Laptop Size???
Hi all,
I have been playing house music for a while now. and i am deciding to move to using a laptop for djing instead of my cds!
I will be purchasing a mac book pro, traktor pro and probably a xone 1d (still unsure on what midi controller to use).
what i really wanted to know is what size laptop most of you use or what the best size is.
i kind of ruled out the 17" as it being too big and a pain to carry about. but i am torn between the 13" and 15".
thanks,
Dean
the thing is that unfortunately traktor pro hides a lot of stuff depending on the resolution. with a 17" you can see all the FX, the recording and the tempo units, with a 15" you only see 2 of the 4 units. i do not remember what drops out on a 13". at the very least you will have trouble fitting 4 decks, the cross fader (though that can probably be left out) and the track browser.
i dream of traktor one day letting us split out stuff like the track browser and preference into separate windows. then we could just hook up a 10" usb monitor for those, but alas this will probably not happen until TP 2.x which afaik has never been mentioned in public.
Yeah “movable, unlockable objects” has been a feature request since Traktor 3 unfortunately i havent seen the feature get any love beyond the forum.
I dont see it happening.
Get a 15" its the best or both worlds and the lesser of 2 evils at the same time.
Yeah .. its really unfortunate. Seems like NI really shot themselves in their own foot. Apparently they are using a homegrown toolkit for development, which is severely limited. How they could have let themselves be stuck on this when they created Traktor Pro is beyond me, but they seem to be clinging on to monolithic proprietary software development philosophy that is really bogging down their otherwise brilliant ideas and execution.
I dunno about that really. The idea of moving objects is like many of the more (not the right word here) radical ideas for the software, they get limited requests for them and despite those request being good ones the masses dont actually really care about them.
I guess that the average DJ (not producer or DJ/producer etc) wants all the software there all the time so they dont throw there weight behind such a feature.
Its like the whole Cover Art feature. People went on and on about this and as far as i can see the only really good use anyone has made for it is using colour codes for Harmonic Mixing. Cover Art has been a giant waste of time for me.
There a guy over at the forum right now complaining that 28 FX is not enough and he wants like 10 more reverbs and 10 more delays etc. He is totally forgetting that its DJ software not production software. And yes, add more stuff its applicable but there is nothing wrong with pointing out that it IS dj software. Its not being close minded or closed to advancements its simply recognising what the software is for and what the majority use it for.
I think I have yet to meet a DJ that didn’t complain about the preference window (especially for MIDI mapping) in Traktor Pro. Same goes for the lack of general movability and fixed size of UI elements. Anyways the point is, I have a hard time believing that given the many many open source and affordable proprietary toolkits that provide all of this natively, that it actually makes business sense for them to do their own thing. And no .. there is no excuse for their preference window .. none. Its simply a technical limitation they have burdened themselves with and as a result their customers. And having a 13" laptop and not being able to fill the little screen-real-estate I have because things are fixed size and unmoveable is also a hard sell as a “feature”.
But I digress .. sorry ..
I do agree that a 15" is probably the best choice.
I completely agree about the Preference window. Its ridiculous.
i have a 13" and I love it, keep in that I still use Traktor 3 so I dont have anyproblem with the screen size. I have traktor pro and I really dont have too much of a problem, the only thing is that my playlist are kinda smaller that T3.
Just my dos pesos!
I would say the 17" is just generally too big, and the screen on the 13" is just too small for anything apart from checking your email.
Also remember that its harder to find a good bag for a 17" and all the rest of you gigging gear.
I use a 13 in macbook pro and recently switched to traktor. Serato there were no issues because serato is basic layout nothing indepth to look at. Traktor is a little bit hard to see (effects, gridding, and browser space is a little small.) If I could afford the 15 inch i wouldve gotten it. If you can get it, a 15 would be perfect.
I haven’t minded my 13" MBP for TP, though I’ve been only using 2 decks (with timecode, so I have the status thing up too). I’ll probably hate it when I switch to 4, but we’ll find out.
15" if can afford it then innit…
I want to buy a small laptop.which have a good functionality and less in weight.which laptop I should buy?I have Sony Vaio cs 19 right now.But I am not setisfied with my laptop.I want more attractive laptop in small size.Please suggest me a good laptop.
my turntables weigh twelve pounds each, i can’t even imagine having to cart around my music contents if they were on vinyl.. to think about that, then read mostly everyone say a 17" laptop is too much to carry, hahah damn the game is taking shape, we’ve takin out side the box & made it so it can fit in one..
one main advantages to a 17" laptop, If you have poor eye sight (like me) or If you have drunk goggs on (like most dj’s)
There are 13.3" screens that come in greater than 1280x800. Sony’s Vaio Z series is under 3.5lb and has a 1600x900 screen.
If you’re getting a laptop, get the lightest one that fulfills your needs. Nothing over 4lb,otherwise you’ll start to hate lugging it around and you’ll miss out on having it handy.
well a smaller laptop also means people see more of you .. then again if the res is soo high that you are squinting to read whats on the screen, they see more of you looking st your screen.
check my signature for a workaround 
Midi-Controllers should give you more visual feedback of what is happening, so you dont have to look at the laptop screen too much. Then even a 13" one is enough for 4 decks if you switch between the 4-deck-layout and the only-browser layout.
But this naturally also depends on the laptop’s position, even a 17" won’t help you if its a few meters away ^^ . So better buy a laptop stand 
sure .. the X1 is going into that direction for TP. if i always set my loops from my MIDI controller then i could also ensure that i get proper visual feedback (especially if i include bome midi translator). however you still need those waveforms etc. all the more reason to let us choose what we want control over what is displayed so that we can make sure we only see on the screen what we need, like 4 gigantic waveforms or whatever.