Ultimo Setup

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Ultimo Setup

Ok, I have been thinking very hard about this for a long time and I think I have come to a conclusion, but I just want to run it through you guys to see your opinions, thoughts, problems and solutions perhaps.

This will be my ultimate setup, I know some of you out there will think this to be overkill or I could save some money or whatever, but I like to only buy things once – I go all out or not at all

So my budget is about AU$12,000

I already have –

1 Macbook Pro 17” running OSX 10.4
1 Macbook Pro 15” running OSX 10.5
1 M-Audio Firewire 410

The 17” Macbook Pro (Herein called Mac 1) will be running Traktor (Hopefully Pro if they can sort their shit out).

The 15” Macbook Pro (Herein called Mac 2) will be running Ableton Live

Now, I want to get either –

A Xone 4D + 2 x 1D’s or

A Xone 92 + 4 x 1D’s

Either way there is no huge difference except that I will have to buy another sound card.

I want to run Traktor on Mac 1 for all the 4 decks (each having its own 1D controller) for the transport and looping and maybe a couple of effects, and run Ableton on Mac 2 for the bulk of my effects. I wanted to connect the 2 Macs via Midi over Ethernet. I don’t see the Midi clock problem being relevant as I wont be keeping the 2 programs in time per se, only a rough BPM for effects. This way the top part of the 1D’s from the 4 lineal faders up will control the effects in Ableton and everything under that will control Traktor.

The main problem I see is the actual sound routing of the 2 laptops to the mixer.
The way I see it I can either run the sound from Mac 1 (Traktor) to the Mixer and then to Mac 2 (Ableton) and then to the amp or whatever.

Or, I run the sound from Mac 1 through Mac 2 and then to the mixer

Will latency be an issue here?

Another issue is the 1D’s have troubles going through a USB hub (Powered or not) and the Macbook Pro’s only have 3 USB ports. But maybe if I send Midi over Ethernet I can plug 2 1D’s into Mac 1 and 2 1D’s into Mac 2 and have the same functionality.

And all this gear will be housed in a custom road case with built in power with surge protection and sound cards built in with all connections accessible from the outside

So what do you guys and girls think of this plan?
Any suggestions, queries, problems and solutions will be much, much appreciated :smiley:

2

I’m not a fan of these huge setups . It just seems unless you either A) Plan on lugging this around and only playing venues that will allow you to unplug the house setup and allow enough room to fit all this stuff into their DJ booth B) plan on only playing at home or C) Have the clout to have this setup as part of your rider it’s just nowhere as realistic a solution as some sort of vinyl or CD control and a basic midi controller .

3

well if i have the 4 1D’d i can just take them to a gig and use the house mixer so i will only have 4 1D’s, 2 laptops and 2 soundcards. not really that much to take

4

You can use Traktor and Ableton on the same computer just fine - i have no problems on a 17" 1920x1200 screen.

5

thats true
but i think it may be alot more stable on 2
but then again i may be wrong

6

I have absolutely no stability problems when performing - having both setups on a single computer is much more practicle than 2 pcs. You will find it probably has less latency and higher quality because the signal isnt passing though a digital to analogue converter twice and an analogue to digital converter.

7

hmmmm… that might be a better option then.
cheers

8

"
Try to see how it all goes on one pc before trying two, i think you will be happy with the results.

9

external LCD monitors are pretty cheap nowadays. I run traktor pro synced with ableton on my 17" MBP just fine, but I but I drag Ableton on to the “extended desktop” of the external monitor so i can see both at once.

10

that sounds like a good idea Phil
do you really need to see Ableton if your just using effects?

11

You don’t need it, but it can make the most wicked effects for ya.

(Think the most badass VSTfx plugin and use that on your favorite tracks. :wink: )

12

Sure, Traktor a pretty poor FX implementation - it might be better than the rest of the dj softwares implementation(yes, even those that support VSTS) but its still poor for users who know what they are doing. Ableton however has a much much much better system for effects(still not perfect but its better) so you can get really really personal.

13

I have been considering a setup similar as yours, but my desicion for now is to keep things on one pc. My though was similar as yours but I have been considering that investing on a pc+soundcard+controller only for effects is too much.

Instead I am considering in buying an external effects processor as the nice pioneer efx-1000 or 500. The 1000 has midi in-out functions.

Also I think that I will not have to worry about reliability, I don´t think the efx would fail. The big con is that you don´t have as many effects as you could have with vst ´s. But for me it would work fine.

The Xone 92 would be my choice…

14

@ tekki/bentosan

oh im not debating that. i know ableton effects are killer. i was just asking if you actually need to see the screen. i suspect not

the way i see it i already have the 2nd computer (and if i go with the 4D i already have the second soundcard) i may as well utilize it. i mean there must be some reason that Richie Hawtin uses 2 macbooks. Stability im guessing. or maybe just for looks lol

15

Nah you dont need to see the screen, you only need to see the volume meters to make sure you not peeking when applying fx.

16

There’s a Men at Work song that describes this setup…

17

thanks bento i would have never thought of that. until it peaked and distorted lol