What's you current playout setup?

[Tom]

Interested to see what people are using these days for their play out setups.

I used to use an digital setup (Denon HD2500) with back up gear as well, then I went to a full Denon CD/Mixer setup as at the time I refused to pay for a Produb licence (bit silly I know but we live and learn by our mistakes) but I've seen quite a rise in laptops and other digital setups being used.

What gear are you using to play your music on ? Why kind of run down of gear would be greatly appreciated

[Nakatomi]

I came out of retirement about 4 months ago to do walk in gigs for a guy I work with in my day job. Initially I was using just a HP g6 laptop running Mixxx on windows with an external USB soundcard but found full manual control using just the keyboard unwieldy.

So now, I've got a Denon mc2000, run Mixxx on Linux booted from a USB Ssd. I carry a spare USB soundcard in my bag and have a spare laptop & backup boot HDD (also USB) in the car.

I love the mc2000 but for 3 things:
1. It only has unbalanced outputs.
2. The Mic channel has no eq
3. The Mic channel has no on/off switch

Those three factors mean I have to use an external mixer, but that's not an issue since I'm always provided with one..., and if the mixer dies I can simply run into the PA with adapter cables I always have in my laptop bag.

I switched to Linux because one night running windows I was getting brief pauses in playback every few minutes & I couldn't reproduce it at home. Since the ssd doesn't have enough space for windows and the music I installed Linux which takes up much less space. I've not had so much as a hiccup since, often playing music continuously for 5+ hours.

Whoops, I forgot about the one time I heard a big thump over the pa & the controller stopped paying audio, needing to be replugged & Mixxx restarted.. But I've not had that since I added a fat ferrite clamp to the mc2000 USB cable at the controller end.

[funkymook]

Mac Book Pro running Traktor and a Denon MC6000mkll with another Pro connected as a back up, plus iPad and iPod with key tunes/playlists for the event and last resort iPhone also loaded with the key tunes/playlists.

If the MC6000mkll breaks down and can’t be recovered I can go straight into the PA (FBT Vertus) via the Pro’s headphone socket (mini-jack to twin xlr's) and use a mouse to control Traktor.

I’ve used various other play-out systems, including the HD2500 but I prefer the large screen that a laptop gives me so I can see as many tunes as possible when looking for inspiration rather than scrolling on a smaller screen.

[Shaun]

Still the HD2500. Old Skool baby. Yayyyyy!

[Benny Smyth]

Traktor Kontrol S4 MKII as my primary.
Traktor Kontrol S4 MKI as a backup.
Pioneer CDJ 400k and DJM 400k as my backup's backup.

And if all three fail, I think it's clear that a force greater than myself has decided that this event will no longer continue.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Denon HD2500 as main system
Denon HD4500 with VDJ Pro 8 as back up
iPad with Deejay and Traktor as extra back up

[yourdj]

Still on a Vestax VCI 300 mk2 & macbook playing Serato.

Did get a MC6000 MK2 but preferred the Vestax.

i am however interested in the new mc4000 player from Denon soon to be released.
The only let down for modern players are that they need power and not USB.
Not a lot on this one yet.



http://denondj.com/assets/microsites...015/index.html

[Tom]

Thanks for the comments so far. Interesting to see what you lot are using.

When I was using the Denon HD2500 that used to drop out a few times over yer I think I had it. Had backup so wasn't too bad but that was a CD backup.

I've like the idea of a controller and software but I don't know if I can trust a laptop. I used to use a laptop for the DMX lighting and that was good as gold, but never for the music.

Ovcourse, If I was to go down the laptop route a Produb licence would needed and a carefully selected 5000 tracks would be needed. Got 3 or 4 times that and don't really want music on there that I know wouldn't be used, mainly my heavy metal collection, but you never know!!!

So I guess as a first thought, I could go down the route of having 2 cheap laptops with a large internal HD for the music on each one (main and backup) but the backup laptop being used for lighting control (always loved DMX control) and then have a tablet with Spotify which I pay for each month as a 3rd backup to that. Have the controller in the middle and that could be the setup. Have some kind of backup mixer just incase the controller/mixer decided to die just in case.

Think that would cover things.

Wanted to go back to the Denon HD2500 but I don't think I can trust it. Was a pain to search for tracks and if the ID tagging isn't spot on (lesson learned and would get it 100% right this time with correct Genre tagging also) it took a while to search for music.

[funkymook]

and then have a tablet with Spotify which I pay for each month as a 3rd backup(

Spotify isn’t for commercial use so it wouldn’t be an option for back-up.

[Tom]

Spotify isn’t for commercial use so it wouldn’t be an option for back-up.

Fair comment and point taken.

Swear I saw other people post comments (not here and not naming names) but no problem at all.