New MacBook Pro Unibody 15"
2.53 GHz and 4GB memory
500GB (7200rpm) hard drive
LaCie Rugged 500GB (7200rpm) external hard drive
Some kind of gig bag
Black Vestax VCI100 (with firmware and overlay from DTT)
Traktor Pro
Audio 2 DJ
Sennheiser HD-25
I am mainly looking for peoples reccommendations/advice/criticism on my choice of laptop. It won’t just be a ‘music’ laptop it will be used for everything, DJing and the usual student stuff like work processing, DVDs, internet etc
Someone advised me to get a 13" for the portability but im worried without the 7200rpm hard drive, and smaller screen normal and also DJ use will not be as efficient…
I use a 13", from the newest line its just a few months old, and have never had any problems with it, screen has been excellent and more than suitable for use.
To be honest I would save that wee bit of money and go for an Audio 4 or 8. I realise that most of the time you will be mixing internally with the VCI but always handy to have that extra flexability to do monitor or recording outs, or the very odd time you have to mix externally as i had to do at my usual club spot on Saturday as we had a guest DJ who used CD’s and i couldn’t life the CDJ’s out of the way to make room for my VCi like i normally do.
And to be honest I personally would keep it as a DJing only laptop and get a cheap netbook for basic stuff like word processing and the net etc. While mac’s are far less susceptible to it than PC’s it is still possible to mess up some of your settings while using other programs and not realise, and then turn up to a gig only to find things aren’t behaving the way they should.
there is an idea that you can set up different users on the laptop for djing and work/other stuff, so you don’t have to worry about messing up settings. my advice would be to make the djing one the administrator account, and when installing stuff, only install it for the user you’re currently using, unless it could really benefit both users.
Ive got the LaCie Rugged . Its fricking awesome. But i only use it as a backup.
Youve got a great internal Drive. Use it.
Using the Lacie means one more piece of crap to carry one more lead in the bag one more thing to get broken.
Dont sweat the Macbook Pro. I use mine for everything ,design work, email, Office and i DJ 4 nites a week and its 2 years old.
The Audio 2 is good enuff , its not tough so if you throw stuff about like i do then maybe go for a metal soundcard but if all you want is 2 channels to mix internally the A2 is the nuts.
I used a 12" iBook for a few year and im now using a 15" MBP. Id be hesitant about a 13" but that cus im ususally looking through drunken eyes !!!
Yeah . I use the Presonus Firebox 99% of the time.
FireWire is a beautiful thing when it comes to soundcards. Its got Midi as well so what more could you ask for. Its bloody loud as well.
Using the 2.66Ghz MBP for everything myself, that with an Audio4DJ. Bought the last one so I would not have to be that careful with it.
(If you’ve got the cash, buy stuff that is rugged as hell)