I bought some new gear yesterday.

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MIXMASTERMACHOM

MIXMASTERMACHOM

DJ Extraordinaire
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Oct 16, 2011
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I bought a bunch of stuff yesterday to add to the business. here is the list. A DBX DriveRack+, Lenovo G700 laptop. It has a 17" screen, i5 processor, 4 gig of ram, 500 gig HD, Windows 8 which was down graded last night to Windows 7. Audio Technica System 10, Selerium 18" woofer and Selerium driver for JBL EON. Also a Samsung Galaxy tablet.

So I'm very happy with those purchases. Now last night I got a flat tire. So now I need to get 2 new tires as well. I should be getting those later today. Now that makes me have 2 laptops. I'll take the old one and put it for backup. Just had VDJ loaded on the new laptop last night. Now today just got to get the drives installed for the Denon DN MC 6000 so I can DJ with the new laptop.
 
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Of course that was a legally bought copy of VDJ. Now what jobs will you be doing with all this new gear? I assume you have 10-15 jobs booked to cover these costs.
 
Mix .. Since you use powered speakers from the same manufacturer, the DriveRack will have less impact than it would if you needed it as a crossover. I've heard good things about the digital AT System 10, so that was probably a good purchase.

As to the laptop, 4Gb is not sufficient for most apps these days. The rest of the specs are fine, but that should be upgraded to 8Gb or you will be doing a lot of swapping. I may have also held off downgrading to Windows 7 and tried Windows 8.1 first .. it includes some of the Win 7 UI functionality.

And what is the Galaxy tablet for? Do you have a specific need?
 
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steve149 said:
Mix .. Since you use powered speakers from the same manufacturer, the DriveRack will have less impact than it would if you needed it as a crossover. I've heard good things about the digital AT System 10, so that was probably a good purchase.

As to the laptop, 4Gb is not sufficient for most apps these days. The rest of the specs are fine, but that should be upgraded to 8Gb or you will be doing a lot of swapping. I may have also held off downgrading to Windows 7 and tried Windows 8.1 first .. it includes some of the Win 7 UI functionality.

And what is the Galaxy tablet for? Do you have a specific need?
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I'm only looking to use the laptop for DJing. Not to do a ton of other things with it. The tablet is for when I have a meeting with a client to give a nice presentation. One client liked it when he saw I had a laptop and found out I would be using it to do the gig with. Some like when they see that you're a modern type of business person. The mic works great! Now dealing with the DriveRack another DJ I know uses one in his powered setup and it works great. We just got to figure out how to properly set it up as it will also act as a EQ and compressor. Not sure what else it can do. The laptop can be expanded to 8 gigs if need be.
 
MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
. We just got to figure out how to properly set it up as it will also act as a EQ and compressor. Not sure what else it can do.
Click to expand...

Take advice on it from someone who knows how to do it right not someone that never used one before or your next purchase might be a pair of speakers
 
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Lol mix take advice now that is funny.

Mix since you didn't answer my questions I will assume it is a bootleg copy of VDJ because why pay for it when you can get it for free. Also you have no jobs to pay for all this great gear.
 
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MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
I'm only looking to use the laptop for DJing. Not to do a ton of other things with it. The tablet is for when I have a meeting with a client to give a nice presentation. One client liked it when he saw I had a laptop and found out I would be using it to do the gig with. Some like when they see that you're a modern type of business person. The mic works great! Now dealing with the DriveRack another DJ I know uses one in his powered setup and it works great. We just got to figure out how to properly set it up as it will also act as a EQ and compressor. Not sure what else it can do. The laptop can be expanded to 8 gigs if need be.
Click to expand...

Even as a DJ laptop, there are demands from searches and the like that stress the I/O system, and having more RAM allows better management of the virtual memory space. If you were doing video DJing, I would recommend 16Gb RAM, but for general DJ work, you will definately notice the extra 4Gb .. and I'm speaking from experience here .. I have been in the computer industry for 30 years, including many years at the 2 letter PC company and the 3 letter one.

The DriveRack does some nifty things "if" you need it and know how to use it. The main use in the powered speaker world is to act as a limiter, room EQ, and in feedback control (either with a few PEQ filters or with the FB reduction feature. Compressors are better used at the mic inputs (as inserts), unless you are going to a constrained output medium like FM radio.
 
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Mix,
You've already blown two sub drivers. If you don't learn how to use the DRPA you will be spending money for drivers after every gig. You spent every single cent from the "big" check you got, yet you still don't have a business plan, no contracts that will get you out of the red numbers and the small amount you charge has to be divided between several people, where do you think you're going to end up?
 
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DJ SVO said:
Mix,
You've already blown two sub drivers. If you don't learn how to use the DRPA you will be spending money for drivers after every gig. You spent every single cent from the "big" check you got, yet you still don't have a business plan, no contracts that will get you out of the red numbers and the small amount you charge has to be divided between several people, where do you think you're going to end up?
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One big mistake you made in this post is that I spent all of the money up. I haven't. I did what I thought was needed to keep things going with the business. If I'm wrong then I'll have to deal with it. Now I just got to find the time to sit down and do more work on the business plan. I'm so busy with school and commitments I have very little time to myself.

To be honest since I've never done one I'm not sure where to start. Should it be with prices, advertising, setting up packages or what? What should it be about? Now trust me it took a lot to type that last part. That took a lot of me getting my ego out of the way because I've been doing this so long. Got to go and take a shower now to get ready to leave for school.
 
