USB Flash Drives & SD Cards
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- This topic has 14 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 2 months ago by
DJ Vintage.
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January 5, 2015 at 5:23 pm #2116461
DJ Vintage
ModeratorNot many and no you don’t. The current USB sticks are even faster than the SD cards I think.
My advice would be to stick with USB-sticks. Most players that have SD-slots will have USB slots as well. Obviously if you own or play regularly on gear that will only take SD-cards, you will still need to keep a set of those.
January 6, 2015 at 6:48 am #2116751Glenn McCrary
ParticipantHow much space on the USB stick would you recommend?
January 6, 2015 at 8:13 am #2116811DJ Vintage
ModeratorDepends a little on the audio format you are using, but at 320MP3, you are looking at about 2,5 (actually 2,34 or so) MB per minute. So let’s say 4 minutes a track gives you 10 MB per track. Which is 100 per GB. A simple 8 GB stick will give you 800 tracks. Let’s also assume that you’ll play (on average) 3 minutes of any track (the rest is lost in mixing and transitioning). That means you need 20 tracks per hour. For a 4 hour set you need twice the amount of music as can fit into that period (you want to be able to manoeuvre after all). 4 hours times 20 tracks times 2 = 160 tracks.
Conclusion 1: For a 4 hour set, you could do easily with a 4 GB stick (160 tracks times 10 MB = 1,6GB).
The biggest pitfall for digital DJs is having TOO much music in their collection. I think a decent size for your primary/main collection is somewhere between 1.000 and 2.000 tracks max (just my opinion), as this is the maximum amount of music you can know intimately enough to use.
Conclusion 2: if you want to take your entire core collection with you to a gig, a 2000 track collection would need approximately 2000 time 10 = 20GB. Some software will take up some extra space (like waveform info and such), but a 32GB stick will be plenty.
Hope that helps.
January 6, 2015 at 4:14 pm #2117031Terry_42
KeymasterAlso be aware that many CDJs cannot handle USB sticks bigger than 32GB.
January 7, 2015 at 9:02 am #2117361DJ Vintage
ModeratorGood point.
And always make sure the sticks are FAT-32 formatted (not Mac or NTFS) or they most likely won’t work either.
January 19, 2015 at 5:41 am #2124021Glenn McCrary
ParticipantWhat is the best USB and/or SD Card for a Macbook Air? What are some of the best that are available at American retailers?
January 19, 2015 at 6:05 am #2124031Glenn McCrary
ParticipantAnd can I still get a 32GB USB stick for a Macbook air? Will I need more than one USB stick?
January 19, 2015 at 6:06 am #2124041Glenn McCrary
ParticipantBtw My Macbook Air is the 2013 Edition.
January 19, 2015 at 7:37 am #2124071DJ Vintage
ModeratorDon’t think there are sticks/cards specifically for MacBooks, certainly not if you are looking for them formatted in FAT32. USB/Cards are generic as far as my knowledge goes.
I think our colleagues over at dj tech tools did a recent article on just this subject.
January 20, 2015 at 1:35 am #2124331Glenn McCrary
Participantfor the Mac what would be my next best option other than FAT-32 format or is that the standard?
January 20, 2015 at 7:42 am #2124401DJ Vintage
ModeratorSticks are usually formatted in FAT32 out of the factory. You an always opt to go HFS+ if you will ONLY use the stick on OSX devices. Many/most DJ gear with USB ports will not support HFS+.
For portability: FAT32
For Mac proprietary: HFS+What will you be using the stick for?
January 20, 2015 at 12:51 pm #2124741Terry_42
KeymasterTo my knowledge the CDJ 2000 Nexus also supports ExFAT.
January 22, 2015 at 1:57 am #2126121Glenn McCrary
ParticipantI will be using it for portability and music storage. What I am trying to figure out is if Mac proprietary is optional.
Also is a 32 GB Sandisk USB stick FAT-32 formatted? Also will it be compatible with a Macbook Air 2013 Edition?
January 22, 2015 at 8:49 am #2126441DJ Vintage
ModeratorHi Glenn,
I’d say most if not all USB-sticks come pre-formatted in FAT32 and that will be compatible with just about anything, including Mac, PC and CDJ(like) players.
You are free to reformat to anything. I am sure you can reformat to the Apple HPF+ format if you so choose. I never tried because I never had a pressing reason to do so.
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