Foxsong

• This topic has 26 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 9 months ago by .

• Macbook For Djing
• Mac Computer For Djing 2015 Pc
• Mac Computer For Djing 2015 Mac
• Macbook For Djs
• Mac Laptop For Djing
• Mac Computer For Djing 2015 Free

With MAC, DJs run Core Audio with their DJ controller. With Windows PC’s DJs typically run ASIO drivers with their DJ controller. Both Core Audio and ASIO provide snappy, very low latency control over features and functions of DEX 3 or DEX 3 RE. Both are a ‘win’ for DJs.

Macbook For Djing

• What do you prefer Laptop or a Macbook…

  Considerations:

  a. Price : Low/High/Moderate
  b. Purpose: Heavy/Part-time/Moderate
  c. Utilization: Low/High/Moderate
  d. Future Prospects: Professional/Part-Time/Other Factors

  Please share your thoughts…

  Lets discuss…

  • This topic was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by . Reason: Moved to correct forum

  A PC Laptop is going to give you a better price point obviously. You also have much more elbow room because you can do more with it. For Example if it runs slow, you have the option to add more RAM or upgrade your processor(stuff MAC won’t allow). On the other hand, Macbooks have pretty good stability which will let you DJ with ease at a gig without worrying about your computer surprising you with a sudden stop in your music. There are also good stable PC’s out there too if you wanna spend a little extra money. Either way you can still do good with any. If you buy a PC I recommend that you make sure it has about 4 Gigs of RAM. The more the better

  I’ve never had an issue with my HP laptop. I bought it about two years ago with the intent of using it to DJ and music production. If you maintain the laptop I don’t think you should have any problems.

  Aside of the Mac vs PC discussions, anything you like will serve you. But let me tell you something: The better price of PC laptops compared to Macs is not that simple.
  I own a solid and beautiful 2006 Macbook Pro with 3 GB of RAM and nowadays it works like a charm (a SSD helps too) and my brother has a white 2006 Macbook and it flews too . We are not pro Djs but use our rigs on daily basis for photography, graphic design and semi-pro djing . A friend of mine, long time pro Dj, owns a black 2007 Macbook as well and it never fails, either. My Macbook Pro cost like $1900 and these Macbooks cost $1200-1400. Expensive? It depends. Where are eight years old PC laptops? 😉 IMHO PC laptops with similar qualities to Macbooks are in the same range of prices. It´s just sad they dropped these polycarbonate Macbooks. They were cheap, solid, versatile and perfect for djing.

  Of course there are excelent PC laptops but won´t last that long. No controversy intended (that why I won´t mention aesthetics or operative system differences); I just want to point it out.

  Regards

  There are a lot of advantages imho to Macbooks over PCs.

  And I am a big PC fan (have several AND and a windows 7 laptop for work) but I will not use anything but a Mac for DJ and sound engineering work anymore. Yes, you can tweak a windows PC to work well. But, it involves running a dual-boot system if you intend to do other work with it as well. Also it is actually tweaking, meaning you need to spend time and effort into making it stable. The sound driver system Windows uses is far less suitable than that of Mac OSX. User separation (i.e. having a different user profile for DJ-ing and for private stuff for example) is nothing more than a joke on Windows (except for personal files pretty much everything you do in any of your user profiles affects the entire windows installation – hence the advice of dual-booting). And, not unimportantly, Mac OSX does not work with a registry system like Windows. The registry system has an inherent problem, it gets corrupted, clogged up, stuff stays in there long after you have removed the programs it was associated with and thus Windows needs some kind of regular cleaning to keep running optimally. Most if not all this stuff is handled by OSX straight out of the box.
  While Mac’s can and do crash, I think it is safe to assume that the CHANCE of a Windows laptop going blue screen on you is statistically higher.
  I like to have far more control and tweakability over my OS than I can have with OSX for my day to day stuff. Windows offers me that. But when it comes to having a system to dependably run my DJ software gig after gig, I don’t need that flexibility. I just want to install the software, hook up the controller and know it will work, every time. And OSX does offer that.

  As for the hardware. While a few hardware manufacturers are mimicking a lot of the MBP features, like backlit keys (VERY handy in a dark DJ booth) and full metal casing, those can usually only be found on the higher end models, thus making the apparent price difference a lot smaller. Things like the magnetic power adapter connector are unbeatable (anybody that has ever had to replace a mainboard in a laptop because the connector for power broke off knows what I mean). Also you CAN upgrade memory (have done it myself), you CAN replace the HDD with an SSD and/or even remove the DVD (who needs one these days) and put a second HDD/SDD in. Only thing you can’t change is the processor, but this is true for 99.9% of windows laptops too.

