MediaMonkey saves the day!

[DazzyD]

I don't often start threads but I thought I'd share an experience I had on Saturday night.

I was asked to cover a gig for another DJ and, as it was local and I had nothing else on, I agreed.

The show was a 65th birthday and the entertainment was karaoke. I was promised lots of singers so it should have been as easy night. However, things didn't quite go to plan!

I was asked to play background music until 7.45pm as this was when the "target" was expected at the venue. I was to play "Happy Birthday To You" when he came in to the venue and then take karaoke requests.

Things didn't go to plan. At 7.20pm, I noticed that VirtualDJ was taking longer than normal to load in tracks. I tried a reboot and the laptop decided it was unwell. I managed to load MediaMonkey (in order to play Happy Birthday) and loaded a few background tracks which played ok. But then, at 7.28pm, Windows crashed. I couldn't access the local hard disk, couldn't load any programs in and, weirdest of all, the system clock just stopped (never seen this happen before). The only thing I could do was play tracks through MediaMonkey. Windows had completely died but MM played on! As I was working for someone else, I didn't have my own gear, no back-up playout-system. I had to ring the DJ and get him to send a new system (which took an hour-and-a-bit to get to me). Once the new kit arrived, we switched systems, karaoke was ready to go and the party was finally on!

The point I'm getting at is how amazing it was that, despite Windows and the local hard disk completely dying on me, MediaMonkey kept on going without even skipping. Now Chris (PPEntertainments) recommended MediaMonkey to me so I'd like to thank Chris for the tip. It really saved my bacon when all else failed. I know Excalibur has said he uses the program too and I've always sang it's praises. However, now I realise it's much better than I've ever realised. So, any DJs who don't have the program, WHY??? It's free and it could save your skin one day!

[Charlie Brown]

*Charlie goes off to download Media Monkey*

Thanks for that - I'm glad it was all right in the end.

Sorted it out now?

[STEVE HANLEY]

Hi Dazzy

Chris also recommended it to me when I helped him out during a gig we did together in Corbridge a month or so back. I havn't checked it out yet as you've just reminded me about it. CHEERS:beer1:

[Excalibur]

Glad to hear it helped you stay out of the brown stuff Darren. I've always loved MM because, like me, it's simple, and does severything you want. Yes it is free, but for about £15 to upgrade, you get full functionality. Using this, with about three mouse clicks, I've recently emailed my music library to a bride, in Excel format for her to peruse. How wonderful is that? :D

BTW, on the MM forum, there have been requests for it to have a second player, thus allowing it to be used in a similar way to VDJ.

One word of warning, however, it doesn't work with a Maya soundcard. ( Or didn't when I tried it a while ago. :( :( :( ) The Numark IO is great with it however.

[DazzyD]

It certainly did, Peter, but I have to admit to panicking somewhat when Windows wouldn't respond with not enough time for a 2nd reboot. I just can't believe that it kept going when everything else totally failed (how does it do that? :confused:)

This was the first time I've had a crash with the laptop that I was using. I did a bit fault-finding on it yesterday and couldn't find anything obvious so I looked at the event logs and just before the crash the computer had started a virus scan (which shouldn't have happened as the anti-virus software on the gigging laptop is meant to be disabled from running automatically). I've now set everything back the way it should be and everything now seems ok. I'll be doing some testing on it today.

[womble]

Ahhh Windows. How I do miss the old system crashes, blue screens of death, etc.

Just checked, MediaMonkey is not available on Mac. d'Oh!

[Mark Wild]

Did you find out why your lappy decided to be unwell, windows crashed and you couldn't access your hard drive?

[Corabar Entertainment]

I seem to recall something about a virus scan starting itself off when it shouldn't have being mentioned somewhere :confused:

[Vectis]

Why would you have anti-virus on a gigging laptop anyway?

Surely you don't connect it to the web :eek:

[Mark Wild]

Why would you have anti-virus on a gigging laptop anyway?

Surely you don't connect it to the web :eek:

Exactly, I do wonder about all these laptop crashes, your playout lappy shouldn't be connected to the net, it should be stripped down of all bloatware, stripped of any freeware it comes with and used only as a playout, nothing else. I know opinions are like :Censored: holes, but thats mine.

