Using a laptop for DJing

[dangerman 0]

I no that some of you guys and gals use a laptop to DJ.

 

So (this might sound like a silly question but) once you have set up the laptop do you leave it on continuous to play its self, (with the correct tracks loaded) or do you use the mixer on the screen. The reason I ask is because I'm tempted to use a laptop, but if you leave the laptop to do the work doesn't the defeat the object of us being there??

 

Sorry if its a bit of a stupid question

 

Cheers

 

DM

 

[YourBigEvent 0]

Let it run on its own, with an ever changing playlist.

[Gary 0]

Putting aside for a moment, all the legalities, or illegalities of loading a laptop with copyrighted music, you're definately correct to raise concerns about laptops potentially playing music all night with no DJ intervention.

 

The good news is...its up to the DJ running the laptop.

 

True, there IS the potential for most of the laptop software solutions for a lazy DJ to simply cobble a playlist together either from their own mind, a forums post about "What I played last week", a clients long playlist etc. I've even read elsewhere on a smaller DJ forum where a "DJ" (or perhaps "computer operator" might be a better job title) was boasting that he saved the playlist from one 40th Birthday party, and played it at the next 40th birthday party, absolutely verbatim, not a track different. I hope he let the two birthday parties just pay half each.

 

Its perhaps a very subtle turn of phrase, but I like to think that there is a difference between "A Laptop DJ", and "A DJ with a Laptop".

 

The saving face of "A DJ with a laptop", is that a proper DJ will still use their eyes, their brain, their ability to overhear dancefloor chatter, their experience and their instincts to MANUALLY CHOOSE which track goes on next - and will then feverishly use their mouse to locate the track that they feel would best add to the atmosphere. Short of sticking weight sensors under the dancefloor to assess whether the current track emptied or filled the dancefloor, bugging the place with very advanced voice recognition software, a human DJ will always be several steps ahead of an electronic tune selector.

 

The first option, of "A Laptop DJ" reminds me of a T-shirt I saw a few months ago in a DJ shop window, which said "I'm a Laptop DJ, bring me my slippers and wake me up for the buffet !". Any t-shirt wearer can copy someone elses hardrive, charge £60 a night and hit "Auto-DJ" on someone elses published playlist.

 

Thats the difference, I feel, between the two.

 

Theres nothing to stop YOU being a DJ with a laptop, just dont become a "Laptop DJ". The difference is huge.

Edited June 10, 2005 by Gary

[dangerman 0]

Thanks for replying so quickly.

 

I've been to parties as a punter and seen dj's just sit there with a pint in there hand talking to there mate that has tagged along for the ride. I just don't want to be one of those DJ's who does nothing. Defeats the object and takes out the fun of doing what I do. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/smile.gif

 

Cheers Again

 

DM

[jackcu 0]

I just use it to play the music. All of the selection, cue points, beatmatching, and mixing gets done manually. Using the on screen mixer would be a nightmare in a live situation - better to send the outputs to a hardware mixer and treat the laptop as a fancy CD player.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack.

[Kingy 0]

As most of you have probably read, I went with Andy (ADS) last week and he was using his laptop to do his show. He used Otsdj. I have never seen this before. Andy constructed a playlist and then editted it as he went along.

 

I was very impressed by this system, despite its legallity. I could see many advantages to the system, its fantastic for warm-ups, buffet breaks, background music and the likes.

 

When the legal bits & bobs have been sorted out I can see me using it too.

 

But, and its a personal but, I dont think I would use it for my main show. That is simply because I like to chop stuff about, start tracks partially in, edit tracks and I like to feel "Comfortable" with what I am using. Having said that, I never thought I would go all CD! I like the "CD in my hand" feel.

 

Overall, I like the idea, like the programme ADS used, the quality was excellent, but with me using the drop ins, jingles and the such like, think it will be a long time till I start using the PC for my main source.I am open minded to it though!

[BigBen 0]

I use both laptop and CD's. I much prefer using the CD's as I feel more involved. The laptop is used to play tracks I need to find quickly, or don't have with me in CD form on the night.

 

The best use of OTS is when you need some time to think/prepare/eat/toilet/etc, in my opinion. I play lots of games - hula-hoops and limbo especially - I need to be in two places at once, so I just load up the 'limbo-playlist' and join 'em on the floor! Beforehand, I was up and down to the console every two minutes.

 

As for a DJ sitting down chatting and drinking whilst his laptop plays his pre-programmed list...he is not a DJ. He's just the guy who sets up the jukebox.

Edited June 10, 2005 by BigBen

[RobbieD 0]

QUOTE (Kingy @ Jun 10 2005, 01:18 PM)

but, I dont think I would use it for my main show. That is simply because I like to chop stuff about, start tracks partially in, edit tracks and I like to feel "Comfortable" with what I am using.

Can you not do that with PC DJ systems?

 

I would like a system that has a hardware controller with pitch control, cueing, allocatable hot starts, looping, etc. (Ideally something like a pair of Denon DN-S5000's or Pioneer CDJ-1000's but they play tracks from your PC rather than CD's.) Connected to a normal mixer. With the PC only used to select the songs.

 

I have seen the Behringer toy, which I thought had some of these functions.

 

Am I wrong? Can you not cue, hot start, loop or beat mix with PC based systems at present?

