Confidence in USB's

[MelodyIlliterate]

Hey Gent's

Is there any one on here (preferably with live cub gig experience)

that is fully confident to rock up to a gig with their whole library or at least just their set for the night on just a USB?

May be having a normal 9 - 5 job soon and would be very keen to try get into the industry. and using record box seems like a good way to go...

k go!

[Mitch]

Ive played whole sets out, using only usb. Went fine

I did take a small cd wallet with me though, just in case.

Only time i utlised the cd case was when i wanted to mix 3 decks at once though, not coz of any usb failure.

Never had any issues with my USBs once i'd got the songs onto them.

[MelodyIlliterate]

thats another thing... i am very interested in >2 deck mixing... so does that mean usbs only limit you to 2 decks?

also another fear of mine is rocking up to a club that only has 1000's

is there a way around that?

sd card perhaps?

[Jaz]

I have used usb only at party's ages ago and all my residency's and club gig over the past year'ish and they go fine man, as long as you buy a decent brand

In saying that I have had a lexar 8 gig usb fully die on me at a club, thankfully they were cdj 2000's and I could use the link feature from the working USB for both decks

Now I always carry 3 usbs at gigs, 2 obviously for each deck if they can't link, and 1 either as a spare or if the club has a 3rd deck I need it for

[Jaz]

And with the rocking up to a club with 1000's thing, 2-3 years ago definitely a possibility, but now if a club still has only 1000's it's probly a average club

And you should be checking/asking these things before you get there anyway, imagine I'd you didn't ask and u rock up and there is only vinyl tables haha

[Mitch]

thats another thing... i am very interested in >2 deck mixing... so does that mean usbs only limit you to 2 decks?

also another fear of mine is rocking up to a club that only has 1000's

is there a way around that?

sd card perhaps?

No, they just had 2 * 2000s and 2*1000s, so for me to 3 deck mix the 3rd and 4th decks were 1000s which are cd only.

1000s are still around a bit

[Vaughn]

Test the USB with porn first, just to be safe

[legunner]

I prefer cds but if you buy a quality brand of usb i dont see why they wouldnt work fine

[MelodyIlliterate]

Fuark... thats why i really want to suss out real gear before i even think about doing gigs...

Im guessing there is an art to using cd's to dj since you need to plan out a mix in advance depending on what you have on each disk yeah? or does the link feature work on cds aswell?

Argh!! so many questions !!!

never knew about the link feature but was always curious if you needed to bring 4 usb sticks everywhere you go...

@Jaz - I'm glad you mentioned the vinyl thing... im the kinda guy thats so off in my own world that i bet that would have happened to me

[LabRat]

Usb's are fine. Just bring an extra for back up. A lot of people are choosing this over software now. A few guys at the station play with USB

[mattus123]

im pretty keen to use USBs

ive heard of alot of people using them and havent heard anyone complain about them yet

just make sure u take a backup USB (as everyone has stated) or backup CDs

[MelodyIlliterate]

so technically... you only need 1 usb even for 4 decks?... but backups are a necessity...

but if you rock up to a club that only has 1000's your fucked?

[Jaz]

No, always have at least 3 usbs I say, link is only possible if the club has the cdjs linked threw a hub/lan line, only possible for 900's and 2000's

I would trust usbs over software any day, even basically software like recordbox can easily crash, not to mention the laptop itself , it's very rare that a usb dies, and in that case u should have your spare

My little red sandisk usbs are so small they easily fit in my change button up section thing in my wallet with money in there, shits all over carrying a laptop

[MelodyIlliterate]

So you don't program your USBs with record box ?

[mattus123]

pretty sure u jsut set up folders on ur USBs

how it would appear on ur computer, will be how it appears when u load it into the CDJ

[Jaz]

So you don't program your USBs with record box ?

