So I have a small chunk of change saved up… little over a thousand USD. And it needs to be spent.
option a) get another cdj-800mk2 and flight cases for the rest of my stuff. this will give me 2x cdj800, denon x-300, and hd-25 which is a decent cd setup
option b) get a macbook pro. I already have a decent laptop running win 7 and haven’t experienced any crashes lately, but if I got a mbp I could use it with my firebox that’s been lying around and it’d be portable enough that I might actually take notes when I’m in class at uni.
basically it comes down to either joining the rest of the pro audio world and finally getting a mac (and more stability with my firebox/vci-100/tpro combo and all of that), or getting a completely self-contained setup that I’ll be able to practice on for club gigs.
I was in a similar situation, except I had CDJ-1000 MK3 and an Ecler Nuo 5. It was a sweet setup, but I came to the conclusion that it’s stupid to have $3000+ in equipment to play other peoples music.
Sold the setup, bought a 15" MacBook Pro, and invested in Ableton and Traktor. With the remainder of my money, I’m waiting on the EKS Otus Raw to come out, and then I’ll buy an Ecler Nuo 4.
So basically I went from having two fancy CD decks and a nice mixer - to a complete rock solid production station with immense versatility and usage, that can also do what my $3000 setup did, and then some, tailored to my needs.
A little more about me… I’ve done electronic music for seven years now, am a third year in college getting a degree in music composition, and know more things about reason and ableton live than my professors do. Am aiming to make a career out of something audio related, maybe as a studio producer/engineer, maybe as a film composer, something like that. I can get shit done with my current setup and am a big fan of traktor
The question for me is mostly the feel of things… with traktor, even though I’ve experimented with fx heavy mappings, I’ve finally settled on a mapping that focuses on basic four band eq and dedicated high/low pass filters for each deck, with only minimal fx capabilities. I mix better when I let the music speak for itself, and I find myself standing there twiddling my thumbs a lot and I actually wonder if it’d be more fun to spend that time searching through cd wallets. I also wonder if fewer options can sometimes lead to greater creativity. I dunno, maybe I’m just a sucker for punishment…
honestly I want both. I just dunno which I want first.
If you’re going the macbook pro route you should wait a bit. Apple will be updating them very soon. keep your eye on macrumors.com, they keep track of all this.
It depends on what DJ you are, if you like to just mix tracks and generally let the music speak for itself than maybe CDJ’s are the better option (also keeping in mind that u already have a laptop and 1 cdj). If u like to rock FX and beatmashers then u can do some crazy shit with traktor. Also if u want to spin 4 decks then maybe digital is better then cdj’s.
I spin with Traktor, MBP and VCI but that is generally because i don’t like burning lots of cd’s and keep them organized, i couldn’t afford CDJs, i really love the feedback the wave form display gives me so i can see in what part of a song i am and set different cue points.
The advantage of Traktor is that u can organize your music perfectly, it’s cheaper, you have more control over your FX, you have waveforms which give good feedback, and you don’t have to burn alot of cd’s. The advantage of spinning with CDJ’s is that if you are going to play clubs the usually have a set in the club so you just have to bring headphones and cd’s and you don’t need to bring your expensive laptop to a club.
To add to what bgardali said, Apple is planning to update the MacBook Pro sometime soon with the new Core i5/i7 series processors, which I assume will also translate to integrated USB 3.0 ports. A nice (momentary) future proof addition which is welcome on any laptop investment, as I can imagine DJ/Production equipment manufacturers will begin using.
The best advice I can give you is to wait until they update, cause trust me when I say this, it will benefit you greatly regardless if you buy a new laptop or not. People who see a new product are very likely to make an impulsive decision to pawn off their current one at an abnormally low price to recuperate the expense of buying the new one. This leaves your options open to either deciding if you want to buy a new MacBook Pro, or if you want to buy a used one at a lower price which would easily suffice whatever needs you have.
You can read my post here which covers what you should know before going out and buying a used MacBook Pro
This is exactly what I’m worried about… mbp almost seems like a lateral move. once minute I’m utterly convinced one way or the other the next I change my mine. although I will say pretty much everybody including friends and dj buddies have said mbp over cdj.
I dunno, you could always go both ways, sell your CDJ-800 and pick up some CDJ-400’s, which can MIDI over to Traktor. Choose CD mixing, or MIDI.
Either way though, if it’s an issue of CDJ-800 vs. a MacBook Pro, theres no question as to which can opens more roads for you. I’d recommend going to a local equipment store and trying out different MIDI capable decks, so you don’t have to give up one or the other
toshiba satellite, core 2 duo @ 2.00ghz each, 4 gb ram, win 7 64 bit. not the greatest but it’s only occasionally failed me, and that was when the traktor midiout bug nailed me a couple of times. hasn’t happened since win7 update.
I’m actually liking this cdj-400 concept… I totally forgot about hid mode. The only thing is I played with a 400 and a 800 in guitar center for a few hours once and came away liking the platter on the 800 much much more.
ahhhh wait… I was totally for this until I suddenly remembered how drunk me appreciates the sync button more than sober me. I feel like ultimately I’ll end up using cdjs but a macbook is probably a good stepping stone inbetween that, because obviously I’ll end up using it for production as well. Maybe I’ll just overload on gigs for the next few weeks and get both. gahhhh
yeah, my poor cdj had a lonely single’s awareness day. I tried hooking it up next to a household cd player but it wasn’t having any of that cheap walmart prostitute business
Oh man, the CDJ-400 loose outer ring PISSES me off, WHY DID THEY DO THAT?!?!, AUUUUGGGH. It’s like what, $700-$800?, they couldn’t be bothered to put a solid platter on it like the CDJ-800/900/1000/2000?. Also, why didn’t they just put USB 2.0 on it, why on earth does a current device have USB 1.1?. Absolutely baffling.
im a Pc engineer with 20 years experiance and if you want to take your DJ’ing seriously id get a mac. there is nothing worse than windows crashing mid gig which used to happen to me does not create a good impression. I took the plunge 4 months ago bought a 17" MBP using with a numark omni control never fooked up once since then with traktor. Last week i bought a NI Mashine and I cant wait to try it using it with traktor pro and dj Endo mappings and it works sweet I can load 4 tracks have them looped and beatmatched in under 10 seconds. I use the onboard sound card on the omni controller for monitors and main output jog wheel iand cross fader very handy mac all the way for me now!
yeah at this point I’m in favor of picking up a mac, and haven’t changed my mind within the past 24 hours or so. I can try to load up on gigs and grab another cdj later, as much as I want another 800 the mbp is just more versatile and will be really useful in uni and all the things I do in my life that aren’t djing… which are a lot of things