  I’ll second the notion that overall the MacBook Pro holds it value way longer than a windows laptop. Try selling a three year old Lenovo or HP and be glad you get any kind of money for it. Post a 3-yr old MBP at an online marketplace and they’ll be outbidding your asking price. So, taking write-off into consideration, if you were to spend on a new MacBook Pro today and decide to upgrade every three years or so, your total write-off wouldn’t be all that much higher than with a PC laptop and you’d be almost guaranteed an easy (re)sell.

  I’ve been in IT since I was 17 or so (which was a LONG time ago) and as I said, I love my PCs to this day. But I have, grudgingly – I admit, switched to MBP for my DJ and sound engineering needs about two years ago and never looked back.

  Just my two cents, as usual. Flame away! LOL

  P.S. I moved this to the correct forum. Please make sure you put things where they belong. Terry and I are busy enough without this stuff 😀

  I’ve used a PC laptop for DJ use since I started using digital in 2009, the only issues I’ve had were all my fault. My old Acer cheapo lappy was overheating (I couldn’t be arsed to clean it), and my current Dell Latitude once switched itself off halfway through a gig (I forgot to plug the power lead in).

  The rules of PC laptop DJing are simple:
  1- Demand the Windows OS disc from the vendor.
  2- Buy a SSD and fit it if your lappy didn’t come with one.
  3- Do a fresh install of Windows.
  4- Don’t download porn.

  A couple of simple tweaks are all that is required after that, you don’t need a degree in computer science to do them either. There’s nothing a Mac can do that a PC can’t do, apart from run Logic Pro.
  And cost more 🙂

  I agree with you in part, but ONLY if you use the laptop only for DJ-ing. If you do anything else with it, that goes out the window (no pun intended). No Windows user with any knowledge can say with dry eyes that his/her computer’s performance has not deteriorated with time, because it always does. The only way to prevent that from happening, is single purpose use, never installing anything other than the stuff you really need, not deleting what you have installed and not going online (for anything, not just porn).

  This discussion will probably remain forever. We all pick our side. I have picked mine after very careful consideration.
  At the end of the day I have to conclude that many things audio related are just better integrated in Mac OSX then they are in Windows, that Windows has taken a dive with version 8 (which I still refuse to use on any of my machines) and most significantly that it’s all done out of the box, without clean installs, vendor OS discs and even the tiniest of tweaks.
  All that on top of the physical attributes of the MacBooks makes it a good deal, albeit it, I full agree, a very expensive one.

  Good thing we can agree to disagree 😀

  A mac.

  Why?

  Macs are build for stability.
  I have seen countless times that in a hot club environment with loads of lights etc. or an open air in summer… PC guy plays his set for 30-45min then the laptop dies the heat death.
  I have seen countless times PC guy play his set and then suddenly sound stutters, because PC likes to run some stuff on the harddisk that we will never find out why he does it.
  I have seen countless times PC guy play his set and suddenly the sound drivers like to act up, because another driver or anti-virus had an epiphany and wanted to do something …. and you never know why.

  On the other hand I have a 2008! MacBook pro. That I had with me on countless gigs in heat and snow, it is beat up, the screen actually is warped a little, it has scratches all over so I put stickers on it…. it is a mess. BUT IT NEVER CRASHED ON ME DURING A SET.
  I actually wanted to phase it out this year, but I keep it as a backup as it has so many emotional ties.

  Now I do not know of any friend of mine who is a PC fanatic that can say he has a working condition laptop PC that is older than 3-4 years.

  Are there PCs like that out there? Yes. But then you have to go for top end laptops like HP zBook, Lenovo ThinkPad,… those come in at around 1500+ so you are exactly in the same price range as MacBooks are and still have the disadvantages of the Windows registry and driver system.

  That is why we DJs say: Any MacBook, even old, is better than a PC laptop.

  Actually, cheap laptops (and IMHO, Windows but I haven´t used it from let´s say 2004 so it´s not a solid rock opinion) are that bad.

