Laptop DJ's

[vaughan]

Who uses a laptop as part, all or some of their set-up?

What Software and interface works best?

Final Scratch -vs- Serato -vs- Whatever

just curious...

Vinyl militants please save it for someone else... I love vinyl, have a garage and room full of it... use both, love the convenience of CD's and am a computer junkie who sees the convenience of having a laptop setup AS WELL as cd's etc

[Adam Singer]

neither of those

ableton is lightyears ahead

i use it to add effects, play live parts over sets on the keyboard, and add in loops/vocals -

you can use it to both supplement turntable/cdj sets and as a performance tool all it's own

all you need is a solid midi controller of your preference (theres like a million choices) - plus you can use your midi / percussion loops from your own productions with your dj sets

its so versitile you can pretty much make anything you want work with it...

[swirlundergrounder]

I love Vinyl except for when you have to move it.

Like I did over the weekend from my old house into my new house...

My back now hurts....

[pod]

Whatever you use, just play a good set. ;D

Half the problem with the current generation of Ableton knob-twiddlers is they treat each club they play at as their own personal beta-test rig.

[djqba]

Originally Posted by pod

Whatever you use, just play a good set. ;D

Half the problem with the current generation of Ableton knob-twiddlers is they treat each club they play at as their own personal beta-test rig.

Pod right on point!!! This is Qba by the way on the response. It doesn't matter what u use to play to a crowd just play a great set. The guys the have become legends in our trade used vinyl and very little else the secret was and will alway be programming of ur music and clean transitions. Personally on the fly remixing is cool but sometimes having that much power in the hands of some one is unable to do it right is a tragedy.
my 2 cents..

[rhythmburn]

ableton
traktor

[Seb]

Originally Posted by Vaughan

Who uses a laptop as part, all or some of their set-up?

What Software and interface works best?

Final Scratch -vs- Serato -vs- Whatever

just curious...

Vinyl militants please save it for someone else... I love vinyl, have a garage and room full of it... use both, love the convenience of CD's and am a computer junkie who sees the convenience of having a laptop setup AS WELL as cd's etc

LOL you won't get any vinyl militants on CJ, this isn't UGH :P. Best platform kind of depends on what you plan on doing with your sets. If you really want to get down to the nitty gritty by adding effects and editing the hell out of tracks you're playing then I would recommend Live. If you just want a platform that will play MP3s you have at ease with out having to burn them all to CD then I would recommend final scratch or serato. Final scratch & serato are more plug and play, quik & easy to use where as Abelton Live is a little more involved. Also Live can be somewhat of a pain because you have to warp mark each track that you play before you play them out (doesn't take too long, a couple minutes at most).

[pod]

Only reason I said that is because by and far, I hear horrid sets from the Ableton crowd right now. It's a wonderful technology, but too many people get away with murder using it, and the fanboys fall massacre you because "you just don't understand..."

[subdigital-sy]

In my own opinion I would have to say Final Scratch. I’ve been using it for about 2 years now and I've been using traktor for about 4-5 years. What’s cool about FS is that you can use Traktor with the scratch amp, which gives you the opportunity to use the effects if you’re into that sort of thing. For me its has been a smooth running program I run it on a g4 laptop 1.67ghz with 1.5 gb of ram and I also have a few friends that run it on Pcs without any problems.

I couldn’t really speak for Serato because I have never used it but from what I hear it is more for hip hop users. And as for Ableton…..Its a really cool program. Runs on very little cpu and is backed by a really solid beat matching system. But to spin a whole gig on it would be very boring. You don’t need any skill at all to mix on Ableton.

What ever system you decide to use….your gonna need a stand for your laptop
http://litlab.us

Contact me if you’re interested in purchasing one.

[Adam Singer]

Originally Posted by subdigital-sy

But to spin a whole gig on it would be very boring. You don’t need any skill at all to mix on Ableton.

more people clueless about how to use ableton properly in a live setting

if you actually get into the program you'll see the infinite amount of things you can do live with it...its more than just 'mixing' - if you get good enough it is effectively live remixing, where each performance is 100% unique