Alchemy432

@djrick

In my experience, with windows (can’t speak for mac setups)
modding skyrim to the extent that it takes up 30+gb of space and leeches my pc’s resources into oblivion,
using multiple instance’s of omnisphere in audio production work & the noob level djing I’m doing currently,
4gb ram *should* be enough. some wares can’t access all your ram anyway, particularly if their 32bit not 64bit.

having a fast processor, and fast internal drives is more important then additional ram beyond 4gb (imho).

The ASIO audio interface is the most important part for combating lag, if you get lag with a usb connected interface, switch to firewire (something I’m doing at the moment myself, the old usb just doesn’t cut it anymore for my needs).

but if you find even with a good asio interface you’re still getting sluggish response, an ssd harddrive & i7 would be better next steps rather then getting more ram.

on windows, with a multicore i7, there is a way to ‘unpark’ your cores, so that all 8 cores can be accessed by your software at all times, as apposed to only when needed.

this is *apparently* a way to squeeze more performance out of the processor.

tho I’ll let you google that one and make your own mind up about doing it because *apparently* it can be risky, though I haven’t had any trouble with mine (yet) and you can find tutorials to restore ‘parked’ status to your cores again if unparked is no good.

to sum up, from what I’ve heard & my own experience, i5 with 4gb ram should be all you need for djing, choosing an i7 over an extra 2gb ram is a better upgrade choice, and as someone else mentioned here, if you can swap the mechanical drive for an ssd before purchase, you’ll have some kick ass speeds.

Peace!

@Terry,

too true unfortunately, glad we share similar views on it all, it can be a lonely perspective to have at times, I get used to blank stares and glazed eyes… sometimes I expect people to just scream YOLO! at me and run off giggling & as Rome burns around them… though in fairness giggling and twirling is under-rated.

but I find your own personal efforts inspiring and the good results you’ve noticed in Austria encouraging, so there’s hope yet!

and I agree, do what you can on a personal level, its just a matter of reaching critical mass and then boom! positive change 🙂
Thankfully the local produce food markets are gaining more and more interest where I live, and once I get my drivers license back I’ll be able to get my food there too…so while my countries leaders are leading us down the drain on a national level (reclaiming world heritage listed forest for the loggers, shrinking our national parks, culling sharks just because, dumping crap into the great barrier reef, letting giant oil shipping boats navigate through the reef, of which it would only take one crashed or sunken vessel to wipe out much of the reef.. demonizing refugees as ‘boat people’ when we whiteys came on boats ourselves when we stole this country…so..what?…) at least on a local/grassroots level I’m seeing some positive change here.

And now, I must sleep for that is what we organic’s must do… oh to be a brain wired to a computer… maybe we are already.. how would we know? something to ponder perhaps..

Peace!

@ Terry & Mista Clean,

Thanks for the feedback, funnily enough Serato is the one I haven’t used yet. as for Traktor… I did wonder if the Traktor love was much like the Pro Tools love, like how I’d ask why pro tools was better and people would say “its the industry standard” which really doesn’t mean anything.

VDJ FX –
the quality of the fx (beatgrid, flange, phase, doubler, etc) in VDJPro really don’t bother me at all, maybe because I haven’t played live & only heard them through the monitor speakers & headphones in my studio rather then a proper PA system, or even maybe because of my background as a producer, I can tweak them to get acceptable results and don’t mind that they require that tweaking to sound decent? I guess I’ll have to try these iZotope fx and do a comparison.

What does bug the hell out of me and hopefully I can find an option to configure things differently, is having a list of a fx, that I have to scroll through to get to the one I want, even with rapid clicking of the button on my controller, its stressful when you change from one effect to another 5 effects away with only half a bar of music to do it in.. >_< I haven’t explored the others or even VDJ enough yet but it would be great to have the ability to load a selection of fx into a list for each song on each deck, that loads automatically when you load song, or even to be able to hotkey fx to buttons on a controller. even if that meant buying another small controller with an array of performance pads to use as hotkeys or something like that, I’d be happy with that.

JOGWHEELS-
jogwheel integration, At the moment I literally only use the jogwheel for setting cue points before I start mixing, or finding a good place to drop while mixing if I have no cue points setup already, and nudging the track along if they aren’t bpm matched or have fluctuating tempos, and I haven’t had any trouble with the ‘tightness’ or responsiveness of the wheels with VDJ for these uses…is it because you’re scratching? I don’t like the VDJ fx for brake, backspin or scratch, theres lag and sluggishness and the fx sound pretty bad.. I assumed that was the case with all midi controller decks and for digital battle scratching and the like you’d need the turntables with the scratch control vinyl and scratch wares…? planned on buying one of these down the track…

I’ll see if any of my dj mates have serato I can play with for a bit and give it a go, I did find Traktor a pretty alien interface when I first saw it, still do; but after talking with u guys about all this I think I’ll stick with VDJPro for the time being, I still have alot to learn anyway 🙂

Peace

@Terry,

ah, think we’ve had a miscommunication somewhere.
I’m going to try to explain my perspective more holistically so bear with me if you can.

I have no beef with the busy bee’s working for either Apple or Microsoft. Its the head honchos that bother me, the ethics of the company as a legal entity (a non-human individual) that concern me. And its not necessarily just Apple I’m talking about here, but more broadly, anyone in a position of power who chooses to abuse the slew of new technologies on our doorstep, for their own selfish motives, or for which the actions taken harm others without concern, worry me also. Modern business practices in general tend to scare me quite a bit, planning when its profitable for your product to breakdown or become obsolete is an example of the practices I refer too.

