Alchemy432

You make many good points there sir. I am the first to admit I’m a biased biggot when it comes to Apple Products. They scream evil to me. I don’t have facts on hand to back that up, and I regularly use google, and gmail. So.. yup. Thankfully I’m not a biggot in any other context.

Thank you for the +1 on the Lenovo, I will do some digging on the google machine and see what I can find pertaining to matte screens. Windows 8 imho appears to me like the b*stard child of android phones and apple products. so more or less the spawn of satan, so I’ll stick with windows 7. I’m only a few nerdy steps away from being a ubuntu user, but they’re steps I won’t be taking. 😛

As for tinkering, without tinkerers (e.g. Nikola Tesla) i.e. people that wish to fix things that aren’t broken, we would not have alternating current, instead stuck with DC. but I know you get the drive of the tinkerer so all good.

As for DJing, hell freakin yes. It feeds the same receptors in my brain that bootleg remixing does, but with DJing you can do mini mashup remixing on the fly, cull the parts of songs that are boring, manipulate the energy of the audience experience of hearing & feeling the set, combine genres that shouldn’t work together but do, and do it all in about 10 minutes during a live real-time set. its is extremely satisfying. almost as much as playing with my drillbit…..and tinkering ;P. Initially I will simply be recording live mixes possibly video also, from the home studio, to post on youtube, this is where I can experiment, and i look forward to it immensely, its just a matter of getting my record label up and running first. My current perspective on DJing in a club setting is that it would be purely a monetary venture for me & I am somewhat anxious that my eclectic taste in music won’t go down so well with club goer’s; at least not where I live, so maybe I need to find different clubs.
DJing at raves & outdoor festivals however is afar more appealing prospect to me at the moment. I love a good outdoor rave, psytrance & ambient dub culture especially.

Thanks for the interesting reply 🙂

Peace!

also as a lifelong musician,
my opinion is that learning music theory is not necessary, or easy, or fun; and it can even work against your creativity by setting up far too many ‘rules’ which leave you sounding exactly like everyone else. yay.
it only becomes necessary when you want to do more complicated things, or say, be able to enjoy classical music.

If you are learning piano, download synthesia. its like guitar hero for you midi keyboard.

If you are learning guitar, download Tab’s, and learn to read them, its a simplified version of proper sheet music and there are videos that can teach you to read the stuff in one lesson, as its not nearly as complicated as tradition sheet music, which is flawed anyway particularly when it comes to guitar. Or buy rocksmith for your computer or video game console and learn guitar via a guitar hero/rockband style interface. much more fun.

if learning any instruments, the most fun and encouraging way I’ve found to do so is to choose a song you enjoy listening to that “sounds” easy, and aim to learn that. you will pick up the essentials along the way. optiosn include downloading the midi and importing it for use with Synthesia, or downloading the guitar tabs for guitar or bass or ukelele or whatever, and start practicing along with the song. if its too fast, slow it down inside fruity loops, select a few bars to loop, and play along with the loop, one important thing to note is that your ears will get more educated the more you stick at this and at the end of the day your ears are what you should be using to determine if something sounds good or not.

Often websites will show you the correct chord fingering for the song you are trying to learn, eliminating the need to know the names of the chords themselves. Once you can play a song or two, you should have enough built up enthusiasm, and knowledge of the general basics, to try to learn more advanced or complicated music theory.

Also when you see a musical symbol in Fruity Loops or whatever you choose to use (doesn’t matter – a good tradesman doesn’t blame their tools) that you don’t understand or recognize, Google is your friend.

In this way you can learn to solve problems you face as you encounter them, allowing you to work creatively at the same time (which is the fun part) but whatever you do, don’t try to tackle things that actually discourage you from wanting to continue to learn before your ready, because the most important part is actually starting, and then sticking with it (and having fun). eventually you will find the things that made you want to give it all up in the early stages, will not be so intimidating or confusing down the road.

Also regarding learning music theory with only your mouse, keyboard & a D.A.W, it will take longer, leave you knowing less and generally be more of a headache, then trying to learn a real instrument (the ukelele is easier then guitar, and bass is easier still) its easier, faster & more fun to learn a real instrument and then apply what you have learnt to the synthesizer etc on your D.A.W later.

At least that’s what I think anyway.

Peace!

yup I’m a noob too, but my unit (G2V) just works better with VDJ, and as essentially they all do the exact same thing just with different layouts, VDJ PRO (LE is poo, imho) is all I need.

Thanks for the info guys!
The Lenovo mentioned above looks perfect for my needs and budget.

One thing though, does anyone know if it has a TFT Matted screen?
I could not find that information at the link provided and a matte screen is my main requirement from a laptop.

any help given would be much appreciated!

well said!

I dig the name, it’s different and reminds me of a videogame I used to play a long time ago.. ff9..main character was zidane… anyway best of luck mate, go forth and kick ass..

peace