John & Debbie Pringle

I am a volunteer DJ for several local schools where we charge a $1.00 entry
as a fundraiser for the local band. I am using an HP Pavilion Laptop with
MP3s as my music database hooked up to a Sony Amplifier and 2 Pioneer tower
speakers. Obviously the soundcard built into the HP leaves a lot to be
desired and I cannot seem to jack the volume up enough to drown out 200
Junior High kids. Can anyone give me a cost effective suggestion for a
quality USB or Firewire soundcard with a built in pre-amp and microphone
input as well as a quality amp and speaker system. Finally can anyone
suggest a good quality DJ Software program. I spent a fortune on PCDJ FX
and have found it to be both unreliable and difficult to manage my library.
Thank you for your time and effort. JP

dj

Ok My suggestion is BPM Studio, I know it's alot of $ but well worth it.
Scrap an Amp and buy Bi-Amped Speakers or work your way up from Powered(JBL
Eon's) to Mackie SRM 450's. Two resons for this. 1 If you blow an Amp it
will take time to unhook and rehook-up another AMP (alot of cables) 2 If you
Blow a Speaker you still have one to go on and if you keep a spare parrallel
cable you can run it from the good powered speaker to the one that blew and
still have 2 speakers.
As far as a mixer goes I'm happy with my 10 year old Gemini PDM 5008A's and
My new Numark 200FX with Vocal effects(Alesis) built-in for all channels
including the DJ Mic.
Other DJ's may vary see your local dealer

DJFIXX

"John & Debbie Pringle" <jpringle@sstelco.com> wrote in message
news:Mt35c.63$h4.15479@sooner.brightok.net...
> I am a volunteer DJ for several local schools where we charge a $1.00
entry
> as a fundraiser for the local band. I am using an HP Pavilion Laptop with
> MP3s as my music database hooked up to a Sony Amplifier and 2 Pioneer
tower
> speakers. Obviously the soundcard built into the HP leaves a lot to be
> desired and I cannot seem to jack the volume up enough to drown out 200
> Junior High kids. Can anyone give me a cost effective suggestion for a
> quality USB or Firewire soundcard with a built in pre-amp and microphone
> input as well as a quality amp and speaker system. Finally can anyone
> suggest a good quality DJ Software program. I spent a fortune on PCDJ FX
> and have found it to be both unreliable and difficult to manage my
library.
> Thank you for your time and effort. JP
>
>

Aaron Peterson

"John & Debbie Pringle" <jpringle@sstelco.com> wrote in message
news:Mt35c.63$h4.15479@sooner.brightok.net...
>I am a volunteer DJ for several local schools where we charge a $1.00 entry
> as a fundraiser for the local band. I am using an HP Pavilion Laptop with
> MP3s as my music database hooked up to a Sony Amplifier and 2 Pioneer
> tower
> speakers. Obviously the soundcard built into the HP leaves a lot to be
> desired and I cannot seem to jack the volume up enough to drown out 200
> Junior High kids. Can anyone give me a cost effective suggestion for a
> quality USB or Firewire soundcard with a built in pre-amp and microphone
> input as well as a quality amp and speaker system. Finally can anyone
> suggest a good quality DJ Software program. I spent a fortune on PCDJ FX
> and have found it to be both unreliable and difficult to manage my
> library.
> Thank you for your time and effort. JP

I know the "Pro" dj's will laugh at this suggestion, but have you tried the
FREE program WINAMP? http://www.winamp.com

I like the fact that I can set up a playlist and walk away from it, and it
will happily keep playing for hours. If someone has a request, I can type
in the name of the artist, or song, and almost instantly every song by that
artist pops up in front of me. I slide the song over to the playlist, and it
plays next on the list. The search function is fast, and very flexible.
You can have multiple instances of winamp running, so I have one song
directory and one voice-over directory. When a song is playing in one
instance of winamp, I can use the other one to play pre-recorded MP3
voice-overs.
And, yes I've tried some of the PCDJ products, like Red and FX. I could see
where they might have a use, but not for me.

As for the laptop problem, I can't imagine why your laptop isn't putting out
enough juice. I've used both an HP laptop and a Toshiba laptop (both less
than a year old) and they both managed to drive the amplifier into clipping.
Are you running the computer's headphone jack to the line input on the amp?
Some laptops have a physical volume control on the outside of the laptop,
but you still have to check the sound control panel in the software to make
sure that the volumes there are up too!

Johnnett Razon

Now that you have purchased PCDJ I would recommend that you sit down and
play with it. It has a lot of cool features that you might like. As for a
cheap solution, go to ebay or something like that, but a technics or sony
receiver and use it as an amplifier. It won't be the best sound you have
ever heard but it will make a heck of a difference.



