DJ Vintage
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DJ Vintage
ModeratorI’ll second that it is better to save up and get quality gear over getting lesser quality earlier on. Rental being a great way to solve your gear problems in the meantime (PA’s for example).
However, I don’t share your sour grapes when it comes to buying second-hand. Sure there is a chance you get duped. But a small chance. And I have had a customer buy a brand new iMac 27″ that needed to be returned to Apple two weeks after using it. No pickup/return service (carry-in to a store 20 miles down the road on a very busy city center street that is not accesible by car), no replacement (sorry sir, you’ll get yours back in 2-3 weeks). So I am not sure what “weight in gold” you are referring to when it comes to Apple’s service. But if you buy a bloody 2.500 euro+ iMac that breaks down after two weeks of use, I’d expect them to drop me off a new one at my house within 48 hours, bowing and profusely apologising for the inconvenience, not tell me to bring the bloody big thing in on foot to the store and wait for 2-3 weeks before PICKING IT UP at the same store. That is not service, that is f*cking ridiculous. Especially since the components inside the stylish casing are the same as in any serious Windows PC and you just KNOW they didn’t cost all that much.
So, if you sell machines that are so ridiculously overpriced (hence the tremendous profits Apple makes), you’d better throw in the best possible service. And frankly, there just isn’t anything like that. Heck, they even try to cheat you out of the (according to European law obligatory) 2-year warranty if you don’t buy AppleCare packages for a lot of money. If you don’t buy AppleCare you can’t even call them after 90 days with a support question! I just spent close to three grand on a stupid PC, what is that!!!>???
Don’t buy the cheapest one on eBay, Greg’s List or whatever you use. There is a fair chance there is something (hidden) wrong with it. But if you buy something for an average price (and you can always check with the buyer beforehand, perhaps even have a look at the machine) there is a fair chance you’ll do alright. I have had several laptops (including MacBooks) and sold a few thru online marketplaces and never had a problem.
Yes, if you have the money and are willing to part with it, then buying new is definitely a good option. But I don’t think buying online is as bad as pictured.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorIf Apple does the refurbishing (and what is there to refurbish on a 1-2 year young laptop in the first place?), you know yo are paying top dollar for whatever it is they did to it.
I might be a MacBook user now and to some degree of satisfaction and have an iPad and iPhone, but I am still not a big fan of the organisation.
Plenty of other channels to buy from.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorWhy is it essential?
I would think if you use Traktor with your 3000, that you would opt for Traktor DJ for the iPad. A very nice DJ app and perfectly suited for doing library work while en route.
The other software I’d certainly check out is DJ Player. Not a real life look alike, but a true DJ iPad app designed for that platform from scratch. Fully utilizing the features/capabilities of the iPad platform. Very very nice.
They also allow you to use your iphone or wifi ipod to use your headphones wirelessly, neat trick!
Although I have the iDJ Pro as my backup and small gig controller and it comes with default mappings for DJay, I am not particularly fond of it. I am anxiously awaiting the DJ Player mappings for it.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorStability has never been a problem for me … the big BUT here being you need to do some proper preparation work on a windows laptop. And I have had the MBP go ape on me also. Price sounds about right I think.
GReetinx,
C.ModeratorDepends on your eyes, I am on glasses and the mini is too, well …. mini for my taste?
But both should do the trick. The mini is essentially a shrunk version of the 2. Same processor, same resolution.
Just realise that the mini has the new lightning connector. This may or may not be relevant for you, depending on the stuff you want to connect too.
I almost got the wrong (iPad 3) one. My Mackie DL1608 iPad mixer has the old connector and no room for an adapter.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorJust make sure moisture is not an issue!
ModeratorShaun Pearcey, post: 40634, member: 6431 wrote: And these are now the industry standard so it will be a worthy investment that can be used for everything! What windows laptop alternatives are there to these then, as i’ve checked the lenovo thinkpad’s (top model i7’s), HP’s pavilion range (again i7’s) and some alienware machines too but nothing quite matches the beautiful-ness of these devices!
Quite frankly I’d be more than happy using any i5 or higher CPU, 4GB or better, SSD-equipped laptop. If I needed it for something other than DJ-ing, I’d make it dual-boot and use Windows 7 stripped to the bone for DJ purposes.
The things that made even me switch over to Mac for DJ-ing are the way the power cord is connected (magnetic connector, so never again a broken power connector which can potentially ruin your entire laptop), the fact that the casing in metal not plastic and the way that OS X handles sound (no more tedious ASIO driver crap).