[joe 0]

Hi there,

 

Yes, a good question indeed http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/smile.gif

 

You might be interested in an article that I wrote some time ago for the Knowledge Database on:

DJing using a computer based system

 

Take a moment to take a read, theres some useful stuff in there http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/smile.gif

 

Joe

[Kingy 0]

Over to Andy (Ads).... http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/533.gif

[YourBigEvent 0]

What do I know, I just load the same playlist at every gig and press play, walk to the bar and chat up the barmaid. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Kingy 0]

You told me that Sunday was not a typical gig....... http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/whistling.gif

[jackcu 0]

QUOTE (RobbieD @ Jun 10 2005, 01:48 PM)

Am I wrong? Can you not cue, hot start, loop or beat mix with PC based systems at present?

No - you are right - you can do all of this with a PC based system. If I'm beatmixing I will start songs, play bits from one under another, loop, start, stop, play 2 instances of the same song, etc - anything you can do with decks or CD players, you can do with a PC.

 

However, it's much better to follow ADS' example and just hit "play" http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/tongue.gif

 

Cheers,

 

Jack.

[Danno13 0]

PC DJing really is what you make it...

 

What i mean is, yes, its possible to load playlists and hit play.. but what would the fun be in that?

 

My own use of a PC is simply to emmulate CD players.. only with the advantages of quick finds.. grouping stuff how i want it and not how it comes on CD and much more!

 

With regard to playlists etc. i do find it invaluable to log what i play and look back to previous gigs for inspiration.. of couse i'm only young and only been doing this seriously for a couple of years so this probably isn't of the same benefit to more experienced guys..

 

What i would say though is read around the subject and try out plenty of software.. and don't just go by the demos.. download from somewhere and find a crack if you have to but you really do need to see what the software can offer in its full form...

 

Oh, and another thing about hardware controllers.. i forget who mentioned it but it sounds like you'd like BPM studio and the hardware controllers they produce.. i know Eskie, for one, swears by this. PCDJ also has decent controllers avaliable and they are perfectly fine and i'll have my own DMC1 controller in a few weeks to use. The only thing that stops me using BPM and its all singing controllers is the cost really.

[stoke53 0]

I'me thinking of useing a pc based system just to load my back catalogue on to save me humping round loads of cd cases just in case i get asked for something i might otherwise not carry. Not ready yet to go to a fully pc system else what would i do with my pioneer cdj's.

Not sure yet whether to use a laptop or go for a rackmount model but at present ime tending to sway todards a rack mount unit so to ofer better cooling. Would welcome any suggestions.

 

Cheers alan

 

(Strobe Disco Show)

[jackcu 0]

I've never found heating a problem. The laptop can get a little hot, but I've played it for 8 hours straight with no problems. A rackmount system offers some other options (like being able to take it to pieces) so it's horses for course, I guess.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack.

[YourBigEvent 0]

Only 8 hours !!, I have had a laptop on play non-stop for 23 hours, no problems at all.

[brianmole 0]

QUOTE

anything you can do with decks or CD players, you can do with a PC

 

Can you press two buttons at the same time on a PC? Certainly not with the mouse thing. Should be ok with a midi or hw controller

[jackcu 0]

QUOTE (ADS Entertainments @ Jun 13 2005, 12:31 PM)

Only 8 hours !!, I have had a laptop on play non-stop for 23 hours, no problems at all.

LOL.

 

I've had it play longer on autopilot during Christmas at home when we've had parties, but not with me playing it to an audience.

[Eskie 0]

QUOTE (Danno13 @ Jun 10 2005, 06:31 PM)

PC DJing really is what you make it... What i mean is, yes, its possible to load playlists and hit play.. but what would the fun be in that?

Agree totally with Dan.

As with any piece of equipment, how well it performs is down to the user. Two guys can use the same piece of equipment and achieve totally different results due to their creativity level, knowledge of product etc. and it's no different for DJ software.

 

Dan also wrote

QUOTE

Oh, and another thing about hardware controllers.. i forget who mentioned it but it sounds like you'd like BPM studio and the hardware controllers they produce.. i know Eskie, for one, swears by this. PCDJ also has decent controllers avaliable and they are perfectly fine and i'll have my own DMC1 controller in a few weeks to use. The only thing that stops me using BPM and its all singing controllers is the cost really.

 

THE hardware controllers for BPM Studio really are excellent, but as Dan points out they're pretty expensive, but they give you total hands on control and enable you to be easily as creative as if you were using ANY CD player and far more creative than using turntables. The issues that Kingy mentioned about using DJ software are all covered and far more with BPM. I've never used OTS but from what I hear about the programme it seems to me a good product for DJs who aren't mixing much and are comfortable using the keyboard and mouse to operate it (although they have recently released a hardware controller for it, it's apparently not that great http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/533.gif ).

 

I've never used PCDJ in a live situation either so can't comment on it or it's controllers but I know plenty of DJs who are very satisfied with the programme and the controller.

 

I personally wouldn't use a laptop for live work. Fair enough that there are quite a few DJs who do use them but I'd say that of all the stories I've heard about DJs having problems when DJ'ing using software, the vast majority of them have been using laptops as opposed to PCs. My PC has no other software installed apart from BPM Studio and is flightcased and is not thrown around when being transported from gig to gig. Additionally with the size of PC components getting smaller and smaller it's now possible to get an excellent PC not much bigger then a laptop with the advantage that it's components are far easier to replace/upgrade/repair.

[Steve_Mitchell 0]

I use a laptop and cds. My laptop though is really used for storing more tunes. I would hate to DJ with a laptop as it really does take the fun out of the job. I have about 10k tracks on mine and a lot of them are ones you wouldn`t really play however its nice to have every track that the customers want.

Its also a really useful tool for backing music for the start and buffets etc.

The software I use is TRAKTOR it seems ok as you can create a platlist and it will mix itself.

 

Ste