This old topic has been revised recently, after discussions with an Electronics Manufacturer in the U.S, I am currently discussing with him the viability of producing a Dedicated Dual MP3 Player on a similar design to that of a Dual Cd Player.

Please read This Thread and let me have your thoughts, comments, suggestions on this idea

Hi everyone
I am from the manufacturer referred to in Chris's email.
Actually, we are located in Cape Town, South Africa.
We are a startup, called Polygon Technologies, and we aim to develop equipment to fill small niche markets such as DJ mp3 players. We come from a background in developing electronics for the military, so quality and dependability is all there.

I have been talking to Chris, and we are presently discussing the viability of developing a dual-mp3 system using a Hard drive, especially for DJ use. Please come forth with your wishlists, let us see what are the market needs.

The basic features of the envisioned system are:
* 19" Rackmount case
* Integrated Power supply
* single Harddrive (3.5" / 2.5" / CompactFlash - User upgadeable, removable)
* capacity upto 120Gb
* 2 seperate stereo output channels
* support for winamp playlists
* multiple editable cuepoints, loops
* support for a PS2 keyboard, allowing easy searching, navigation of the drive.
* USB2.0 port for FAST uploading of songs.
* Backlit, High-contrast LCD (White-on-black)
* possibly pitch control
* --insert your feature here--

I am looking forward to hearing from you guys

regards
Carel Hauptfleisch

Hi Carel,
This all sounds good. Would the control panel be separate from the MP3 hard drive as with most DJ CD players at present?
Good luck with the development.
Paul S

Hi Carel,

I presume you've read the other thread on here which was discussing this subject, if not click here
i put quite a few idea's/requests on that thread, and i'm very interested to see what you come up with, as I'm no fan of Bill gates products

Paul,

Yes, the format we are discussing will aim to directly replace any conventional CD Player. Or maybe not "replace" completely, but at least be in the same format. Namely 19" x 2U rack mount case for the Main Drive unit and the similar for the actual control panel. Connection between the two will be either Mini Din or "D" style connectors, depending on the number of cores for the data transfer which Carel requires for the units to "talk" to each other

QUOTE

Actually, we are located in Cape Town, South Africa.

Sorry, my mistake - we were talking in USD so I just naturally assumed that you were US based - totally forgetting that a large majority of countries trade in "$"'s.

Come on folks!, here is the opportunity of you having some input on a possible new product - let's here all of those useful features that you've always wanted .

Thanks for that Chris
Two other points come to mind. I read somewhere in the earlier planning that the unit would have 2 hard drives but see in the current spec it will only have one. My main reason for buying such a unit would be to save lugging hundreds of CDs with me - however I always like to have a back up. I hoped this would be a 2nd hard drive otherwise I'd still have to carry the CDs.
The 2nd point concerns karaoke, obviously adding lots of extra features increases cost, but could it be possible to have a video card as an optional extra for CDGs & CDVs?
Paul S

Hi Guys;

WOW....what a great sounding piece of kit!

Coming as I do, from the computer side of the fence as opposed to the DJ side, I wonder if I could add my tuppence worth.....??

USB 2.0, whilst being a fast and reliable means of transporting large amounts of data is already superceded by firewire, which would be a faster transport protocol, (called IEEE1394.b) being able to move upwards of 800 Mbp/s as opposed to the max of 480 Mbp/s that USB 2.0 offers.

Firewire is the protocol normally used for uploading the HUGE files associated with video editing, (for instance) and I would suggest this would suit the transport of MP3 files just as well. As an added bonus, firewire is hot-swappable and plug & play compatible, (as is USB 2.0) so the only issue I can see is speed of data-transfer, and IEEE 1394b wins hands down.


Two hard drives has a number of advantages over the cheaper alternative of using only a single hard drive and 2x120Gig drives does not necessarily mean 240Gig of physical storage.

