Mac book pro

[DazzyD]

Well, Sarah, first of all

Secondly, it's dead easy to find out which system has been used to format your hard drive. Make sure the drive is connected to your PC. Then go to (My) Computer (depending on which version of Windows you are running). Locate the drive (it might be E,F,G etc.) then right click on it. At the bottom of the pop-up window, click Properties. The drive properties info box will appear. It will tell you whether it's NTFS or FAT32 under the "File system" label (or alongside, rather!!).

[Excalibur]

Hello Sarah, and as Dazzy said

Lots of good advice here, as usual, let me add a few thoughts of my own.
Whatever machine you use, try to get as many USB ports as possible. I'm running an ancient Acer, because it has four ports. Mouse, DJ2GO, DJIO (Sound card. Highly recommended ) and external Hard Drive. I have no experience of using hubs to expand the system, but would recommend if one is used, that it's powered.

I love my DJ2GO, it has revolutionised the way I use my Laptop.

As to file systems/Macs etc, from what's been said, you could use a Mac if you did what I would recommend anyway. Backup. It's virtually certain that your HD will be NTFS out of the box. The way round this withour wiping all your hard work is to buy a second HD, and before using it, format it to FAT32. Then copy all your data from the first drive to it. Then format the first drive to FAT 32 as well, and copy the data back to it. Buying a windows pc would mean this step wasn't needed.

As Darren says, the MC6000 won't run Karaoke on its own, you'll need another mixer of some sort. It's an excellent piece of kit, but as with everything, it has limitations.

Good luck with your KAM mixer, I had one and loved it to bits, it's ideal for Karaoke, but mine wasn't very reliable.

Keep asking questions before signing your soul away, it may save you lots of money, and should mean you get the right kit for you.

[mattydinx]

Laptops work and are cheaper and aren't any more hassle than Macs.

I beg to differ, I work for an IT support company and our clients use a range of macbooks, iMacs, windows based PCs and laptops.

We've never had to have a mac brought into the workshop for repair - ever. The only calls we get regarding macs are usually to do with their configuration (emails, how to use a feature of a program, etc)

PC's and laptops on the other hand are coming into the workshop on an almost daily basis. Blue Screens, Hardware failure, Software installs buggering up the OS...

With regards to the file system your hard drive uses - no need to worry or change anything from your current set-up. I use a 3rd party driver called Paragon NTFS which allows you to write data to hard drives formatted for window's NTFS file system.

In terms of USB connectivity, you don't really need more than two ports - I manage just fine. My external drive connects to one, and my Denon DN-HC4500 connects to the other handling both control and audio over the one USB connection. For me, the trackpad and hardware controller give me all the control I need.

Sometimes there can be confusion between this analogue/digital malarkey - The DN-HC4500 has 4 analogue outputs which by default would be configured as
Deck One - Left (1) & Right (2)
Deck Two - Left (3) & Right (4)
You would then have independent control over each deck on your normal mixer.
This is how mine is currently setup, for your karaoke purposes you could keep one deck for simply playing normal music between singers, and keep the other deck for playback of your Karaoke tracks.

[Excalibur]

In terms of USB connectivity, you don't really need more than two ports - I manage just fine. My external drive connects to one, and my Denon DN-HC4500 connects to the other handling both control and audio over the one USB connection. For me, the trackpad and hardware controller give me all the control I need.
.

I would have to strongly disagree with that. I have described what I need, and why.

[ianforest]

Ok let's answer your questions again

If your external hard disk is formatted as NTFS then it will work on both PC & MAC. The only difference is that on the Mac you will not be able to write any information to the external disk (which is a bit pointless really) so if the hard drive is formatted as NTFS and you are really set on getting a mac you will need to COPY all the files off it, reformat it as FAT32/FAT (you can do this easily on both Windows or Mac) and then move the files back onto it.

You can use the Denon HC4500 to control both your computer and the Denon 4500 CD drawers. And yes you can connect it easily to your Kam 1500 with no problem at all, it's just 2 pairs of phono (red/white) leads into channels 1 & 2 or 3 & 4 or whatever on your mixer.

As for PC & Mac, well, the advantages/disadvantages of both has been a long discussion over tens of years.

Apple Advantages

1. Apple Mac's get almost no viruses, this is because Windows has such a huge market share therefore Mac isn't that important.
2. OSX (the operating system) only runs on Apple Computers (generally, some people have managed to hack it to work on other non-apple machines but it's not recommended) therefore it's far less prone to software and hardware crashes.

Apple Disadvantages

1. Expensive. Mac's cost more than Windows-based machines.

PC Advantages

1. It's cheap. Windows laptops cost less than Mac laptops.
2. Windows runs on any windows-compatible laptop. You can even install Windows on a Mac if you wanted to.

PC Disadvantages

1. Viruses...lots of them. You will almost certainly need to have an anti-virus software package installed.
2. Slow(ish) - Windows 7 has a lot of background tasks and services which consume lots of disk space, ram and CPU resources, therefore Windows runs slower, and will run even slower over time.

This is not propaganda...it's real, proven facts.

[mattydinx]

I would have to strongly disagree with that. I have described what I need, and why.

What you need, yes - I was merely making Sarah aware that what she's trying to achieve can be done with only two. (Since people take that mac's only had two USB ports as a huge negative...it's not)

so if the hard drive is formatted as NTFS and you are really set on getting a mac you will need to COPY all the files off it, reformat it as FAT32/FAT (you can do this easily on both Windows or Mac) and then move the files back onto it.

Not true, as stated in my previous comment, there are 3rd Party drivers available which will let you write to NTFS formatted drives saving you from messing on transferring files from one drive to another or faffing about re-formatting drives, etc.

Such as this: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

[ianforest]

Not true, as stated in my previous comment, there are 3rd Party drivers available which will let you write to NTFS formatted drives saving you from messing on transferring files from one drive to another or faffing about re-formatting drives, etc.

Such as this: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Yup, but that requires Sarah to spend more money, what's the point in doing that, hasn't she spent enough on the Mac already?

Why spend money on a "middle man" when she can just format it as FAT and not have to worry about spending money on drivers to make something work?

[Megamix]

I use Windows PCs, Windows Laptops and Macs - I have had to reconfigure and update the Windows PCs regularly. I've rebuilt them, replaced parts etc.
I've never fixed my Macbooks or iMac.
I know why i spend more on my own Apple computers - but I'm sure there are many people happy with Windows PCs - just seems a lot of the owners ask me to sort theirs out!

[ianforest]

I agree, I remember using Windows exclusively, the amount of motherboards I went through, ram upgrades, defrags, etc...i'm sure it's a lot better now than it used to be, back in the mid 2000's it was cool to build your own, these days it's cheaper to buy one ready made, and with warranty, but oh-so-expensive to get fixed.

[Corabar Entertainment]

I remember using Windows exclusively, the amount of motherboards I went through, ram upgrades, defrags, etc...

OK... it's good practice to defrag regularly, but that's the sort of comment that Mac users frequently make, and I really can't help wondering what the hell they were doing to their Windows computers to have all these problems!

There's no doubt that Macs are good quality, and I'm certainly not disputing that whatsoever, but the way Mac users talk, you'd swear that Windows computers weren't capable of running anything for 5 minutes without going belly-up, and that you absolutely HAVE to have a Mac even if you're only going to send an email once a week! .... and THAT's what gets up my nose.

To Mac users in general: Sorry that you had so many problems with Windows computers, but that isn't the case for many of us.