Ok, just recently I finally bit the bullet and bought a second laptop, yanked my duel CD player out of the box, and left all but a few select CD's home safe n sound, and went totally digital in my DJ set up.
So far, so good. But there are a few minor headaches.
Good stuff: No more CD's, period. Oh sure I still carry a small box of assorted essentials in but never really touch them anymore. My last wedding I never even opened the CD box.
Having a 2nd laptop also allows for far more options in cuing songs, setting samples and loops, etc. I always hated getting a good loop going behind a track and having to quit it early to cue up my next song.
I can also have a bit more fun with my sound bites; I can play one song, have my second cued up and ready to go, and still mix in some goofy sound effect or what have you if I feel the urge.
Also, taking my duel CD player OUT of my rig has made things a lot lighter; just one less piece of equpiment to carry.
There are a few downsides to it, though.
First up: I notice its taking me a little LONGER to set up...now I have TWO laptops to wire up, connect external drives, USB cords, line outs, etc...it becomes this rats nest of wires and cords all snaking around the table and unless its done neatly looks a total mess, plus you have to be REAL careful so that the cords dont get yanked accidently, which of course shuts down your music mid-song.
Still, I'm working the kinks out of the set up; picked up a few new rack cases (thanks Greggie C!) and with some custom improvisation made a pretty decent set up where both laptops are elevated up enough to work on without having to bend over all night.
Now if I could JUST get my stupid DAC controller to work on ONE of them...
All in all no regrets. I dont miss CD's one bit frankly, but I was never into all those mixing effects like some of you guys are anyway. I'm content enough to do simple beat matching, loop mixes & samples etc.
Laptops are getting better and better and more affordable each year. If teh one you are using now is "good enough," why NOT make the investment in a higher end model and run TWO?
Plus, with the newer model I bought handling all my OTHER programs quite easily, I delegated my old model to JUST "DJ" status and deleted a bunch of other programs OFF of it, which made PCDJ FX run a lot more smoothly than it had been recently.
Obviously the guys here who write & create this site are all DJ's and I know of others who at least check this site out from time to time, so I offer this feedback to any who were possibly thinking of taking the all digital plunge as well.
Musician's Friend is the #1 supplier of musical equipment through their awesome catalog and website. They've been around forever so go look. We get paid if you buy something so take a look and anyway we don't charge for the blog right so... have you seen our Google ADS? LOL! just kidding...no..no...seriously...did you see them?