  Good stuff is always a better pick, that´s all. And, as Terry said, a dj needs a stable rig (and beauty and usability won´t hurt)

  My version of events:

  My laptop is a reconditioned Dell Latitude business model. The bottom plate is plastic, everything else is metal, it has 4 usb ports and a 1080p screen.
  Cost me 500GBP with a 240Gb SSD adding another 100GBP.
  I fitted the SSD and installed Windows 7 fresh. The only setup change I made that is constant was to go into the preferences and change Windows to prioritise background tasks.
  Windows treats audio as a background task.

  When I DJ I do a couple of further tweaks; I go into device manager and disable the ACPI battery controller, webcam, DVD drive, wifi and the internal sound card. These are all switched back on when I’m done DJing. I use my laptop for browsing the web and organising my music as well as for DJing, although I never download anything I don’t need.

  The point of this story is to highlight that you can run a Windows laptop for DJing and use it for other things too Qith a bare minimum of tweaking.
  Yes, you have to be careful but then you have to be careful with any item you use for DJing. Having an Apple logo on the lid doesn’t magically make your device immune to catastrophy. Internally the Mac is PC and the bloody things are still made in China anyway.

  So no, a laptop for DJing os not bad at all.

1. It seems that Mac OS is created with audio in mind and it is useful to know how and why. The power of the MacBook. There are many reasons why the MacBook is trusted by a lot of DJs. Let’s take a closer look: Operating System; When opting for a MacBook, you will use the Mac OS operating system by default. Mac OS is written with simplicity in mind.
2. In 2015, rekordbox got a significant upgrade in the form of rekordbox DJ - an expanded 'performance' version of the software with full mixing, effects and sampling capabilities. There are up to four decks of track control, a library browser with a tagging and track recommendation system, per-track and master effects - each with multiple slots.
3. By Dan WhiteOn Mar 9, 2015 2 Apple has unveiled a new set of Macbooks that are incredibly thin, come in three different metallic colors, but also only sport a single USB-C port that acts as a dual conduit for data and charging.
4. Many DJs has become more inclined into DJing using a laptop computer as their principal instrument or as a complementary to produce and mix sounds and music that are not usually provided by using the traditional mixers and controllers. The best way to choose the best software for djing is its features and its speed of transmission.

• The topic ‘LAPTOP or MACBOOK For DJing’ is closed to new replies.

PC or Mac for DJing?

Mac Computer For Djing 2015 Pc

Mac Computer For Djing 2015 Mac

In today’s DJ business, using a laptop computer is almost essential. Gone are the days of having to carry around heavy crates of records (thank God). Now, laptops store all your music and whatever DJ software you choose to use. Sure, there are now ways to put all your music on a flash and plug your flash into your player and go “laptop free.” However, you most likely still have your laptop full of music, along with backup drives, cloud storage, etc. So the ever-lasting question remains, “which type of laptop should I use for DJing? A PC or Mac?” The answer isn’t easy, but basically, it depends on your preferences.

It’s timeless argument. DJs argue “my Mac is better,” or “my PC is better, faster,” etc. One thing is for sure, when it comes to Mac versus PC, Mac has managed to create an amazing brand campaign. If you didn’t already know, the new iPhone X is going to sell at around $1,000 (at the end of October). That’s the most expensive cell phone that has ever existed. Is it worth it? How different will it be from other phones? The premise is the same for computers. My wife and I both use Macs for DJing, and most of our team uses Macs, as well. Although some of our team members do not and have not had any issues running DJ software with it.

Macbook For Djs

So you may ask, “why do I choose to use Mac or a PC?” For me, it’s about reliability. I know that PCs are reliable, and Macs are also reliable. In my experience, however, I’ve had issues with a PC not being reliable during a gig. It happened twice. The PC was an Asus and it had great specs. After the 2nd issue, I got a Mac and never looked back. The reliability is the number one reason for me. That’s not to say that Macs will never have reliability issues. Like all computers, they won’t last forever. If you upgrade to a Solid State Drive and have a lot of RAM, your computer (Mac or PC) should run well and handle DJ software easily.

Mac Laptop For Djing

What I also love about Macs are the updates being optional and not forced. PCs have updates and have managed to always force me to update at the most inconvenient times! The last thing I need is for my PC to update, right before a gig starts (or during a gig). No thanks. I rarely update my Mac until after I see that Serato DJ is compatible with the new update.

Mac Computer For Djing 2015 Free

Overall, the choice depends on your preferences and budget. A Mac with “okay” specs, can cost far more than a PC with better specs. (I’ll discuss branding and influence, later). Do your research and use the computer that suits you. No matter which you choose, always have a backup laptop and have all your music backed up, too!

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