So your thinking about becoming a Digital DJ and don't know where to start. Feeling overwhelmed about the many choices, or you may even be asking what are my choices. Well, you are not alone; most of us that have become Digital DJ's have faced the same questions you may be asking yourself. Unfortunately, there are no clear-cut answers to your questions. Although I don’t have all the answers, I have decided to try and give an overview to possibly help resolve some of the questions that arise when contemplating the move to Digital DJ’ing. This is Part 1 of “So You Want To Be A Digital DJ”. Anyone that may have any additional input please feel free to respond here on the Board, e-mail or PM me.
So let’s get started, initially you will need a computer; there are 3 choices you can choose from, a desktop, laptop or rack mount. In general, Desktops are bulky and take several trips to carry into the venue; they also take up more room on your DJ table. Pro’s, Desktop computers have more memory, bigger hard drives and better soundcard and video cards. Laptops are small and compact requiring only one trip into the venue, but usually lag behind in technology with smaller amounts of memory, smaller hard drives and bare minimum sound and video cards. Rack mounts are computers that are mounted inside your portable rack and usually have all the mainstream features of desktops. At this point rack mount computers are costly unless you build one yourself. (Rack mount model examples can be seen here
http://www.visiosonic.com/Products/DJRak.asp)
Before you decide which type of computer you will purchase you should decide on what software programs you might use. Each software program requires different minimum requirements and you should pay attention to those requirements to help prevent problems later. Most software program web sites have their own forum board that deal with specific issues that its users are encountering. Reading and searching these boards will give you some insight into the products problems and in some cases how to resolve specific issues.
One of the most important aspects, (in my opinion) of purchasing a computer is hard drive space. You need to have a big hard to carry your MP3's. I would not settle for anything less than a 120GB hard drive. This will allow for future expansion of your music library and allow you to convert your music at any bit rate. Generally, a 60GB hard drive will hold about 15,000 MP3's converted at 128kbps.
Memory also plays a big role when selecting a computer. Again, each software program details minimum requirements that it needs to run properly. As computers progress, we find that manufacturers are including bigger amounts of memory and basic operating systems are taking better advantage of installed memory. Keep in mind that desktops and rack mounts will have more memory than laptops. I, personally, would never buy a computer with less than 256Meg of memory.
Although there are many brands of computers on the market, there are only a few types of processors that most manufacturers install, Intel, AMD, and Cryix. Again, each software program utilizes the processors code in different ways. Some software programs don’t run well with AMD processors and others do run well. The preferred processor for MP3 software is Intel and programmers are able to take better advantage of the codes these processors use. Again, each software program requires different minimum requirements and you should pay attention to those requirements.
Soundcards are another big consideration when deciding what to purchase. There are many soundcards available on today’s market, SoundBlaster, Maya, Turtle, Gigaport and the list goes on and on. Soundcard preference will be at the discretion of the manufacturer of the software program, so, again, you should consider what software program you might use and research what the program manufacturer considers as the preferred soundcard.
Right now, there are about 16 different MP3 software programs on the market, I am sure there is more, I’ll search them out and next week I will try to outline the MP3 software available and provide web site links to each of the programs. Until then!
Have a Happy Digital Day!
[ January 09, 2003, 06:57 PM: Message edited by: BillyT ]
So You Want To Be A Digital DJ (Part 1)
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