what laptop should I buy for digital DJing?

January 8, 2006 1:18 AM

I need a laptop that will handle Ableton 5, and possibly (in the future) some VJ software. I'm considering a Powerbook - or should I go Windows?

So basically, this NYE I was djing a party (with Ableton 5) on my POS desktop replacement laptop, with an external HD. I didn't use (surge) protection, and poof - there goes 4 weeks of work importing gigabytes and gigabytes of CDs, and marking the mp3s for explicit content (I also DJ on the radio, so this was/is a must). I've come to the realization that I need a real music laptop, not some hand-me-down office jockey steez.

1. I'm going to be DJing, so reliability is a must. I'm best with Windows but am competent to proficient with Macs, so should I believe the hype and go Powerbook? Or is there some windows machine that will work okay for live situations?

2. I want portable, not powerless. Functionality+power+screen real estate is worth a tiny bit of inconvenience in extra weight/size factor to me, as I won't use this for menial things like note taking in class. But I don't want a brick. What is a good size compromise for me? Should I go 15", 17", widescreen? And I'm semi-careful, but things happen when raging partiers start drinking - what about ruggedness?

3. I have a firewire Audiophile, so I'll need at least one FW port.

4. I don't care about watching DVDs, playing games, doing office work, or really much else other than DJing. (and maybe in the future some VJing? any pointers on this?) A bit of web dev and coding and graphic design, but I think that's covered on any platform.

5. I don't mind getting under the hood of the thing to more cheaply add hardware (RAM, HD, etc) upgrades, and I understand that this is easier on a PC than a Mac notebook...

6. I don't want to say that price is no issue, but I feel like this is one area where skimping is going to cost me in the long run. I may be cheap, but I'm not that cheap. Plus maybe I can make some of this money back doing parties again...

So I guess my very specific question is this: given the above background, what platform/model/specifications should I look at? I'm looking to buy this within the next few weeks, I suppose.

I really like Ableton, but I don't do much with it other than DJ and such. If anyone knows of a better/alternative/interesting software setup that doesn't require a lot of extra outboard equipment for basic functionality, let me know. Traktor?

posted by dihutenosa to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

As a Mac guy, I would recommend an iBook for your purposes definitely. I certainly don't think you need to pay for a widescreen or 17" music is you're main purpose for that but that is a personal choice of course. But there has been about a million threads here about laptops and mac/windows issues so go through those and make your choice based on that. I've had a million troubles with Windows just last week only that I cannot but wholeheartedly recommend a proper computer, as the Mac is. :) (sorry for non-believers)
posted by keijo at 2:29 AM on January 8, 2006

I've been running Ableton 5 for a couple of months on a new Acer 1.6 MhZ laptop with 1G RAM. It's working well, but I don't play live so I haven't put it to the real test. It's got a wide screen, which is a pleasure since I can get more tracks on screen and see a bigger portion of a clip to set loop boundaries and Warp markers.

In my experience, the biggest source of instability is the soundcard drivers. I'm running an M-Audio Fasttrack, and on my older laptop I got much better results with the ASIO4ALL drivers, but on my newer laptop the M-Audio drivers work better. You probably want to check the M-Audio and Ableton support forums to see whether people are having driver problems on Macs.

Also, get another HDD, set up a backup plan, and stick to it!
posted by fuzz at 5:11 AM on January 8, 2006

Just something to keep in mind - there's heavy rumor that Apple will be announcing Powerbook updates on Tuesday (If I remember correctly), so if you do decide to go down the Powerbook path, I would wait and see what the fallout from that is before making any purchases.
posted by jcruden at 7:25 AM on January 8, 2006

I've got a Dell Inspiron 700m (widescreen, can't live without it in Live - it's small and portable and it has that firewire port you want) that I use for DJ'ing with Live 5. I've taken it out of the house a few times; the first time I had problems where Live freaked out around every 20-25 minutes; everything after that was flawless. Here's what I use and what works well for me:

First of all, I have everything on a two-tiered keyboard stand, like this one. The laptop is on the top tier (and strapped on for safety.) On the main, I've taken a three foot or so shelf plank from a bookcase that you buy at Office Depot and heavy-duty velcro'd that to the stand. I also have velcro on my controller. This way, you have a little work area, a place for your drink, your external mouse (a MUST), etc. Plus, if you have the rowdy dancers and they bump into your rig and you got a little rock to your roll, it's all going to be sturdy and not come tumping down on you when you are able to grab it all with two fingers as opposed to 8 hands.

I use the M-Audio Evolution MK-461C as my controller. It's waaaaaay unorthodox, but it works. And it looks good. I've got knobs, sliders, and most of all, I've got five octaves of keys I can assign to anything - be it commands, filters, or, what I like to do, assign a few octaves to certain breaks, fills, stabs and samples to really give the performance an organic feel to it. I was never trained as a piano player, but it's very smooth moving your hands across the keyboard to make the music come out. (as a sidenote, I've considered swapping out the MK-461C for a UC-33e and a Belkin Nostromo n52 keypad - to look more awesome)

I run XP and make sure to turn all of the unnecessary services for sound & etc off (do you really NEED wireless or automatic updates when you're gigging?)

I have an external 40 GB USB hard drive (laptop hard drive in a cheap USB case) that runs off of bus power which handles all of my music. This is, again for safety, velcro'd to the top of the plank. (There is also a powered USB hub velcro'd to the bottom of the plank).

I had to upgrade the laptop to 1.25GB RAM to ensure no problems. I see some CPU spikes to around 40-50% but nothing gets out of control (even when running EQ and a filter on each of my four main channels and a couple random effects on the main output like Beat Repeat - my favorite.)

I know it's sacrilege, but I use the headphone out (!) for my audio out. Reason I do that, I've recently been playing through a small PA (powered 15"s setup) outdoors, so pristine sound quality isn't my biggest concern right now. Maybe later on I'll add a M-Audio Audiophile breakout box.

All said and done, my rig (ie not including a PA) breaks down in 3 minutes, fits in a laptop bag and two armloads. Two trips to the car, max. Fits easily in the back seat or trunk area.

I think what you need to do most is start reading around on the Ableton forum, which I've found to be a great resource for learning the best way to do things. I don't know anything about VJ'ing (that would be neat, I've considered taking that next step and learning about that too, but .. ah) but I know they discuss that at times on the forum.

posted by kuperman at 9:47 AM on January 8, 2006

Also, something I forgot (as in, I haven't done this) - if you're going to have a dedicated music laptop, I would suggest (not absolutely necessary) swapping the internal hard drive from the almost guaranteed 5400 RPM base model to a 7200 RPM drive. It's a little pricey right now, but if track load time is very important to you and you're using mp3s (not WAV), it might be something to look into.
posted by kuperman at 9:51 AM on January 8, 2006

Also, get some sort of surge protection / UPS and backup your data.
posted by bshort at 10:20 AM on January 8, 2006

Response by poster: Everyone, thanks for the answers. I think my ideas have changed a bit after getting the news of the new Macbooks.

kuperman, I definitely appreciate your outlining your approach. One small question if you're still monitoring this thread: if you're using your headphone out, how do you cue up tracks? The reason that I have the firewire audio interface is so that I can play one track while I'm cueing up another over the headphones, which (to me) is fairly essential to make sure everything flows optimally, etc etc. Do you have another solution that I'm totally missing?

And I definitely recommend the UC-33e. It's a tiiiny bit plasticky, but it works well and the knobs and faders make everything a lot more fun to tweak.

And yes, I do need to get a UPS solution, and a backup plan is definitely crucial. Thanks, everyone!
posted by dihutenosa at 11:20 PM on January 11, 2006