Augmented reality, Televisions with camera’s in them which watch you whilst you watch the box (to better target the advertising during commercial breaks) video game consoles that require active internet connections, logging in every 24hrs, and motion sensor cameras that have to be on at all times in order for the console to work, etc. all paint a grim picture that we won’t see clearly until the technologies are here & develop further. I could go into this in length, but this isn’t the time or place. You’ll note Microsoft is among the developers of the tech listed there tho so this isn’t a fan-boy type argument. And I used to think Sony was evil! speaking of which I’m only partially serious using that term, absolutes are always absolutely wrong and should never be used…. 😉

Using tax havens (Ireland) I have mixed feelings about, though I lean towards it being a bad thing when profits are exceeding necessity. Though to due that topic justice I’d need to talk about my perspectives on the fraudulent global monetary systems as a whole and how these systems have changed over the last 100yrs, and that’s a massive discussion, again not the time or place.

Using cheap labor in china I have a big problem with tho, for e.g. the response from one Chinese apple factory upon reaching an unprofitable rate of worker suicides was to install nets so when they jump from the walkways they don’t die, and therefore reduces the liability of the factory. (can dig up a source for that if you wish) and the “if you want to work here, you must live in our overpriced housing & eat our overpriced food” policies at those factories don’t sit well with me either. While I’m aware that Apple is not directly responsible for this, they play a role & imho the right thing to do would be to find a factory whose owners operate like they actually have souls. And as a consumer, I’m willing to sacrifice convenience to save lives, and to have a choice, which seems to be at odds with the general consensus among consumers these days which seems to be sacrificing choice for convenience & a if it isn’t happening here it isn’t happening mentality, this is my perspective on the data mining industry & frakenfood’s (Monsato) too, which I’m not a fan of either.

Also there’s grey area when it comes to the ever simpler interfaces of technology in general. On the one hand, why should someone have to know every piece of ware on their pc/phone/tablet/etc, every nut bolt & component, just to send an e-mail or play flappy bird.

On the other hand, it makes it easier for companies to behave in a less and less ethical manner, and abuse the rights of their customers, when said customers are ignorant of what exactly they’re doing & how it actually works; and then of course there’s hackers & scammers, who do happen to know those nuts & bolts and having less users of said tech’ knowing what is possible with their tech, benefits the scammers to no end.

successful scamming due to a general lack of tech savvyness is a big problem here in Australia; and being the “she’ll be right” nation of the world, not being educated about this or that is a consistent cause of problems here, and this argument can be applied to the action-reaction dynamics between the public & the government too… tho like many other things I’m mentioning, that’s a story for another bonfire. Also I realize its not always practical to know the nuts & bolts, and we rely on the tech savvy to help the less tech-literate to avoid being scammed & the like.

I’m a fan of who the apple founders were back when they were inventing computers. much respect to them for that. And they had a playful yet for the most part harmless side too, hacking payphones with recordings of dialtones for free calls and such. Less respect to Bill for stealing their ideas.. I feel the same about Bill as I do many politicians…. though for what its worth, I think Bill has done a lot of good things and fights for some good causes even if I struggle to relate to how I perceive him to be.

So after getting off topic and all serious for a bit, let me get this derailed train back on track…

Why I prefer PC’s is because on a slim budget, when you need a monster of a PC for studio use, its easier to learn to build your own PC (fancy Lego) and simply update components as the years pass, then have to buy a new, ever more expensive desktop model apple, which cannot be tinkered with.

Being able to update only the components you need, and only out of necessity is good for the wallet.

Being able to install an OS and have that be the only thing on your PC is the sort of leanness needed for business level audio production work. Any extra performance that can be squeezed out of your gear to run those resource hogging VSTs is a godsend when you just want to get on with music creation, and reducing bloatware is a good way to achieve it. So being as DJing is secondary to my main needs as a producer, I cannot speak in terms of what is best as a DJ, though I’d agree that whatever barriers between you and the creative process you can remove/bypass, the better, so in that regard, I begrudgingly admit that apple is more suitable. However if you know windows, knows pc’s and then get into djing afterwards, I see no need to change, though I can understand why people might want & choose to change their setups anyway.

Anyway I hope you understand where I’m coming from, sorry for getting a bit carried away there & hopefully you found it a thought provoking read 🙂

Peace!

That is bad man, not much you can do when the event organizers don’t want the same things out of the experience that you do. I’ve been a part of an event crew before, and while I enjoyed it at the time, things changed quickly and I’m honestly glad to have it all behind me.

Hopefully you will see some of the change you desire, or have the opportunity to branch out to different venues or something similar and get some good things come your way from doing so.

Can I suggest this website for acapella’s http://www.deejayportal.com/, free signup, free download of acapellas, a little eq & fx can usually make them decent enough to use in a mix. They have pop from the last 3 decades and current top 40 acapella’s and a massive collection in general.

Just thought that may be a way for you to play more of what you enjoy, whilst still pleasing the target crowd, beatmap the acapella, set your cues, drop it over anything, trap, dubstep, dnb, techno, house, psy, trance, whatever. The crowd won’t know its not a remix of their favourite songs, and I reckon it’d be a pretty good feeling if people came up to ya asking what a remix was they liked; that you had made yourself on the fly.

Hope that helps,
Peace!

very informative thread guys, had been wondering about this myself, cheers for the info!