been getting more nights in clubs recently, but because i'm using my own versions of tunes and mp3s, always have to deal with the problem of using someone else's laptop, and burning dvds of tunes to play.

since laptops seem to be good value for money nowadays, i thought that now's the time to get one.

i'm planning to use it purely for playing and mixing music using ableton and virtual dj, and with enough room on the hard drive for tuneage.

my questions 2 are -

is there any real difference between the main laptops?
ideally reckon dual core processor, 2gig memory, and 250gig HD, plus dvd will be enough.

what sound card is a good one?
they seem to range in price a lot and i usually play in small clubs with about 100-150 people, who are in the main drunk and dancing, so not really chin-stroking muso types

any help and advice appreciated as i'm in the dark a bit on this one.
cheers!

this would also help me a fair bit too, i'll be getting a laptop dedicated to music soon and i want a new soundcard for this pc as theres alot of white noise when i turn this one up and its a 4 yr old pc

I know..underruns,underruns,underruns...the only way to avoid it is to increase the latency..but if you do that and you want to check your project live on an analizer while you compress(4Xample),it not fucking synchronized.
FUCKFUCKFUCK!!!Then you realise that you've got to buy a new card....

I'm thinking to buy a USB card.Caz i use a laptop..
http://www.zzounds.com/item--EMU0404
It's not expensive so i think i'm gonna take the risk.

ps: If you don't use laptop i don't suggest usb.

Internal soundcards generaly has bad sound because of static noise

I myself have a Dell XPS M1710

Now this is a very expensive performance laptop with 17" widescreen.

And I have a Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1 external "soundcard":

http://www.native-instruments.com/index ... ntrol1&L=1

This one is good to set up with Virtual DJ, with monitor channels etc.


You can get very good laptops very cheap nowadays. If you set it up right it will do just nicely!

MACS

...cheeseburger...?

yeah , a prefer cheeseburgers (how djuknow?), but hey mac books are the shit.

Everyone has their own taste

i agree, but the guy asked for advice.

the xps sounds like the one for me, it was designed for gaming so its not gonna fucking lag when u put a couple tunes together like this piece of shit and its bound to have a shit load of space and im useless with macs (used to use them at college), soundcard though i could just get an external one and problem solved if the gaming soundcard aint the best.

ha ha! fundamentalist mac users crack me up lol

just saying 'macs', and 'mac books are the shit' isn't really advice is it?

cheers anyway, but unfortunately i live in ukraine and so there isn't really any back up if here if something goes wrong with it.

@ everyone else - thanks for commenting too

so it would seem that it doesn't really matter what laptop it is - the most important thing is the soundcard.

i was reading that usb soundcards can run into problems if you're using anything else with a usb attachment due to the bus having to deal with a lot of information, which then can affect any programs you've got running. is it true?

also - is it better to get an internal or external one? from what i can gather the external ones don't give as much sound interference. would it matter in a club? i'm not planning to produce professional tunage.

price wise - i've playing in a couple of clubs using someone else's laptop with a $40 sound card and it was fine. do i really need to pay $200 if i'm not going to be producing?

thanks again, and have a good weekend

I never heard of or had any problem with the usb bus. it should be fine as long as you don't buy the cheapest usb soundcard you can find :p
Since you're in a club playing music with your laptop, you're not excactly gonna play games at same time so :p

See if you can find the native instruments audio kontrol 1 cheap somewhere!

by the way jugo, this is a little off topic but hows virtual dj for mixing live ?

I tried it and it works fine to me. Actually I don't use the "automix" button, I never trust it. I just prefer to have the full control