Wouldn't say I program them, I have genres set up in iTunes, dubstep, electro, commercial etc so I just use recordbox to bridge iTunes n get those playlists on my usb. Works a treat

[MelodyIlliterate]

isnt that all rekord box does? pretty much just organises all your music to your music to your usb to work best with a cdj?

I would trust usbs over software any day, even basically software like recordbox can easily crash,

when you mentioned it crashing, do you mean that programming your usb with rekord box could potentially fuck up?

[Jaz]

recordbox can be used for organising USB's, but can also be connected directly to the CDJ's and used as a drag and drop playlist, both ways also allow you to pre program loops, hot cue's etc

when i say recordbox crashing the way ive seen it crash is the actual program freezes (happens rarely and it wasnt my computer) and u have to close and restart the program...this can be annoying and if your only using recordbox as soon as u close the program your music will stop...something you dont want if your playing live, lucky i had my usbs there as well to switch too

or are you asking about the USB crashing that 1 time? not entirely sure why but yeh it just died, wouldnt register on CDJ or computer, just threw the WHALE away n got a new 1 lol

[MelodyIlliterate]

Cheers Gents, Helpful as always

[yizzle]

Cheers Gents, Helpful as always

there is a thumleft!?

cool

[Tomy]

i've only read OP. but i play out a fair bit. i'm still on CD's mainly because it solid and will never fail plus i like the fact of having something physically in my hands possibly a strange mental condition left over from my vinyl days. lol.

A lot of up and comers are using record box and usb. record box seems fucking unstable though and slow. Usb is pretty good not really a bit problem there sometimes no link cable is an issue. A few guys i've seen from over seas will bring duplicates of their USB's just incase.

[GREMM1S]

i've only read OP. but i play out a fair bit. i'm still on CD's mainly because it solid and will never fail plus i like the fact of having something physically in my hands possibly a strange mental condition left over from my vinyl days. lol.

A lot of up and comers are using record box and usb. record box seems fucking unstable though and slow. Usb is pretty good not really a bit problem there sometimes no link cable is an issue. A few guys i've seen from over seas will bring duplicates of their USB's just incase.

Any dj that doesn't have a duplicate shouldnt be in a club lol, despite not having the link cable people should carry a back up as well.

I havn't found rekordbox and usbs to be as reliable as i like but the small loss in reliability and the benefits in time, organisation and whanot is well worth it.

I used rekordbox via prodjlink through a switch at a mates 21st and basically played a playlist for a few hours with auto turned off so it just went through the songs and after say three hours it froze. I am pretty certain that was to do with my shit laptop overheating and causing the issue.

USB wise i have found a few files can make the player freeze when you try to load it, i have had this issue with some wavs (primarily my own bootlegs and songs exported from ableton) and also a few songs with i believe bad ID3 tags that cause the freezing.

Just a heads up for anyone that ever experiences a player freeze, just turn it off and back on it will be fine dont panic and try and load cds or link or whatever as once it freezes it wont load another song, for this reason and i also feel the link isnt 100% reliable i play off a usb for each cdj.

Dont be cheap or stupid and have 2 or 3 usbs in your bag as they can die or if a player freezes and you need to restart it if the usb is that player and you only have one usb goodbye music.

[MelodyIlliterate]

is not having cdj's linked a regular occurrence? very interested in 4 deck mixing... means 4 usbs plus 2 backups?

slight de rail... any one know where i can get some good info on 4 deck mixing? saw one of kissy sellout's mixes on dj sounds and creamed

cheers

[Jaz]

not necessarily, if the decks are 2000's or 900's you can just have 1 USB if they are linked, works the same way for RekidboX

[GREMM1S]

Yeah they almost always are linked its just a safe guard if a player freezes because they are basically computers now, by not using link you minus a few more risks.

As for 4 deck mixing i used to think it was awesome but really you can achieve the same output with three or two its all down to how fast you mix.

Generally most people still only use two for mixing tracks and the 3rd/4th for samples, loops etc