Let's be honest, how many of you would be completely screwed without a laptop?

[dodge]

I feel like you should at least be competent on CDJs with a booklet of CDs. I would feel kind of helpless if I was 100% reliant on a laptop and couldn't finish a set without one. So, who would be screwed without a laptop and does it bother you at all?

Hence why I ditched the laptop. I now only use it when I'm doing sets where I dunno what the crowd is gonna be like so need the selection of my entire itunes library. Or if I'm gonna be doing really long sets.... 5+ hours.

This all stemmed from becoming increasingly paranoid of laptop failure!

[Connekted]

Screwed without my lappy...no. Inconvienced...probably a little. I always get kinda excited to bust out the vinyl collection and play some shit ppl have never heard before besides the old schoolers. I like doing that from time to time at gigs. Plus i usually bring a book of cd's and 10-15 records with me to most gigs just in case shit hits the fan...which isn't as uncommon as some may think

[Quenepas]

I will not invest money and waste time on a rapidly going obsoleet medium to please some snob DJ or have "street cred". Im way above that mindset. You can play on vinyl and CDJ's? Well good for you. It's like milking your own milk and growing your own Frosted Flakes instead of getting them from the store.

Did you know this laptop thing is transitional phase? With controllers AND laptops getting more advanced, things like the CDJ2000 with a tiny screen and waveforms, the Stanton SCS.4 with a Linux based mini traktor wannabe, you can play with the "SYNC" button (because lets be honest, the thread name is AKA "how many of you can beatmatch") without a laptop.

THIS GUY DOESNT HAVE A LAPTOP BUT HAVE A SYNC BUTTON HURRR DURRR

Should I buy a $2,150 dollars ONE DECK cdj, or a 15" MBP?

And you know what purists? DJ companies are giving less and less of a shit about the medium you love because is dead. Even the mighty 1200's are discontinued. Holding on to those things are pathetic. Laptops can crash? Yes. Well are CDJ's 100% infallible? -Read Disc Error-. Are vinyl needles also infallible? Only those made of the hairs of Jesus goatee.

In the end you are playing somebodys elses music, pretty much like a human Ipod. Why not learn Ableton or some other production tool that would get to CREATE SOMETHING instead of learning something like juggling bottles. Getting to learn a medium because of a possible scenario of having to play with CDJs and no laptop is kinda stupid.




"Better learn to use a whip because I dont want to be in this situation when I might go treasure hunting and dont know how to use it. I dont want to look like a retard in front of Indy."



Vinyl is cool, yes we get it. Yes it is a staple of what a dj HAS TO LOOK. Turntable, mixer in the middle and another turntable. Just like a dj themed birthday decoration. But accept it, getting what you want on vinyl aint an easy feat. I can carry 25,000 lossless songs on a external hard disc. How many vinyls would that take? And lets not start on changing needles, scratched records, bend records, cracked, dirty, warped and all that is proper to them.


For a more through explanation check out this episode of Cleveland Show.


All in all, why give a shit about who can or cant play with a laptop because that escenario is getting more and more inplausible by the day. Yes any douchebag with a laptop (forget about internet, burn him a dvd with the app and some mp3's) can be a dj, but can he be a good dj? Like a said, I can buy a whip but that sure as shit wont make me Indiana Jones. Just like I can buy a $5000 CDJ setup and that wont make me a more "genuine" dj than Ean playing with Midifighters.

That is the mentality of the snob. The mentality of the people that dont want change. The mentality of the guido jock that will scoff when you pull out a laptop but when see Deadmau5 with a laptop "He must be updating his Facebook while playing. Hes an artist like that!" Move foward, stop beign prepared for when The Killer Tomatoes strike and learn Ableton or Pro Tools or something at least this decade.

[boxboy]

I can carry 25,000 lossless songs on a external hard disc. How many vinyls would that take?

That's the part for me that takes some of the fun and maybe even the skill out of dj'ing. Trusting just the 50 to 100 records you've spent time thinking about and squeezing into a bag. Having to make it work cos that's all you've got. That's one of the things I love about it. Worrying about it on the way to the gig, thinking "shit... should've put that in the bag", and then getting there and thinking, "well, this is what i've got, I'm gonna have to make this work"
Having to say "Sorry I haven't got that", disappointing a few people, but getting them going with what you've got.
That, for me gets a little bit lost when you've got 25,000 songs on hand.
I'm not saying it's wrong, it's just not the same.

[jprime]

All rants aside...the question was pretty simple, would you be fucked without your laptop though?

[dodge]

That's the part for me that takes some of the fun and maybe even the skill out of dj'ing. Trusting just the 50 to 100 records you've spent time thinking about and squeezing into a bag. Having to make it work cos that's all you've got. That's one of the things I love about it. Worrying about it on the way to the gig, thinking "shit... should've put that in the bag", and then getting there and thinking, "well, this is what i've got, I'm gonna have to make this work"
Having to say "Sorry I haven't got that", disappointing a few people, but getting them going with what you've got.
That, for me gets a little bit lost when you've got 25,000 songs on hand.
I'm not saying it's wrong, it's just not the same.

Good argument!

[boxboy]

Good argument!

Thanks Dodge. Not so much an argument, but the way I feel. Many will disagree, (making it an argument I suppose!?!)
But, even though I do use Dvs out now and again, If I lose the chance to play on "Gay and retarded" vinyl..... I quit.




(Please god, not yet, I'm having fun)

[dodge]

All rants aside...the question was pretty simple, would you be fucked without your laptop though?

Was gonna say exactly the same thing! Shit always trails way off course when people know the answer for them is gonna be a yes to that question. It's always a "but can you do this without a laptop?".

Another thing is that people defend laptops and say "yeah but what if the CDJ's fail". The thing is the CDJ's 9 times of 10 belong to the club, if they fail it aint your problem. If your laptop fails on the other hand, the club owner aint gonna be too impressed when the music stops. Aint saying laptops shouldn't be used, just saying when I reverted back to using CDJ's, even though I went from true vinyl to DVS, and then to CDJ's (even though I owned a pair of CDJ's while I was rocking vinyl)... it was a liberating experience knowing I aint got no shit of my own that can fail on me.

I aint saying laptop DJ's are shit or anything like that... for me it's the reliability issue.

[dodge]

Thanks Dodge. Not so much an argument, but the way I feel.

Change the word argument for debate

[jprime]

word man!

Yeah laptops are great - midi/controllerism is fan-fuckin-tastic. millions of tunes on a hard drive etc. Vinyl is old blah blah.

Don't defend it - we all love it....but the question was simple