Cheaper, easier alternative to Laptop ?

[todd]

Hi all,

Been thinking and wondered if any of you could help...

I am a 'Laptop DJ' in the sense that I pre-compile my playlist (on my main PC) which I then play from my (rather large) laptop. I then make few tweaks on the night itself for things like requests.

So my laptop isn't doing very much - just playing the music and, hence, seems a bit like a sledge hammer to crack a nut...!

I was wondering if there is more cost effective or/and portable options, such as the little netbooks or tablets or even an MP3 player (but making playlist tweaks might be a pain).

Have any of you tried out the smaller things like these? If so, my only real concern if the music out quality...

Thanks in advance :-)

[philsmove]

You might like to look at the Tango DJ forum
the main advice re Net books is to have more RAM that is normally supplied

[straycat]

Have any of you tried out the smaller things like these? If so, my only real concern if the music out quality...

On that particular front: my advice would be not to worry about the audio out quality, chiefly because it'll be pretty poor no matter what you get (even Apple machines, which have comparatively good quality sound output aren't good enough for DJing purposes, IMO). Always always always use a USB soundcard or the like - it's the only way to be sure.

[todd]

Thanks chaps.
Phil - do you have a link for that forum (a quick search didn't find it...)
Straycat - There are some seriously cheap USB sound cards out there these days, but the low, low cost makes me suspicious of the quality. Do you have any that you could recommend?

[philsmove]

Thanks chaps.
Phil - do you have a link for that forum (?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TangoDJ/

[straycat]

Thanks chaps.
Phil - do you have a link for that forum (a quick search didn't find it...)
Straycat - There are some seriously cheap USB sound cards out there these days, but the low, low cost makes me suspicious of the quality. Do you have any that you could recommend?

No cheap ones. I do have a little Creative Soundblaster X-F (http://www.techfuels.com/everything-else/8974-creative-sound-blaster-x-fi-usb-sound-card.html)i, which wasn't too expensive, and sounds pretty good... but I don't think they're available anymore. That used to be my backup device, but it's currently my previewing device (headphone jack died a few weeks ago)

If you can find one, it might be worth picking up.

[todd]

Thanks Straycat. Have got one and tried it out. Seems to work okay, but have developed a new problem..! Grrr! So can't really tell just yet. It wouldn't work at all on one of my smaller laptops. Not enough RAM, which is basically what Phil mentioned before, so from that point of view it's not really hit what I was looking for... Hey Ho.