any experience with laptops in a club!

maze23a · Post by **maze23a** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 6:17 pm

Has any one experience with taking a laptop to the club.
I mean if you're booked or something.

Is it problem sometimes caus you have to take out the
main mixer to connect your stuff?

I'm from a smaller town in germany and
i've never seen a deejay working here with a laptop.

How is it anywhere else?

How reacts an owner of a club if you tell him you'll bring your lapi?

Greetings to everybody
Maze

blakejarrell · Post by **blakejarrell** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 7:29 pm

you should be able to run you laptop through the mixer they have at the club, through the auxillary input of a channel etc. its better this way because youll be asured that your running your signal through whatever compressors or limiters they have on the club system. youll also be able to use the monitors that are connected to the mixer. just make sure you bring and rca cable and some adaptors

blakejarrell · Post by **blakejarrell** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 7:39 pm

you also should take into account the people that are playing before and after you. do you really want to piss off another dj because you took apart the whole booth needlessly? do you really want to possibly create "down-time" between sets and lose that dancefloor?

if i were you i would just make sure they have a mixer that you can plug into, and a turntable cover. when i play every saturday, all i have to do is plug my soundcard into the mixer channel auxilarry, and set my laptop on top of one of the turntables with the cover on (make sure the turntable is powered off, because no one really knows if the magnets in turntables can really affect your hard drive, at least everyone that ive asked) and also make sure the monitors are not touching your laptop as they 1. have magnets also, 2. can vibrate your hard drive apart.

when your done, the following dj can mix out of your set because you are running through the mixer, and all you have to do is lift your laptop and quickly unplug it from the mixer.

galo · Post by **galo** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 8:48 am

do you use a controller blake

blakejarrell · Post by **blakejarrell** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:57 pm

yes a m audio o2 which fits conviently on top of my laptop, nice and snug, and doesnt touch and keys.

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 3:24 am

yeah, always be sure to bring more than you think you need, at least until you are familiar with the club. You don't want to be stuck in a situation of not having the right cable or adaptor to get your sound into the mix.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 11:24 am

I'e never had any issues, just connect to the CD inputs on the mixer. Good call on the bringing more cables than you need. I keep a bag with me that has pretty much every known audio adaptor I can get my hands on. Saved my ass a few times.

1/4" to RCA
RCA to 1/4"
1/8" to 1/4"
Mono to stereo 1/4"
Etc.

Very cheap if you got to Radio Shack or Tandy, etc.

DJALEX · Post by **DJALEX** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 5:53 pm

Tarekith wrote:I'e never had any issues, just connect to the CD inputs on the mixer. Good call on the bringing more cables than you need. I keep a bag with me that has pretty much every known audio adaptor I can get my hands on. Saved my ass a few times.

1/4" to RCA
RCA to 1/4"
1/8" to 1/4"
Mono to stereo 1/4"
Etc.

Very cheap if you got to Radio Shack or Tandy, etc.

Hey dude...... is not the same?? 1/4 to RCA and RCA to 1/4??!!

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 6:51 pm

I believe he was talking about adaptors. So you might need an adaptor to go from 1/4" to RCA, or you might need an adaptor to go form RCA to 1/4". Two different adaptors.
Basically you want an emergency kit with every convceivable adaptor and cable you could ever possibly need.
A show I played last week, I thought I would need a 30 ft. MIDI cable and only a 10 ft. audio cable....turns out I needed a 5 ft. MIDI cable and 40 ft. of audio cable. Fortunately we were able to rig it up by chaining together several different cables with multiple types of couplers, which all introduced noise, but was better than not having sound at all!

moostapha · Post by **moostapha** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:25 pm

I've seen 2 people using laptops in clubs: Sasha and Paul van Dyk.

Sasha had all his stuff set up before anyone was allowed in the club and ran the maven's audio interface into one of the channels on the house Xone:92.

pvd plugged his FS2 box into the mixer before anyone was allowed in, along with the external power. The opener just played on turntables like a normal DJ and ignored the box. When it was time for pvd to come on (or just a bit before), he plugged the FS2 box into his powerbook and swiched from the phono thru inputs to the line inputs from the box. It was absolutely seemless when his first "record" dropped.

If you're worried about it an using Live, what you could do is program your first 2 or 3 songs with follow actions and clip envelopes, plug in one input quickly and start playing them...and use the time to get everything else set up...if you really have to.

olafmol · Post by **olafmol** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:50 am

the big problem is that the big-name DJs all have their riders where they can demand all kinds of stuff and setups without any problem...but as a regular gigging DJ you just have to make do... the best you can do is check out in advance with the promoter and/or club-owner if there is a space to put a laptop, plus the possibility to connect your soundcard into the available DJ mixer (some of them are build in etc.)

Olaf

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:13 am

ethios4 wrote:I believe he was talking about adaptors. So you might need an adaptor to go from 1/4" to RCA, or you might need an adaptor to go form RCA to 1/4". Two different adaptors.
Basically you want an emergency kit with every convceivable adaptor and cable you could ever possibly need.

Yes, exactly what I was referring to, thanks.

pulse · Post by **pulse** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 3:21 pm

I am doing both djset and live(band) with the same setup (rack with notebook (Dell), quatafire (esi), controller, and mixer (djm300).

and I plug in the existing PA of the club or in DI for gigs.

Nice thing : during the last gig we were jumping on stage and the drummer was also making "interferences" so that the rack with the notebook was really under strong "turbulences". We played 40 minutes with no problems (no jump in the sound or stop or whatever you can imagine). Just think to use a 7200 rpm HD and then you are safe (my songs use no more than 10 tracks (wavs), maybe with big files and vsti you can have probs ?)

I use this setup also to change my guitar pattern and believe me it is a dream for a singer/guitarist to have the sounds changed automatically (via MIDI) !!!

Nokatus · Post by **Nokatus** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 2:06 pm

blakejarrell wrote:(make sure the turntable is powered off, because no one really knows if the magnets in turntables can really affect your hard drive, at least everyone that ive asked) and also make sure the monitors are not touching your laptop as they 1. have magnets also, 2. can vibrate your hard drive apart.

About the magnet thing: no, these magnets do not have enough power to harm your hard drive. "The only magnets powerful enough to scrub data from a drive platter are laboratory degaussers or those used by government agencies to wipe bits off media. In the real world, people are not losing data from magnets, says Bill Rudock, a tech-support engineer with hard-drive maker Seagate."

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116572,00.asp

subterFUSE · Post by **subterFUSE** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:06 pm

(make sure the turntable is powered off, because no one really knows if the magnets in turntables can really affect your hard drive, at least everyone that ive asked) and also make sure the monitors are not touching your laptop as they 1. have magnets also, 2. can vibrate your hard drive apart.

Also.... even IF the magents were powerful enough... turning off the turntable would do nothing.

They are not electro-magnets. They are just magnets. The turntable magnets don't have an on/off functonality.