[Vectis]

:agree:

When I was a laptop jock (for several years) my machine never touched anything except my own private firewalled LAN, and any data transfer on and off the thing was via a NAS storage box, so there's nil chance of anything ropey arriving via SMB.

Strip it down to the bare minimum, load it up with gig software, duplicate the HDD (so when applying future updates you always have a fall-back state), do a full defrag and then LEAVE IT ALONE.

(and that was back when a half-decent lappie cost over a grand)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I used to agree with not putting your gig laptop on the net, but then if you're downloading tunes straight on to it from a legal download site, you are hardly going to get a virus from there are you?

Anyone ever got a virus or trojan from Itunes or Play or Napster?

[Charlie Brown]

Yep. Around 22.



:whistle:

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Yep. Around 22.



:whistle:

No, you use your laptop for everything, not just for downloading tunes.

I know this for a fact as you used it when you were here. ;)

[WWDJ]

Mine goes onto BBC News, a couple of forums and Youtube and that's it ... and even that is too much really. it's got nothing on it apart from mediamonkey, traktor and necessary drivers.

[Vectis]

Mine goes onto BBC News, a couple of forums and Youtube and that's it ... and even that is too much really.

It's not all about the sites you visit, it's about the fact that you're connected to a public network with all sorts of nasties zipping around it. Idiots port scanning looking for holes in your firewall and pushing rubbish through them.

Never ever put something as important as a gigging laptop onto a public network!

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Laptops are so cheap these days. If you are that concerned about viruses etc then why not get a seperate one and strip it down and use it solely for DJing?

[CRAZY K]

I don't often start threads but I thought I'd share an experience I had on Saturday night.

I was asked to cover a gig for another DJ and, as it was local and I had nothing else on, I agreed.

The show was a 65th birthday and the entertainment was karaoke. I was promised lots of singers so it should have been as easy night. However, things didn't quite go to plan!

I was asked to play background music until 7.45pm as this was when the "target" was expected at the venue. I was to play "Happy Birthday To You" when he came in to the venue and then take karaoke requests.

Things didn't go to plan. At 7.20pm, I noticed that VirtualDJ was taking longer than normal to load in tracks. I tried a reboot and the laptop decided it was unwell. I managed to load MediaMonkey (in order to play Happy Birthday) and loaded a few background tracks which played ok. But then, at 7.28pm, Windows crashed. I couldn't access the local hard disk, couldn't load any programs in and, weirdest of all, the system clock just stopped (never seen this happen before). The only thing I could do was play tracks through MediaMonkey. Windows had completely died but MM played on! As I was working for someone else, I didn't have my own gear, no back-up playout-system. I had to ring the DJ and get him to send a new system (which took an hour-and-a-bit to get to me). Once the new kit arrived, we switched systems, karaoke was ready to go and the party was finally on!

The point I'm getting at is how amazing it was that, despite Windows and the local hard disk completely dying on me, MediaMonkey kept on going without even skipping. Now Chris (PPEntertainments) recommended MediaMonkey to me so I'd like to thank Chris for the tip. It really saved my bacon when all else failed. I know Excalibur has said he uses the program too and I've always sang it's praises. However, now I realise it's much better than I've ever realised. So, any DJs who don't have the program, WHY??? It's free and it could save your skin one day!

Course Peter only uses his Laptop as a back up I believe?

I assume your view on Laptops has gone down a few notches Dazzy:eek:

Glad to hear you survived though--are you thinking of buying a USB device?

Did you work out what caused the problem:confused:

CRAZY K

[Megamix]

I'm afraid that’s why I left Windows 3 years ago

[Megamix]

a lot of talk on the forums about buying the most reliable kit - Denon, Mackie etc- but Windows has (in my opinion) the flakiest OS but most people use it - surprising but this is not meant to be inflammatory

[Charlie Brown]

Mine goes onto BBC News, a couple of forums and Youtube and that's it ...

Mine visits a lot more than that....

:eek: :eek: :eek:

:sofa:

[womble]

I'm afraid that’s why I left Windows 3 years ago


a lot of talk on the forums about buying the most reliable kit - Denon, Mackie etc- but Windows has (in my opinion) the flakiest OS but most people use it - surprising but this is not meant to be inflammatory

:agree:

[Mark Wild]

ID-Ten-T Errors I suspect :)

[Excalibur]

Course Peter only uses his Laptop as a back up I believe?
I assume your view on Laptops has gone down a few notches Dazzy:eek:

Glad to hear you survived though--are you thinking of buying a USB device?