"Aaron Peterson" <aaronjpeterson@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:mPudnewW4emWqB3dRVn-hw@comcast.com...
>
> "John & Debbie Pringle" <jpringle@sstelco.com> wrote in message
> news:Mt35c.63$h4.15479@sooner.brightok.net...
> >I am a volunteer DJ for several local schools where we charge a $1.00
entry
> > as a fundraiser for the local band. I am using an HP Pavilion Laptop
with
> > MP3s as my music database hooked up to a Sony Amplifier and 2 Pioneer
> > tower
> > speakers. Obviously the soundcard built into the HP leaves a lot to be
> > desired and I cannot seem to jack the volume up enough to drown out 200
> > Junior High kids. Can anyone give me a cost effective suggestion for a
> > quality USB or Firewire soundcard with a built in pre-amp and microphone
> > input as well as a quality amp and speaker system. Finally can anyone
> > suggest a good quality DJ Software program. I spent a fortune on PCDJ
FX
> > and have found it to be both unreliable and difficult to manage my
> > library.
> > Thank you for your time and effort. JP
>
> I know the "Pro" dj's will laugh at this suggestion, but have you tried
the
> FREE program WINAMP? http://www.winamp.com
>
> I like the fact that I can set up a playlist and walk away from it, and it
> will happily keep playing for hours. If someone has a request, I can type
> in the name of the artist, or song, and almost instantly every song by
that
> artist pops up in front of me. I slide the song over to the playlist, and
it
> plays next on the list. The search function is fast, and very flexible.
> You can have multiple instances of winamp running, so I have one song
> directory and one voice-over directory. When a song is playing in one
> instance of winamp, I can use the other one to play pre-recorded MP3
> voice-overs.
> And, yes I've tried some of the PCDJ products, like Red and FX. I could
see
> where they might have a use, but not for me.
>
> As for the laptop problem, I can't imagine why your laptop isn't putting
out
> enough juice. I've used both an HP laptop and a Toshiba laptop (both less
> than a year old) and they both managed to drive the amplifier into
clipping.
> Are you running the computer's headphone jack to the line input on the
amp?
> Some laptops have a physical volume control on the outside of the laptop,
> but you still have to check the sound control panel in the software to
make
> sure that the volumes there are up too!
>
>

Smooth

What you need is a pre-amp
The pre-amp is connected between ur laptop and ur mixxer if u have one
word to the wise, dont call urself a DJ, if u all u do is use a laptop
and have no skills at all, but atleast those who dont have skills yet,
are practising really hard so they can become a better DJ
=)
On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 23:08:46 GMT, "Johnnett Razon"
<jmrazon@verizon.net> wrote:

>Now that you have purchased PCDJ I would recommend that you sit down and
>play with it. It has a lot of cool features that you might like. As for a
>cheap solution, go to ebay or something like that, but a technics or sony
>receiver and use it as an amplifier. It won't be the best sound you have
>ever heard but it will make a heck of a difference.
>
>
>
>"Aaron Peterson" <aaronjpeterson@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:mPudnewW4emWqB3dRVn-hw@comcast.com...
>>
>> "John & Debbie Pringle" <jpringle@sstelco.com> wrote in message
>> news:Mt35c.63$h4.15479@sooner.brightok.net...
>> >I am a volunteer DJ for several local schools where we charge a $1.00
>entry
>> > as a fundraiser for the local band. I am using an HP Pavilion Laptop
>with
>> > MP3s as my music database hooked up to a Sony Amplifier and 2 Pioneer
>> > tower
>> > speakers. Obviously the soundcard built into the HP leaves a lot to be
>> > desired and I cannot seem to jack the volume up enough to drown out 200
>> > Junior High kids. Can anyone give me a cost effective suggestion for a
>> > quality USB or Firewire soundcard with a built in pre-amp and microphone
>> > input as well as a quality amp and speaker system. Finally can anyone
>> > suggest a good quality DJ Software program. I spent a fortune on PCDJ
>FX
>> > and have found it to be both unreliable and difficult to manage my
>> > library.
>> > Thank you for your time and effort. JP
>>
>> I know the "Pro" dj's will laugh at this suggestion, but have you tried
>the
>> FREE program WINAMP? http://www.winamp.com
>>
>> I like the fact that I can set up a playlist and walk away from it, and it
>> will happily keep playing for hours. If someone has a request, I can type
>> in the name of the artist, or song, and almost instantly every song by
>that
>> artist pops up in front of me. I slide the song over to the playlist, and
>it
>> plays next on the list. The search function is fast, and very flexible.
>> You can have multiple instances of winamp running, so I have one song
>> directory and one voice-over directory. When a song is playing in one
>> instance of winamp, I can use the other one to play pre-recorded MP3
>> voice-overs.
>> And, yes I've tried some of the PCDJ products, like Red and FX. I could
>see
>> where they might have a use, but not for me.
>>
>> As for the laptop problem, I can't imagine why your laptop isn't putting
>out
>> enough juice. I've used both an HP laptop and a Toshiba laptop (both less
>> than a year old) and they both managed to drive the amplifier into
>clipping.
>> Are you running the computer's headphone jack to the line input on the
>amp?
>> Some laptops have a physical volume control on the outside of the laptop,
>> but you still have to check the sound control panel in the software to
>make
>> sure that the volumes there are up too!
>>
>>
>