Laptop Required for Ots DJ'ing.

[BigBen 0]

I'm in the market for a new laptop. Does anyone have any good or bad things to say about any brand/model that can help me narrow the field down a bit?

 

Do you all use onboard sound via line out or headphones?

Does anyone use digital (Optical) out?

 

Having reviewed the Ots Forum there are suggestions to use PCMCIA soundcards or USB. Anybody any thoughts or preferences in this area?

 

Minefield ahead... http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/stupid.gif

[DJ Marky Marc 0]

I have 2 used Toshiba SP6100 P4 laptops with 512MB RAM and 40GB hard disc and 15" screen, wifi and USB and all that jazz , windows XP PRO licenced all for £299 each if your interested

[YourBigEvent 0]

Give me a call after 10pm tonight on my mobile, I'll call you back, as I am driving back from Bristol !

[FDDJ 0]

Rather than try and sell you something i'll try and answer your question... http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/tongue.gif

 

I am using an Acer machine which I choose because of it's excellent features/spec to price ratio.

 

I find it very robust and would suggest looking at a similar style machine that has really been designed and tested for life on the road (think IBM Thinkpad).

 

Some laptops are very light but flimsy and will fail after the slightest shock. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/nono.gif

 

I use a Maya USB sound card for the main output and think it really does add to the quality of the sound. I then use the onboard sound card for the cue channel.

 

I would suggest buying a laptop with as many USB/Firewire ports as possible to allow plenty of room to add extra storage.

 

Did you end up going down the Exact Audio Copy + Flac route?

 

I did (thanks RichardP) and it was definately the right decision. I am now building up digital copies of all my tracks, fully tagged, with the same audio quality as a CD but 25% smaller than a Wav file.

 

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/headphone.gif

Edited July 13, 2006 by StevJam

[vibemobilediscos 0]

the only thing i would recomend is as much ram as possiable and big hard drive/ powerful processor!

 

i use apple myslef, no faults and never crash's.

 

all depeds on you budget, do you have one?

 

allways use an external sound card on laptop! even a hurculeys (cant spell) dj consol is a half decent sound card (usb - windows firewire - mac)

 

let us know your budget and ill see what there is...

 

ell

[otronics 0]

I'd say:

 

1 or 2MB cache memory

1GB RAM

3GHz processor

Decent graphics

Motherboard with USB etc

External soundcard IS A MUST!!!.......

 

Digigram..........OK, these are internal and can cost well beyond £1000 but hey!

[YourBigEvent 0]

QUOTE

1 or 2MB cache memory 1GB RAM 3GHz processor Decent graphics Motherboard with USB etc External soundcard IS A MUST!!!.......

 

Rubbish !

 

192 is enough, 256 is nice, 512 is normal

P2 166MMX is fast enough for Ots

Low Graphics card as there are no graphic required

Internal soundcard OK

[McCardle 1]

i to use ots dj and have two laptops i do not know the exact spec of them but they are more than 5 years old and no more than about 600mhz i am not to technical when it comes to gigabytes all i know is that it has worked without fault at 2 -3 gigs a week for half a decade

Edited July 14, 2006 by McCardle

[pareshj 0]

Actually I have just updgraded some of my kit and now selling my Laptop and MAYA 44 USB soundcard if you are interested. It's an ACER Travelmate 420. It's been working fine for me for the last 5 years and I would continue to use it but now that I've moved to a widescreen laptop now, I've also been updating my software to work in the widerscreen mode. I have 2 power adapters with it - one used in the dj coffin case and one in my study. Ideal as I don't have to rip out the power from the case everytime I need to use it. It's got plenty of USB sockets, about 30gb HDD, 1gb RAM & p4 cpu not sure what ghz)

Heres the manual for it

 

On-board sound is crackling but I never used it for that as the MAYA soundcard did the job. It's a Maya 44 USB

PM if you're interested

 

 

 

[BigBen 0]

Well, thanks to a very good friend this problem has now been resolved. I am the proud owner of a brand new IBM ThinkPad R60. The price was just too good to turn down!

 

Anyway, what convinced me about this model was Gary's comments about processors working so hard to play highly encoded MP3's. The dual core processor this machine has will hopefully alleviate some of these worries. It should run cooler...

 

I got two Western Digital 500GB external disks too - less than 10ms access time, 16mb buffer, 7,200rpm and with both USB2 and firewire 400 ports it should cover most requirements. These are less than £200.

 

With the latest version of Ots installed, when they finally release it, laptop nirvana is just around the corner....

 

I'm now deciding on the best way to take sound out of the laptop and into the mixer - here. Thanks for all your comments guys!

Edited July 14, 2006 by BigBen

[buskersball 0]

Just a word of advice....I would also use an external LCD screen (doesn't have to be dear), the reason being is that I had a laptop where the screen failed half way through the gig! ...one of the most embarrassing moments ever. Apparently it was an intermittent fault on the back light (can't remember the exact name). Anyway since that day I've always used another screen...then at least I know if a fault does develop I can always revert to the laptop screen (and thus I am keeping the laptop screen virtually as new). I have reached the stage now where I also carry an old 15" monitor in the back of the van just in case of complete disaster!

I'm surprised no-one seems to have mentioned this...maybe I was just unlucky...but it was so embarrassing, wouldn't want anyone else to go through it :o)

[YourBigEvent 0]

QUOTE

Just a word of advice....I would also use an external LCD screen (doesn't have to be dear), the reason being is that I had a laptop where the screen failed half way through the gig! ...one of the most embarrassing moments ever. Apparently it was an intermittent fault on the back light (can't remember the exact name). Anyway since that day I've always used another screen...then at least I know if a fault does develop I can always revert to the laptop screen (and thus I am keeping the laptop screen virtually as new). I have reached the stage now where I also carry an old 15" monitor in the back of the van just in case of complete disaster! I'm surprised no-one seems to have mentioned this...maybe I was just unlucky...but it was so embarrassing, wouldn't want anyone else to go through it :o)

 

Just get your back up laptop asnd use that.

[otronics 0]

QUOTE

Rubbish ! 192 is enough, 256 is nice, 512 is normal P2 166MMX is fast enough for Ots Low Graphics card as there are no graphic required Internal soundcard OK

 

Rubbish!

 

Might as well go full hog as you can get it cheap as chips these days.

 

You can't buy a new PC with low spec easily now for obvious reasons.

 

Internal soundcard is NOT OK http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/fear.gif

 

The quality is poor and he amount of background noise horrible.