Prices, advertising and packages are the tactical parts of a plan .. they come later. You need to figure out what it is you want TO DO first. Then the plan maps out how to get there. So you need to understand your market, your capabilities, your "partners" .. and then understand the money flow, the advertising, etc.

A lot of it is brainstorming up front ... by yourself, unless you see having these same partners going forward ... laying out a realistic plan, along with some stretch goals. If you're not honest with yourself in the process, the plan will be meaningless.
 
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steve149 said:
Even as a DJ laptop, there are demands from searches and the like that stress the I/O system, and having more RAM allows better management of the virtual memory space.
Click to expand...


That's a misnomer. Most DJ apps (in fact most apps) are compiled at 32 bit for backward compatibility. So, you will only have access to about 3 GB of memory.

Unless you want to search through Windows Explorer, you will see no increase in performance from your library.
 
SoftJock Rick said:
That's a misnomer. Most DJ apps (in fact most apps) are compiled at 32 bit for backward compatibility. So, you will only have access to about 3 GB of memory.

Unless you want to search through Windows Explorer, you will see no increase in performance from your library.
Click to expand...

Even if true, with the other system requirements, 4Gb of RAM will not hold everything the "system" needs, so 8Gb is still going to perform better overall, given the computer won't be running just the DJ app.
 
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steve149 said:
Compressors are better used at the mic inputs (as inserts), unless you are going to a constrained output medium like FM radio.
Click to expand...

I remember the studios at the radio station. All the controls for sound output (equalizer and compression) were in a rack but locked with a screened front.

All I had to control was the board.

The sound was way too compressed for my taste, but there was nothing I could do about it.
 
dunlopj said:
I remember the studios at the radio station. All the controls for sound output (equalizer and compression) were in a rack but locked with a screened front.

All I had to control was the board.

The sound was way too compressed for my taste, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Click to expand...

Most of that was the limited dynamic range of the FM medium (AM was worse), so as music pushed the frequency boundaries (higher highs, lower lows), it was necessary to squeeze the signal more and more to fit the in the broadcast limits. Additionally, if you could compress the signal and then keep it above the noise floor, when you expanded it again on the other side, you would have less noise (and a somewhat lifeless sound).

All it takes is a quick listen to a song on a CD player in the car vs. the same song on the radio to hear how much detail is lost.
 
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Too much stuff to buy all at once. There will being a learning curve for at least 3 or 4 of those items and it sounds like there isn't enough time to spend getting to know it all. And if you don't know your equipment there's a strong probability that you'll be lost when there's a technical problem at the gig.
 
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Mix,
Even if you didn't spend it all you're still missing the most important part, a business plan. If you don't set a specific objective you'll be running around like a headless chicken. If you know what your aiming for you'll have a much clearer view of what you do, if you don't read my previous sentence. This is not meant as an insult it's to make you focus on what's important to be successful.
 
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steve149 said:
Most of that was the limited dynamic range of the FM medium (AM was worse), so as music pushed the frequency boundaries (higher highs, lower lows), it was necessary to squeeze the signal more and more to fit the in the broadcast limits. Additionally, if you could compress the signal and then keep it above the noise floor, when you expanded it again on the other side, you would have less noise (and a somewhat lifeless sound).

All it takes is a quick listen to a song on a CD player in the car vs. the same song on the radio to hear how much detail is lost.
Click to expand...

In my 30 years, I was always taught that the reason for compression (in radio) was to control drastic differences in levels and give a standard volume for songs, commercials, talking, etc. Also to avoid the appearance of dead air. Without compression, any song that had a huge drop in volume (Zeppelin - Over The Hills and...) would sound to a listener like dead air.
Dead Air = Tune Out.
 
Ausumm said:
In my 30 years, I was always taught that the reason for compression (in radio) was to control drastic differences in levels and give a standard volume for songs, commercials, talking, etc. Also to avoid the appearance of dead air. Without compression, any song that had a huge drop in volume (Zeppelin - Over The Hills and...) would sound to a listener like dead air.
Dead Air = Tune Out.
Click to expand...

It is a use .. and it is a major reason why you put one on a microphone, especially for someone with bad mic technique that comes close and then further away, but for any medium that has a fairly limited dynamic range (not just radio, but that included the older cassettes, eight-tracks, and 45s) ... the main reason you use a compressor is to fit as much of the incoming signal into the available bandwidth. Some of the compressors were given fancy names (dbx, dolby CX, etc.) and they used a expander on the other end, but FM radio doesn't have that part (nor AM) as a requirement of their receivers, so the compressed signal stayed compressed, which did allow you to make everything louder.

Stations that have HD radio use a digital format to allow less compression and more dynamic range.
 
steve149 said:
Even if true, with the other system requirements, 4Gb of RAM will not hold everything the "system" needs, so 8Gb is still going to perform better overall, given the computer won't be running just the DJ app.
Click to expand...


Interesting experience I''ve had...

I bought two lappys - one with a i5 with 8GB of RAM, the other is a Core 2 duo with 4 GB of RAM. Both run Win 7 64 bit.

Want to guess which one is faster and more robust? I'll give you a hint -- it's not the i5. They both run the same software, around 80 processes.

If you go into Task Manager, and show processes from all users, you will find that half the stuff is marked by *32 after the name -- that means it's compiled as 32 bit -- even Internet Explorer is a 32 bit process on a 64 bit version of the OS.

So, ironically, my currently active machine uses about 60 % of available memory after 27 days, and I stream video off of YT and Amazon Prime for at least 5-6 hours per day. Firefox is the biggest offender on the memory and page faults.
 
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