It can all be done with a Windows laptop (and I have done that with old HP’s with XP up to and including i5’s with 8GB and windows 7). Just stay away from Windows 8. It’s a bitch.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorShaun Pearcey, post: 40632, member: 6431 wrote: Thats good, Yeah im after the i5 variant with the 15.4″ screen looks amazing! eBay my first site for everything these days is giving me stupid prices only morons would pay.. £900 for a macbook air aha in their dreams! I have seen a couple for around the 600 mark but they have gone very quickly will check around on other sites got to be a decent one out there. Any chance yours had 8gb ram Chuck or was it 4gb and you had to upgrade it?
Mine had and has 4GB and I never bothered to upgrade the RAM, just swapped the HD for a SDD (I don’t have that much tracks, I can fit everything on a 128GB SDD).
Mine is a “regular” one. The AIR’s are a different breed (and might not fit an extra HD/SSD as I believe they don’t have an optical drive bay due to their small (thin) form factor?
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorI bought a mid-2011 i5 15″ here a few months ago for 700 EURO. So, you should be able to find something for 700 quid and have some left over for the SSD 🙂
ModeratorBe sure to get the kit that allows you to mount a SSD in the optical drive bay (just get a USB optical drive if you need one). Make the SSD your boot and program disk and keep the 500GB HD for data and media files. Best upgrade you can do.
Samsung 840 pro is a very nice choice atm
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorTerry_42, post: 40594, member: 1843 wrote: I bought a house with a large basement…. the whole basement is full of boxes and stuff and I am getting threats on my life from the girlfriend on a regular basis… not to mention my “office” which basically is full with an iMac on one table with keyboards, Maschine, monitors and a laptop, DJ controller, monitors etc. on the other table. (Honey where should I put my computer???? )
However there are mitigating factors I can recommend:
– Footrub (use in times of immediate danger, works like a charm)
– Quality time day out in the countryside
– compliment her on her looks when you get home
– watch a romantic movie (even if it pains you)
– if you are a wedding DJ, try to integrate her skills (my gf now does flower arrangements…)
– be honest (aka this is my job -> me make money -> buy pretty things is a good line of arguments)
…..THAT is your solution? Buy a house with a big basement and buy off the girlfriend? LOL, well I guess if it works for you. Most of might not be so lucky (house nor wife).
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorThe thing is there are some relatively cheap CD players available, but they won’t be anything like the big Pioneer’s you’ll find in clubs. So by practicing on those, the workflow you get used to will be different when you go to a club.
I have used a set of pretty cheap American Audio CDI500s in the early days when getting my own setup. The mobile show I was working with most was using dual DENON players in a 19″ format. And although they were absolutely fine for what I wanted (actually had a couple of digital FX built-in), I still had to do a bit of a transition every time I was playing for another organisation using strictly Pioneer stuff (anything from 350/400 to 2000s).
I think Gemini has some players that are pretty much copies of the big Pioneers, but although not nearly the price of the original, they are not exactly for free either.
Pioneers are really unaffordable if you don’t use them to generate some very serious money using them. Especially the high end models.
Quite a few dance bars I know that have full equipment booth, but only a DJ on friday, saturday. The rest of the time (when they ARE open) the stuff sits idle or is in continuous play mode. Perhaps you can talk to the owner of one of those places and ask if you can come in for free to play 2 hours during week days (if your age is not a problem here :-)). That way they get a live DJ for free and you get to work with a real life setup. There will be no/small crowd and you won’t get rich and famous, but then again, how much audience do you have practicing at home in your bedroom, eh?
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorYeah, I voted Maglia too … but somehow my comment got lost.
Good luck!
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorYou should obviously move your files using the method provided with (and thus from within) RekordBox. The path should not be an issue because Rekordbox will set it to . Not near RB now, but it is something like that. So once on a stick/disk it doesn’t look at drive letters anymore.
If you copy your files from their oroginal location by hand, then you are right about what happens.
So, always transfer files from within RB.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorDon Anderson, post: 40565, member: 10293 wrote: One more thing I found when producing using ‘good’ speakers, is that your mix could sound really different on ‘bad’ speakers, this is to be expected, but what I found was that a mix might sound acceptable on the good speakers, but terrible on others. So when mastering, I would try out my mix on a variety of different systems – in the car, PC speakers etc.
Excellent! Even in the biggest studios you’ll find a one-driver 3″ mono speaker. Just to try what the sound is like when you take your transistorradio to the beach :-). Nowadays the sound from a smartphone headset is important of course.
Again, great point & tip.
Greetinx,
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