How to Become a Laptop DJ?
HarveyCanal
"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
Got a friend in Costa Rica (not Frank) who has told me I could get dj gigs down there. But I'm a vinyl-only dj and I'm not trying to lug all the records and equipment I would need down there. So for the first time ever, I'm entertaining the idea of digital djing. Problem is, I don't even know where to begin.
What would I need to buy? An Apple laptop, but which one? Which software for storing music? And which software for mixing/playing music? Do I even need to bother with an external dj controller or can that all be done on the laptop itself? Can I plug the laptop into a club's sound board/pa directly, or do I need some sort of interface?
I've never had it myself, but I would want to throw Ableton on there as well, so I could produce some of my own tracks to throw in my mixes. Is there a package deal out there with everything I would need at once?
Help an old fogie out.
What would I need to buy? An Apple laptop, but which one? Which software for storing music? And which software for mixing/playing music? Do I even need to bother with an external dj controller or can that all be done on the laptop itself? Can I plug the laptop into a club's sound board/pa directly, or do I need some sort of interface?
I've never had it myself, but I would want to throw Ableton on there as well, so I could produce some of my own tracks to throw in my mixes. Is there a package deal out there with everything I would need at once?
Help an old fogie out.
Comments
The process of digitizing is a daunting task. Even downloading shit would take a long time. Unless you just plan on digitizing sets, like only the songs you need.
A pain, but mostly reliable. Newer versions can also run tunes off a USB stick.
Serato are only as good as the turntables (if there are any) they are running off, which in general is old and utterly neglected. There are (as mentioned) plenty of controller options with Serato, but in general that will be something you have to supply (there are some many different DJ controllers about now, you never know what is going to be set up).
Not sure about Ableton as a live method, I know there are controllers / triggers for it.
I have only used it for "Studio" mixes, and it is perfect for that but i am not sure how that translates to club mixing.
And the idea behind all of this is traveling as light as possible.
but only have Serato installed on it and nothing else.
that would mean maybe having another lappy with everything else on it though!
but yeah, any new above average spec'd laptop should be pretty solid with just a couple of heavyweight programs running.
I run all sorts of software on this new lenovo (adobe suite etc, cubase... and so on) and so far it is solid as a rock.
You can save money and use a PC but it will be less user friendly. I'm not an apple freak but they are great for music and DJing. A lot of this is a money issue as well. You could digitize your whole collection onto a cheap PC and get by if you had to. As mentioned I recommend having a dedicated computer for this if you can with the least amount of extra programs and storage as possible.
Yeah, this is the biggest part. Other things--consoles and such--pretty much demand that you learn a whole new setup, whereas Serato is basically vinyl emulation. If you're used to turntables, the only thing that changes is choosing a song on your laptop instead of switching records. Now, there's all sorts of other stuff Serato can do, as they've added a shitload of bells and whistles, but you can easily ignore that stuff if you'd like and spin exactly as you would with vinyl.
As far as laptop brands, I've always been on Mac and never had any real problems. I've heard from a couple of PC folks that Serato just plain runs better on Macs (I guess it's developed/optimized for Mac, then ported to PC?), especially with iTunes integration, but if you prefer PC, it does just fine on that.
If you're looking to travel light, then laptop/Serato can't be beat. Just confirm that the place you're playing has a mixer with a built-in Serato interface (Rane 57/61/62/68) or a Serato box so you don't have to bring the box yourself. Then all you need is your laptop, headphones, needles, and Serato records--and you can even use somebody else's headphones/needles/Serato records if neither of you is picky about it.
Finally, I guess Serato Scratch Live is now being called Serato DJ, and it's slightly different from Scratch Live. Not really sure what the deal is with that--everybody I know is still on an older version of Scratch Live. But if faced with the choice, I'd opt for Scratch Live over DJ; it's tried and true and stable, whereas it sounds like they're still working the kinks out of Serato DJ.
I run that in my 2006 MacBook no problems.
I'm not a globe-trotting superstar dj, though, so I still rock the vinyl 9 times out of 10. Sometimes I'll just bring 1 CD with some digital-only or exclusive stuff that's not available on wax.
If you're playing all digital, the traditional setup (two 1200's) is silly to me. People cling to odd things from the past. Every time I see somebody juggling mp3 doubles, I cringe.
SMH. I can think of countless DJs, routines, DJ sets and mixes that would render this statement as one of the biggest examples of horseshit ever.
I'll just leave this here...
Then why do you cling to rocking the vinyl 9 times outta 10? Surely a book of cds would be easier to transport, provide more options for songs, etc.
People can be more comfortable with what they are familiar with while still moving into the ~now~.
I'd also +1 for the new pioneer USB cdj's, I love using them, even with serato I very rarely use it these days, but I love when a set up has turntables and USB cdj's it means I can play my own stuff, do live remixes and so on as well as records. There is also heaps of options for setting loop/cue points for the cdj's (i havent had to use the software yet as the cdj's are so user friendly)
I dont know what is silly about using a set up most of us are extremely familiar with, I still think for control there is nothing better than 1200's.
FWIW I have seen dj's juggle vinyl that really had no business doing so, I have also seen good dj's do things on cdj's and serato that most others couldnt do regardless of the platform it was delivered on.
What about .flacc and .wav? Do those get your panties equally bunched up, or is the hate limited to the act of juggling with .mp3 file extensions?
This is actually not true. You can mix in internal mode without turntables using cue points to drop the beat and keyboard keys to nudge the song forward or backward and adjust the tempo. Also you have to have the serato-box plugged in to be able to use the two virtual turntables in the interface.
I would stick with FLAC and WAV files instead of 320kbps mp3s if you're playing on a somewhat decent soundsystem. Also I personally would try to stick with files of the same bitrate and source so that you have a somewhat consistent sound, instead of the quality and the texture of the sound jumping all over place between tracks. Playing vinylrips made with beat-up needles, FLACs bought from the an online store and unmastered Soundcloud tracks can make for a very inconsistent experience and nasty contrast between songs in terms of the mixes and balance of sounds. Not to mention the bad idea of downloading tracks from torrents which might well be converted from VBR to lossless just to get warez props. It's not only questionable if you want to maintain a smooth sound but of course morally dubious to say the least as well.
DJing on anything other than turntables feels foreign to me. I get it that with controllers or whatever things have advanced. But can't we use whatever tool works best for us?
And like posted. I could care less what people use. It all comes down with what are you gonna do with it.
Also looking forward to working with a limited number of songs. I want to quit focusing so much on the breadth of selection and do more live remixing and whatnot.
What country are you in ? I've never heard about this before ? How is it meant to work if you were ripping some private press LP ?
Tell me more !
I live in Finland. You need to buy a DJ-licence if you play music digitally. If you play "original" vinyl you don't need the licence. If you record the vinyl and play the files you need a licence. Just going over the licence stuff and apparently you need another licence if you record your set and put it on the net. LOL. Also if you buy digital music from a store that has been licenced to be played publicly you don't need a licence but if you make a copy of the file you need a licence to play that copy. There's a licence for performing/playing songs and another one for recording them. So yeah, it's an outdated and stupid system. It used to be even more stupid but public outcry made Teosto (http://teosto.fi/en), the agency that enforces it, update the licence details to this new one, which is marginally less stupid, but still very stupid. This is one reason I've generally gone back to playing vinyl-only sets, you don't nedd to dell with these follz.
In Harvey's case I'd personally go with usb's and cdj's if he's touring venues with proper setups, cdjs etc. and if he and the crowd know what he's going to be playing. But if it's random bars with little or no equipment and a random crowd a controller might be a good choice.