Ditch the Laptop

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Well...music management happens directly on the prime 4...so thats not an issue...

The unit i own...i do my music management sitting comfy in front of my PC.... with a 42 inch monitor....i love it...i click one button and it updates my thumb drives with any changes... i can have a dozen back up thumb drives jn my pocket too with the same info...

I cant speak about laptop djing because ive never done it... but why would i invest in a 2000 dollar laptop and a 1000 dollar controller when i could get this for 1700... its a beautiful thing


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I have a $300 used laptop and Denon MC6000 I bought on clearance for $299 you don’t need a $2000 laptop
 
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i always assumed for reliability you would want a heavy duty laptop... i stand corrected

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Yeah, you dont need a very powerful laptop to use with a controller, basic laptops can handle it, controllers are not a very CPU hungry devices.

Controllers don’t use ANY CPU on your laptop. It’s your software on the laptop (Serato, Traktor, etc.) that uses CPU and RAM. The midi interface communicates with the laptop to allow the two devices to talk, and the USB audio interface allows the laptop to use the controller’s sound card as if it was it’s own, all of which are handled by the laptop’s operating system. All DJ software applications DO NOT use the same amount of resources, so you need a computer that’s adequate to run the applications you’ll be using, and I’d go for a little extra capacity.[emoji4]
 
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Controllers don’t use ANY CPU on your laptop. It’s your software on the laptop (Serato, Traktor, etc.) that uses CPU and RAM. The midi interface communicates with the laptop to allow the two devices to talk, and the USB audio interface allows the laptop to use the controller’s sound card as if it was it’s own, all of which are handled by the laptop’s operating system. All DJ software applications DO NOT use the same amount of resources, so you need a computer that’s adequate to run the applications you’ll be using, and I’d go for a little extra capacity.[emoji4]
Yes you are correct, I made a mistake by saying controller instead of software, in my mind they kind of go together, and my bad for thinking everyone would know when I said controller I was also meaning the software too.

At most you need 4gb of Ram forSerato & Traktor ,VDJ minimum is 512MB RAM , VDJ say anything higher than Intel® Pentium® 4 , Serato says i3/i5/i7 with a min of 1.07Ghz , and Traktor just says i5 , that is not a very high bar . Of course, I agree with you Bob, its always good to have a bit more power than needed, more so if you want to use the video features, then of course you get something with some power under the hood.
 
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A little late to this one.

The reason you see these coming out is because of some of the reasons Ross mentioned, specifically within the clubs and nightlife trying to get away from laptops. However, pioneer dominates that market so I doubt this will have any sort of influence and ever see real world usage in the nightlife industry. And with it relying on proprietary software, I doubt many djs will commit to this if the majority of their venues won’t have the equipment to support it... unlike serato and rekordbox which work on cdjs that every major club has.

As far as the mobile industry, I don’t see this as being the way of the future just yet. While I personally like a keyboard to be able to search, and feel that since I’m tall this would Kill my back trying to use... that’s not my reasoning for it. It’s a little more practical... the industry is more than just music and as a result, a laptop is still needed. And what I mean by that is video. A huge chunk of the higher end market incorporates video into many of their events, and a laptop will still be needed to do that.... primarily for music videos and effect graphics that sync with the music. While not a major issue for most djs... it’s also something that would deter many high end djs away from this, and since they tend to set the trends, the market as a whole will probably not follow along with this concept just yet. Another factor is it seems to lack of ability to add songs to it on the spot. Say you get a request for a brand new song that you simply didn’t have, at least on a laptop you can download it and drop it into serato without having to shut things down... I don’t know if you could add music to the library as you’re actually playing... so limitations would exist perhaps.

So if you can’t survive in the club industry nor the mobile industry... chances are the concept will come and go without many investing into it. My other reasoning for saying this is because it seems like it’s just an advanced version of the hard drive controllers from a few years back, which also came and gone without major traction amongst the club and mobile industry. Yes it got some traction in the mobile industry, but mostly amongst the mid tier... never the high end. Now it got a little more advanced with screens and better layouts... but if any of you remember... pioneer had already made something similar to this which many thought would become the new nightlife standard... it even worked with rekordbox which is popular amongst the club industry... but this too never caught on despite some djs requiring it in their riders.

Not saying this concept won’t be the future... but this won’t be the product to bring us there.
 
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Yes you are correct, I made a mistake by saying controller instead of software, in my mind they kind of go together, and my bad for thinking everyone would know when I said controller I was also meaning the software too.

At most you need 4gb of Ram forSerato & Traktor ,VDJ minimum is 512MB RAM , VDJ say anything higher than Intel® Pentium® 4 , Serato says i3/i5/i7 with a min of 1.07Ghz , and Traktor just says i5 , that is not a very high bar . Of course, I agree with you Bob, its always good to have a bit more power than needed, more so if you want to use the video features, then of course you get something with some power under the hood.
At MINIMUM, with OS overhead and caching, 8Gb of RAM would be the minimum I would ever tell anyone to get if they want hiccup free operation. For video use, I would push that to 16Gb or you potentially get stutter with higher resolution videos (and a separate video card helps there). The processor speed isn't as big of a deal .. i3 will work for audio only, i5 will work for most things. I run i7 and i5 rigs .. the i7 wasn't much more.
 
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At MINIMUM, with OS overhead and caching, 8Gb of RAM would be the minimum I would ever tell anyone to get if they want hiccup free operation. For video use, I would push that to 16Gb or you potentially get stutter with higher resolution videos (and a separate video card helps there). The processor speed isn't as big of a deal .. i3 will work for audio only, i5 will work for most things. I run i7 and i5 rigs .. the i7 wasn't much more.

