djnutz
After 2 days of heartache, I have finally got my system tweaked to a point where it works better than I could have ever imagined. It took a lot of research, tears, an airborne wireless mouse, and a few choice profanities.
Here's how it all went down.
I began with a Compaq Presario CQ62 laptop from Walmart. It is the el-cheapo $300 lappy. It came with Windows 7 Home Premium. I got it all up and running over a year ago and things were great. A week after I got it, I bought 2 more gig of ram. Then I decided I would tweak the system a bit and I wrote a batch file that disabled unneeded services and devices then started Virtual DJ. I put this configuration on a second log in so when I booted the machine, I chose the VDJ login and everything happened automatically.
I was running two Numark Stereo I|O soundcards to handle the timecode from 2 Numark NDX 400's. I ran sound from a Numark M3 mixer.
Life was good at this point. Then last weekend one of the Stereo I|O cards decided it had enough and wasn't going to perform as it should. As luck would have it, I had gotten a phone call the week before from a friend saying he had a Native Instruments Audio 8 for sale.
So I went and picked it up Monday night.
I promptly installed the drivers and hooked it all up. That's when I began the uphill battle. Every 17-20 seconds, I would see a CPU spike of 99% according to VDJ's meter. I downloaded the Windows 7 SDK and ran test after test trying to narrow down the driver/service that was polling the CPU. Come to find out, the Audio 8 drivers (regardless of version), Windows 7, and Virtual DJ just don't like to play well together.
Since I use this machine for video and audio editing in addition to DJ'ing, I decided that I needed to have a way to run Windows 7 and XP on the same machine.
Welcome to the world of the dual boot.
I partitioned 8 gig of my main drive then installed Windows XP on that partition.
Just follow all the steps here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html
After initial testing, playing video with some of the Pete effects saw the highest spike at 50% it jumped to 80% when loading another file on the other deck.
I am blown away by how this entry level laptop performs with just a few minor changes. My only regret is not taking the plunge sooner...
Here's how it all went down.
I began with a Compaq Presario CQ62 laptop from Walmart. It is the el-cheapo $300 lappy. It came with Windows 7 Home Premium. I got it all up and running over a year ago and things were great. A week after I got it, I bought 2 more gig of ram. Then I decided I would tweak the system a bit and I wrote a batch file that disabled unneeded services and devices then started Virtual DJ. I put this configuration on a second log in so when I booted the machine, I chose the VDJ login and everything happened automatically.
I was running two Numark Stereo I|O soundcards to handle the timecode from 2 Numark NDX 400's. I ran sound from a Numark M3 mixer.
Life was good at this point. Then last weekend one of the Stereo I|O cards decided it had enough and wasn't going to perform as it should. As luck would have it, I had gotten a phone call the week before from a friend saying he had a Native Instruments Audio 8 for sale.
So I went and picked it up Monday night.
I promptly installed the drivers and hooked it all up. That's when I began the uphill battle. Every 17-20 seconds, I would see a CPU spike of 99% according to VDJ's meter. I downloaded the Windows 7 SDK and ran test after test trying to narrow down the driver/service that was polling the CPU. Come to find out, the Audio 8 drivers (regardless of version), Windows 7, and Virtual DJ just don't like to play well together.
Since I use this machine for video and audio editing in addition to DJ'ing, I decided that I needed to have a way to run Windows 7 and XP on the same machine.
Welcome to the world of the dual boot.
I partitioned 8 gig of my main drive then installed Windows XP on that partition.
Just follow all the steps here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html
After initial testing, playing video with some of the Pete effects saw the highest spike at 50% it jumped to 80% when loading another file on the other deck.
I am blown away by how this entry level laptop performs with just a few minor changes. My only regret is not taking the plunge sooner...
发表时间 Thu 29 Sep 11 @ 11:56 am
Charlie Wilson
And you still get guy building custom desktops!
Like I've been saying for the last 3 years budget laptops are now adequate for DJing.
Like I've been saying for the last 3 years budget laptops are now adequate for DJing.
发表时间 Thu 29 Sep 11 @ 1:06 pm
djnutz
I would agree Charlie, with one exception:
A budget laptop will require some knowledge and technical savvy (or the ability to learn quickly) to get it "tuned" for DJ use.
The thread about technology and DJ'ing makes me think that with all the different options for controllers, soundcards, and computer hardware and operating systems, that technology has actually made it a little more difficult. In addition to needing to know your music and how to read a crowd, there is now a whole other set of computer and technical related skills needed to configure and troubleshoot any problems that may occur.
The proof of that can be found by just reading some of the threads posted by people needing help configuring everything to work together for their specific situation. Each time, people try to help by first asking about all the specs of the individual's setup before they offer suggestions.
My advice would be for the newbies to do their homework when it comes to the computer and operating system they decide to use. Once you understand the hardware, coming up with a solution on the software side will be that much easier. Not only that, but when something fails mid-gig, what is that person going to do? Log in to the forums and post asking for help? I wouldn't leave the house without jumper cables in my car and the knowledge on how to properly use them. I would make sure I use the right fuel, etc. Similarly, when I head out to gig, I need to know my system IN AND OUT. Understanding it makes troubleshooting that much easier, especially when you add in the pressure of being on stage in the middle of a gig.
A budget laptop will require some knowledge and technical savvy (or the ability to learn quickly) to get it "tuned" for DJ use.
The thread about technology and DJ'ing makes me think that with all the different options for controllers, soundcards, and computer hardware and operating systems, that technology has actually made it a little more difficult. In addition to needing to know your music and how to read a crowd, there is now a whole other set of computer and technical related skills needed to configure and troubleshoot any problems that may occur.
The proof of that can be found by just reading some of the threads posted by people needing help configuring everything to work together for their specific situation. Each time, people try to help by first asking about all the specs of the individual's setup before they offer suggestions.
My advice would be for the newbies to do their homework when it comes to the computer and operating system they decide to use. Once you understand the hardware, coming up with a solution on the software side will be that much easier. Not only that, but when something fails mid-gig, what is that person going to do? Log in to the forums and post asking for help? I wouldn't leave the house without jumper cables in my car and the knowledge on how to properly use them. I would make sure I use the right fuel, etc. Similarly, when I head out to gig, I need to know my system IN AND OUT. Understanding it makes troubleshooting that much easier, especially when you add in the pressure of being on stage in the middle of a gig.
发表时间 Thu 29 Sep 11 @ 1:38 pm
Charlie Wilson
djnutz wrote :
Technology has actually made it a little more difficult.
Yes with the computer side of things defiantly, my computers are the weakest link, if ever I have trouble it's software or driver related!
Luckily I have Taylors Skype ID :)
发表时间 Thu 29 Sep 11 @ 2:21 pm
MAGAGAR80
I'm going to have to do a dual boat with XP also on my windows 7 machine, some of my driver updates that were installed automatically by windows are causing havoc. VDJ runs so much better on XP =)
It worked great before the updates, I recently ran latency monitor and it showed that a few drivers are going crazy.
It worked great before the updates, I recently ran latency monitor and it showed that a few drivers are going crazy.
发表时间 Thu 29 Sep 11 @ 3:21 pm