Did you work out what caused the problem:confused:

CRAZY K

Indeed I do. It is an adjunct, not a primary. And I couldn't countenance not being able to download reqyests from Amazon and 7 digital . ;)

[DazzyD]

I've done some serious testing and the laptop seems to be working as it always did before. VDJ is loading up tracks quickly and smoothly again and all seems well with my world.

I do connect to the internet with it as I download my tracks from 7Digital with it (and Amazon and Tesco last week to cover some tracks I didn't have which I need for this weekend). Most tracks are downloaded to my external hard-drives but I also add a few popular tracks every now and again to the computer's internal drive (again, downloaded directly from purchase). This is to ensure I have tracks available should my external drives fail (although, thankfully, this has never happened). Perhaps I just didn't disable the anti-virus properly (although it was Windows Defender saying it was running scans and I use AVG which I thought was strange). Or maybe I just forgot to do it. My laptop is ready for the weekend so I've used MSCONFIG to disable everything that I don't need to be running. Fingers crossed for Saturday but I'm working for myself so will have full backup facilities with me.

Alan, I have to say that my opinion of laptops hasn't gone down any. I still think that the software I use gives me the full and finer control over track mixing and my DJing skills have only improved since I started doing things this way. I have been looking at controllers but my finances are quite tight at the moment so it's something I'll be looking at later in the year. New active speakers are higher up on my list but they are having to wait also.


But, rest assured, the guy who I was working for last week has been left in no doubt as to the importance of backup! ;)

[CRAZY K]

I've done some serious testing and the laptop seems to be working as it always did before. VDJ is loading up tracks quickly and smoothly again and all seems well with my world.

I do connect to the internet with it as I download my tracks from 7Digital with it (and Amazon and Tesco last week to cover some tracks I didn't have which I need for this weekend). Most tracks are downloaded to my external hard-drives but I also add a few popular tracks every now and again to the computer's internal drive (again, downloaded directly from purchase). This is to ensure I have tracks available should my external drives fail (although, thankfully, this has never happened). Perhaps I just didn't disable the anti-virus properly (although it was Windows Defender saying it was running scans and I use AVG which I thought was strange). Or maybe I just forgot to do it. My laptop is ready for the weekend so I've used MSCONFIG to disable everything that I don't need to be running. Fingers crossed for Saturday but I'm working for myself so will have full backup facilities with me.

Alan, I have to say that my opinion of laptops hasn't gone down any. I still think that the software I use gives me the full and finer control over track mixing and my DJing skills have only improved since I started doing things this way. I have been looking at controllers but my finances are quite tight at the moment so it's something I'll be looking at later in the year. New active speakers are higher up on my list but they are having to wait also.


But, rest assured, the guy who I was working for last week has been left in no doubt as to the importance of backup! ;)

Ah well--good luck with it Dazzy--im just getting my boat engine repaired which overheated and literally blew a head gasket --I said to the repairer well if it overheated I hope your going to do something which will prevent that happening again--he said we are removing lots of scaling which will help to prevent that--at least I feel happy that the reason for the problem has been diagnosed and rectified--so the problem wont happen again--with computers I never feel like that;)

[DazzyD]

Just a quick update on this as I think I have found the answer as to why my laptop went pear-shaped.

I had a show on last night and there were three songs I didn't have (Presidents Of The USA - Video Killed The Radio Star, Blink 182 - First Date, and, shock horror, Frank Sinatra - That's Life (can't believe I didn't have that one!). I went to 7Digital to look for them and realised that my external drive (where I download tracks to) wasn't on so I checked the plugs, everythings ok, checked the fuse, again ok. After a bit of testing, I discovered that the power supply had died. It's lucky I have several drives the same so I could just plug in a different power supply.

Now this got me thinking. Could my drive going down last week (although I didn't know it had at the time) have caused Windows to crash so severely last week? As I have stated, I couldn't find much wrong (other than the computer running anti-virus scans out the blue). I've never heard of such a dramatic crash before and I've been involved with computers since I was 6.

As for last nights gig, everything went without a hitch and a really good night was had by all.