It appears to me, the best way for me to do DJ'ing is to use a computer (which I don't have yet).

It just seems to make more sense. Arrange a play list the night before or while there, push play and now I have more time to think about the music play list, changes, requests... and interact with the clients instead of having to staff a cd player, changing songs every 3 mins.

A person could arrange a play list for a country crowd, a urban crowd, a 20-30's crowd, a 30-40's crowd, a 40-50's crowd, a mixed crowd...and multiple versions of it, and continue to refine it until it is near perfect.

My question is, how long does it take to load the music onto the computer? If a song takes 3 minutes to play, does it take 3 mins to add to the hard drive or does it do it faster/slower?

Should a person buy a laptop, a table top computer...what's the best size? Does all the data get stored on the laptop? or does it need an additional storage unit attached to it?

From a previous post, I read a minimum of $2500 for the computer. Is this correct?

Can one beat mix songs and crossover songs while using the computer?

And I assusme you would have to arrange the songs into categories, BPM, song title, artist name...does this all have to be done by hand or is it allready out there in a database to copy or use?

Would anyone like to comment on the computer and it's use in dj'ing?

Add as much as you like.

I'm intererested in hearing your opinions.

Thankyou

deja vu! i coulda sworn i responded to this same question just last week. do we have a search feature on this site?

The major flaw in pre arranging set lists etc . . .how do you know what your crowd will be into before you get there???

every crowd is different, no one will ever make a perfect list, doin the job manualy leaves you with the ability to read a crowd, a comp can't do that

You're right - a computer can't read a crowd. However, it's nice to be able to search and load a song within 5 seconds, when you're halfway through a song and realize the song you had lined up next wasn't the right choice. For that convenience alone, I love having the songs at my fingertips, instead of having to frantically search through hundreds of CDs.

In response to the first post, ripping speed depends on the program and computer. Figure about 1 - 1 1/2 minutes per 3 minute song.

Laptop vs. desktop is up to you. Al have diff. advantages. Laptop is smaller, but everything is more expensive. You can fit about 6,000 mp3's in a 40-gig drive, so that will give you an idea of what size drive(s) you may want to look at. $2,500 is a lot - for a simple desktop and LCD screen, maybe $1,000. A cheap laptop will run you a little more.

A good DJ program will allow you to crossfade, beatmatch, loop, etc. ADJ makes a pretty good program - there are others out there I can't mention I suggest trying a few and seeing what fits your needs.

If you're ripping from CD's (of course you are), you need a program that can access the CDDB - an online database of music. This will get you the artist, title, and (maybe) mix. You will need to figure out the BPM's yourself - some programs can do this automatically for you.

I've been using a computer to help me DJ for over a year now. In terms of simplicity, nothing can beat it. For some applications (scratching, etc.) it may not be what some need. But for a mobile jock like me, it fits the bill!

Jeremy (dmjerbear@hotmail.com)

I am using an dj software and its pretty commen but i am not happy with picking songs out of a list or the fact that it is not djing i think its just getting paid to play music off a competer wich millones of people know how to do so i am gona eventualy getting 2 ps2's or a velocitly and dj with disc's or wait until adj makes an cd/mp3 player that reads the id32 tags

quote:

Originally posted by dmjerbear:
[qb]You're right - a computer can't read a crowd. However, it's nice to be able to search and load a song within 5 seconds, when you're halfway through a song and realize the song you had lined up next wasn't the right choice. For that convenience alone, I love having the songs at my fingertips, instead of having to frantically search through hundreds of CDs.


Jeremy (dmjerbear@hotmail.com)[/qb]

in response to that, if you are using CD's then you know where all your CD's are and you do not have to frantically search for them, what happnes if your comp crashes?????

Well I use a computer for my gigs and this is how I do it:

I have all my CDs ripped at a high bit-rate onto my computer.
Then, while at the party, I play with a software called **** Red (is it ok that i referenced to that? They aren't really competitors to ADJ, I don't think)

It looks just like a CD Player/Controller/Mixxer, where u drag an mp3 into "Player A" and its like playing a CD on A, except its a single mp3...then you can use your mouse to control volume, pitch, and a crossfader between the two players...this is however, odd because you have one pointer to do everything with...not my recommended way of doing it

How i hope to do it in the future when budget permits:

Get a ProMix, and a real mixer...so much easier..heh...then the only difference between using a comoputer (mp3s) and CDs is the medium, pretty much same equip and all (unless you're of the scratching type)

i probably forgot something since i wrote this while talking to 10 ppl on IM and watching Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels all at the same time...eh o wel

This'll be my last post in this thread - everyone has their own opinions, and I respect that. Whatever works for you...

I have a discman loaded with a CD and ready to go in case of crash - haven't had to use it yet! No method is perfect - CDs and vinyl skip ya know

If you're mixing music, playing music that keeps the crowd moving, you're DJ'ing, no matter which way your audio signal is produced

Much love!

Origionally posted by Double-O
deja vu! i coulda sworn i responded to this same question just last week.


-------------I have the same question. I could of sworn I answered the exact same question last week too!

AMP

I use an iBook and a 20 gig iPod as a backup (never been used as one!) and an easy way to quickly change from a song that bombed. I use Apple's free MP3 player that has some basic features beneficial to a DJ (crossfader, CDDB lookup, very fast search, built in equalizer). Since the laptop has a rather small hard drive (only 30 gigs), it would probably be best to get a firewire external hard drive as well, prefferably bus powered. The cool part about the iBook is that since its keyboard is white, it glows very strongly in even indirect blacklight. well, thats what I use, not the best software, but it was free.