I have run Traktor 2 Pro on a stick PC with 4GB of RAM and a quad core Atom without a single glitch. Still, I don’t think I’d trust it enough to use at a paid gig, but it seems to work fine. I don’t do video, and I suspect it would not handle video quite as well. I might test it out some time just to see what it does.[emoji4]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I have run Traktor 2 Pro on a stick PC with 4GB of RAM and a quad core Atom without a single glitch. Still, I don’t think I’d trust it enough to use at a paid gig, but it seems to work fine. I don’t do video, and I suspect it would not handle video quite as well. I might test it out some time just to see what it does.[emoji4]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I guess I'd err to the what will work in 99.99% of situations over what will work. I agree 4Gb is probably fine, but for a few dollars more, why not be safe.
 
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I guess I'd err to the what will work in 99.99% of situations over what will work. I agree 4Gb is probably fine, but for a few dollars more, why not be safe.

Oh, I agree. I have 8GB in all my DJ computers and at least 1.6GHZ quad core CPU’s. However, I think the software vendors intentionally overstate the hardware requirements just to ensure they don’t get a lot of customer complaints about software performance.
 
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Oh, I agree. I have 8GB in all my DJ computers and at least 1.6GHZ quad core CPU’s. However, I think the software vendors intentionally overstate the hardware requirements just to ensure they don’t get a lot of customer complaints about software performance.
I think they overstate it because EVERYONE writes bloated code these days .. :)
 
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Honestly, I still think the biggest problem with DJs who already are using laptops is that it is now one more step to load music. EIther transferring to an external HD, USB, or internal drive found on the prime.

It's not a hard step, but it is one more thing to deal with. I think if one has never used a laptop, that wouldn't be an issue.

I like that fact that all my music never leaves my computer. Even with the Prime, a DJ is preparing and organizing their crates within software on a computer ahead of time, so...

Now, if a DJ is already using an external HD, and not sure why they would, then they are used to it, but that's a different discussion. You just have to have the database file which stores all your crates and other stuff.

The second biggest thing for me is the lack of a trackpad and proper keyboard that one would have on a laptop. The screen is a decent size, but it doesn't replace the preciseness of a true trackpad found on a laptop.

I honestly think it's going back in time. This would have been great in 2006 when laptops were getting big for DJing, but now that MOST DJs have gotten used to the GUI of Serato and like, it's going to be very hard to convince someone to switch.

I would also be really worried if the controller froze, malfunctioned, or simply died/stopped working. The whole show is over. At least with a laptop, you have a backup laptop.

But, I might be totally wrong, and Serato will be out of business and units like the prime will be the new norm in every club and every private event. Time will tell.
 
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At MINIMUM, with OS overhead and caching, 8Gb of RAM would be the minimum I would ever tell anyone to get if they want hiccup free operation. For video use, I would push that to 16Gb or you potentially get stutter with higher resolution videos (and a separate video card helps there). The processor speed isn't as big of a deal .. i3 will work for audio only, i5 will work for most things. I run i7 and i5 rigs .. the i7 wasn't much more.
I would agree with you too, I would want to have to have at least 8gb of Ram.
 
I think laptops are great. For example, I just decided to do a 100% dedicated Karaoke one, so I found a 17" Toshiba Satellite with an AMD CPU (and an HDMI port) on Craigslist for the whopping sum of $75. Loaded Linux Mint on it (free), loaded OpenKJ on it (also free, and is superb piece of software). It's not just OK, the whole thing works terrific.

However, even though it was plug and play (including the HDMI to the second screen for the singer!), you need to realize I just did something most people can't do.
Our group that hangs out here is smarter than your average dog. Society seems to be on an endless quest for the least common denominator - including Apple and Microsoft, who are hell bent into turning their devices into looking on the surface like "appliances", regardless of the sophistication that lies underneath - and you would too if it was your business. Observe the extremely rapid rise of tablets and smartphones vs laptops. A lot of people are still not comfortable with computers.
Now, you will all have to excuse me - I need to give a verbal command to my phone.
 
Honestly, I still think the biggest problem with DJs who already are using laptops is that it is now one more step to load music. EIther transferring to an external HD, USB, or internal drive found on the prime.

It's not a hard step, but it is one more thing to deal with. I think if one has never used a laptop, that wouldn't be an issue.

I like that fact that all my music never leaves my computer. Even with the Prime, a DJ is preparing and organizing their crates within software on a computer ahead of time, so...

Now, if a DJ is already using an external HD, and not sure why they would, then they are used to it, but that's a different discussion. You just have to have the database file which stores all your crates and other stuff.

The second biggest thing for me is the lack of a trackpad and proper keyboard that one would have on a laptop. The screen is a decent size, but it doesn't replace the preciseness of a true trackpad found on a laptop.

I honestly think it's going back in time. This would have been great in 2006 when laptops were getting big for DJing, but now that MOST DJs have gotten used to the GUI of Serato and like, it's going to be very hard to convince someone to switch.

I would also be really worried if the controller froze, malfunctioned, or simply died/stopped working. The whole show is over. At least with a laptop, you have a backup laptop.

But, I might be totally wrong, and Serato will be out of business and units like the prime will be the new norm in every club and every private event. Time will tell.
One of the scenarios you paint is one that can happen with any technology at any time (failure). Regardless of what you use to play, if you do not have a backup plan, then any failure will leave you stranded.
 
My question is the weight issue. How heavy is it? Nice unit for a stationary gig but for mobile work, no thanks. My partner bought the Numark 7 which was a nice unit. It was just too damn heavy for mobile work. It took both of us to load it in and out of the van. Getting it upstairs was a PITA. I will stick with what I'm using now.