If used correctly, a matched pair of hard drives would "Stripe" store data, that is to say that drive C: is exactly mirrored by drive D:, (a tad slower but not that it would be noticeable for run-of-the-mill DJ work). Primary advantage using striping is when one of the drives "goes down", data is not lost as it can be retrieved from the second drive, allowing you to coin the term, "the show must go on". Also, imagine using a single drive to store your 120Gig of MP3's, only to find that the drive goes "kaput" and in the process one or more of the internal "platters" gets damaged/corrupted, resulting in a drive full of MP3's which can not be retrieved, (except by using some serious industry strength "data-recovery" bods, and paying the comensurate (extortionate) rates.

Just my thoughts. Hope you don't mind.

Regards

Yanto

QUOTE

If used correctly, a matched pair of hard drives would "Stripe" store data, that is to say that drive C: is exactly mirrored by drive D:

Sorry Yanto but Raid mode 0 "STRIPE" is where the 2 disks act as 1 large disk allowing file to start on 1 disk and finish on the other. The advantages of this is speed and disk size.

What you are refering to is Raid mode 1 "mirror" where disk 1 and disk 2 are exact copies of each other. There is also no reason why this system should be slower if the 2 disks are on seperate channels.

Dicky

I've just noticed in Carel1's post of features...

QUOTE

* possibly pitch control

I'm not presuming to speak for everyone, but for me...thats a must...prefereably with Keylock/key adjust to stop the Darth Vaders and Chipmunks as you slow it down or speed it up. I would say that 16% +/- would be a good pitch range. I think, but again, not presuming that desire for this otherwise excellent device might be somewhat lower, than if the unit offered Pitch control on each "deck".

Also...being able to back-cue....eg: hear a drum beat, or vocal that you want to start playing from, hit Pause, and then be able to slowly and very accurately wind backwards to get just in front of that beat/vocal that you wanted.

I am keen to see the final result....good luck boys.

A few models later, though, could we have.....

By making use of an old Commodore Amiga 500 or Atari 1040ST shell case, couldn't you add your components and strip out the old except the TV or monitor out?
Leave in the audio outs and hey presto - a device with built in keyboard!!!
Add a network card and it's jam on toast!!!

Seriously.......I would LOVE one with

Optical In / Out sound card for hard disk recording.
Expandability.

QUOTE (discodirect @ Jun 24 2003, 01:54 AM)

A few models later, though, could we have..... By making use of an old Commodore Amiga 500 or Atari 1040ST shell case, couldn't you add your components a device with built in keyboard!!!

This idea may not be as silly as it looks .

It would be a good project for using a "VIA EPIA M-Series Mini-ITX Mainboard " these boards are tiny and have everything onboard proc/video/sound, it should fit into the amigas case along with a laptop Hd and possibly a laptop slimline cd drive if the floppy was removed from the Amiga case ...


Hmmm,, these boards are small enough to fit inside a cigar box or biscuit tin , maybe that would be easier LOL

Here is a link to the specs of this liitle board for anyone who is interested

http://tinyurl.com/72br

HI Dicky;

Ahem.....my bad....

I got mirrored in there somewhere.

Terminology meltdown !

Regards

Yanto!

So is this an all in one dual cd player and mp3 player ? It would really need pitch control, auto play and auto mix feature, bpm counters, the usual displays time remaining etc. The display screen could be user definable so I could choose what went where with the ability for macros so I could program everything and sit on my arse all night with a beer !!!

Is this being designed for mobile use or club and mobile!!

Why not put all the components into a 19" 2u rack mountable unit (easily done) using the raid 1 mirror 2 x 120 gig HD's, a decent sound card a ton of memory and using the DAC controller for the pcdj software, or there is another one for another program but i think they are compatable with other programs anyways,
Job done!
Now make a prototype
i bet someone already has
The DAC conroller costs a bit though.
I thought about doing this before but never really had the need to do so but a nice project to work on.

Now i read all the other posts, You dont want it tobe pc based. sorry

QUOTE (TymmyD @ Jul 18 2003, 05:12 PM)

Now i read all the other posts, You dont want it tobe pc based. sorry

NO WINDOZE ON THIS DESIGN THANK YOU!!!!