well, i made the transition to a laptop rig over the past several months, and i just played my first gig with it Friday.

i made the switvh because i'm moving several times this summer, eventually ending up on the opposite coast. evey time i move my vinyl, i swear it will be the last time. THIS time, it is. i have about 1300 records, and even a smallish collection like mine is a bitch to manage. i realized pretty quickly that a laptop rig was the only way i was going to be able to keep mixing wherever i may be.

all i need is the laptop, soundcard, external mixer (if needed, i can also use the software mixer), and amp & speakers. that means i can just bring my backpack to gigs, which holds the laptop, soundcard & cables, Sennheiser HD-25SPs, and a small wallet of audio CDs as backup. with this setup, i can have more music than nearly any vinyl DJ at my disposal. this past Friday, i also stuck about 20 records in the backpack, and mixed vinyl with the WAV files. the really funny part was having a line of spotters watching me mix. people frowned on technology like CD decks before, but they sure seemed ready to embrace it at that gig (let's face it- things like the iPod have made digital music cool).

for the record, i still don't know of any CD decks or software that will mix the tracks for you right out of the box. i find that most BPM counters are inaccurate enough that you HAVE to know how to beatmatch and make corrections to play a superior set. it comes down to the promoter in the end, as they need to be able to distinguish good DJs from mediocre ones (if they even care).

here's how my rig works:

my iBook runs Traktor DJ. i use an M-Audio firewire soundcard that outputs two stereo sources to an external mixer. i ripped most of my best vinyl to WAV files earlier this year, which allows me to clean up pops and crackles, or even edit them (some tunes are just too long for their own good). i can do these things using the SAME laptop, making it self-contained. when i play, i MANUALLY beatmatch everything, and i DO NOT use "beat grids" (this is something that makes the auto-sync more accurate, but you have to do it for every tune, and they can take time to do). the pitch is at least as good as CD decks, and i mix just like i mixed vinyl, by riding the pitch up and down as needed. i also buy some psytrance on CD, and i rip those tunes to MP3 using methods i researched heavily. they sound great loud, which was confirmed Friday.

now, keep in mind this is merely scratching the surface. i have only described how to use a laptop to replace your basic pair of decks. once you can do the basics, the power of Traktor becomes clear. you can loop either/both tracks, and change the loop position on the fly. you can change the loop length on the fly (creating some sick builds). you can use the built-in filter to do nice EQ effects. you can change the tempo within a HUGE range, and lock the pitch where you see fit (and it works, unlike some CD decks i've used). you can set several different cue points, and jump between them on the fly, effectively remixing tunes to your needs. hell, IIRC you can route live beats from Reason into Traktor and mix tunes with them. you can also use Traktor as a basic sampler and drop beats and others sounds at the touch of a key. this is all done with gear stored in one light backpack. oh, and Traktor now has TWO waveforms, one that shows the next few bars, and one that shows the entire track.

trust me, 1200s DO feel the best for long, solid mixes, but they are simply limited in their scope. Technics has barely changed the design in ages, and they still get premium prices.

frankly, i see CDs as a stop-gap measure, and i try to avoid using them at all. digital technology is about shrinking sizes and reducing unwanted hardware. it makes no sense to produce music on a computer, only to burn CDs and then mix the CDs with two large CD decks. it makes far more sense to produce the music, and then mix it straight from the computers.

whew, more to say, but ramble off for now.