good advice

[hellbound1972 0]

I got as far as upgrading to MP3/CD players with Ipod docking

 

Personally I won't go down the laptop route as I enjoy having 20 seconds left and nothing set up and the Player taking FOREVER to read a cd and the mp3 track coming out of one speaker or both depending on where I got it from.....

 

 

 

Hmmm,......

 

 

 

Perhaps I should get a laptop.......

 

[bazboy100 0]

it look like its the way forward hellbound, i use virtual dj pro on the laptop and its ok now looking for a decent controller to go with it

[McCardle 1]

Welcome to the forum smile icon

 

I dabbled with laptop Dj'ing some years ago, but abandoned it a few years back on principle, namely the principle of the Pro-Dub license, I really wasn't in to gifting the already overpaid music industry a further £212.77 + VAT for converting music which I had already legitimately purchased. In fact over the last 20 years, I must have spent a small fortune supporting the music industry whilst (a) I built up my collection and (b) I kept upto date with the latest releases, and I've carried on loyally buying music whilst some of my competitors were buying entire hard drives full of copied material off Ebay, often for less than the cost of a PLI policy, with absolutely nothing being done to stop them.

 

The very fact that the Pro-Dub license carries a highly publicised VAT charge shows how out of touch they are with the working Mobile DJ, I mean the majority of DJ's didn't turnover enough to be VAT registered before the recession, and they sure as hell don't earn now most of the pubs are closing and couples can't afford their first home, let alone the cost of getting married!.

 

However, despite my own personal view, I try to remain fair in relation to the Pro-Dub, and even though I don't agree with it I will make new Dj's aware of it whenever they mention using MP3's or a Digital means of playback, however I will, at the same time, also promote the fact that by continuing to use CD's you can legally avoid the need to pay over £250 just for the flexibility of converting upto 5000 tracks from CD's to MP3, or transferring a digital download from a USB drive to your main laptop or PC, because either option will require you to obtain, and pay for a Pro-Dub License.!

 

 

So just be aware, that although Digital DJ'ing may be the way forward, and will perhaps make things easier it also comes at a price.

 

http://www.prsformusic.com/users/recordedm...DubLicence.aspx

 

Some may think that in sticking by this principle, it is meaning that I miss out on the flexibility of using a laptop and essentially i'm just punishing myself by creating more work for myself by remaining on Cd's. On a personal level, I starting DJ'ing when Vinyl was in vogue and managed happily for many years, then I graduated to CD and again it serves me well, and still does, then I dabbled with MP3, before it got 'taxed'. Either way, whatever i've used its never changed my ability to DJ or turn a pound, and I still see the whole principle as being an outlay of several hundres pounds, which is much better in my pocket than the Music Industries'. smile icon

Edited August 30, 2012 by McCardle

[fester 0]

Hi Barry, welcome along!

 

@McCardle - stop being a tightwad and make the switch mate

 

On a serious note, I totally understand where you are coming from. I was very reticent to make the change myself i've never looked back.

Get a decent controller and you have all the fun, flexibility and 'hands on' experience of using CDJ's or platters but none of the hassle.

 

The only ball-ache is having to convert and tag all your tracks, but if you do it well and put some thought into your folder structure, it makes it so easy.

 

I absolutely love being able to search for a track/request, see if i've got it and load it in the space of a few seconds.

 

As another example, let's say you are playing a 90's dance set. No longer do I have to look through endless piles of CD's for a track or inspiration, the tracks are all there in my 90's dance folder. I have them listed in order of 'number of plays' which I find helpful. Obviously, the tracks you play most often are listed first and the dross you never play is at the bottom.

I honestly feel it has really improved my performance.

[bazboy100 0]

Thanks for the welcome guys.

 

McCardle i too started in the days of vinyl carrying numerous amounts of record cases in to the venue as well as all the equipment and i do miss those days, then went to cd which was a lot better espically on the back lol.

 

So at the moment as im just getting back into the fold again and really just seeing if i can use the computer than the cd's (which i still have a large collection of)

 

Fester, i am pretty anal when it comes to my music, my wife thinks im nuts as all the cd's have to be in alphabetical order (ocd on that) but its only how i know where they are.

 

With the folders in my hard drive they are pretty much labeled the same way, so much easier to find tracks

[McCardle 1]

Where I used to live back in those days, we had a lot of second floor venues, and there was something nostalgic about balancing 2p pieces on the tonearm of each deck to stop it from bouncing in time with the bouncy dancefloor, especially when it was full.

 

Then again there was something very nostalgic about having a FULL dancefloor

 

@McCardle - stop being a tightwad and make the switch mate

 

LOL, Damn Cheek , anybody would think that I was a right old tight git, you got me tagged all wrong

 

:funjokeandlaugh:

[hellbound1972 0]

I absolutely love being able to search for a track/request, see if i've got it and load it in the space of a few seconds.

 

All of my tracks are on a hard drive as text so I use the laptop as a search engine for this reason, as well as "acquiring" the odd request that I haven't got using the hotels wifi.