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Thread: Same Macbook Pro for DJing and Producing/Daily Use? Or No?

  1. #1

    Same Macbook Pro for DJing and Producing/Daily Use? Or No?

    Hey guys,
    I currently use two Macbook Pro's. One is a dedicated 2011 Macbook Pro for DJing only. I keep minimal apps on it but I keep all my music on the internal 1 TB drive.
    The other Macbook Pro I use for every-day use as well as keeping my DAW (Logic Pro) and all my samples on there (everything in the internal drive as well).

    Question:
    New Macbook Pro's come with small solid state internal drives. Definitely not enough storage space to keep all my music files and samples on. My question is this: Instead of using two Macbook Pro's, should I just use one for everything?
    For instance: I will only keep the OS, VST's, Licenses, and my necessary Apps (Like Serato and Logic Pro) on the internal solid state drive.
    For my daily tasks and production samples and projects I could keep those all on one dedicated external hard drive.
    For my DJ gigs I can bring a dedicated DJ external drive with all my songs on it.

    What do you think? Should I keep using two Macbook Pro's? Or should I get the new macbook pro and just use external drives for pretty much everything? My main concern is speed, reliability, etc. etc. thanks!

  2. #2
    Batman andymunro's Avatar
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    If macs are as solid as they're sold or reputed to be then you should be good with one new Mac book provides in my opinion.
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  3. #3
    Member djknowledge's Avatar
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    i use my macbook pro solely for djing. i have my daws installed but only for emergency/convenience purposes. i do any production work on my other windows laptop and my windows desktop. wouldnt want constant updates and changes messing up the laptop and possibly ruining my settings/crates and libraries for serato.
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  4. #4
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    I use one MacBook for personal and DJ use. I created two accounts on it to keep everything separated. It's been fine for 5 years now.

    I keep the OS up to date and have never had any issues with VDJ not working after an update. In fact I just updated to MacOS Sierra and VDJ works no problem.
    Last edited by STLRiverCity; 09-21-2016 at 07:51 PM.

  5. #5
    I've been using two macbooks just like you guys have. But times are changing and technology is up******. Solid States are just too small to carry the library of music I have when I like to DJ. The bigger solid state internal drives are too expensive for me at the moment.

    Some of my friends say they can DJ with their music on USB 3.0 external drives just fine. But I'm just so hestitant to start DJing this way 4 times a week because I've never DJ'd using an external hard drive for all of my music. I won't keep any music on the small internal Solid State Drive because I want it to be free and clear and fast.

    I will also plan to probably buy a seperate external drive that will contain all of my production samples and my daily documents/photo's/video's.

    My plan is to keep only the Apps I need on the internal solid state on the 2015 Macbook Pro. Apps like Logic Pro, Serato, and Final Cut Pro.

    What do you all think of this idea?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Suprarick View Post
    Some of my friends say they can DJ with their music on USB 3.0 external drives just fine. But I'm just so hestitant to start DJing this way 4 times a week because I've never DJ'd using an external hard drive for all of my music. I won't keep any music on the small internal Solid State Drive because I want it to be free and clear and fast.
    I know DJ's who also do this, but like you I'm hesitant, mainly because of the mechanical flimsiness of the USB 3.0 port on most external HDD's. They just don't inspire confidence, especially if they will be plugged/unplugged 4 times a week.

    Maybe LaCie's with Thunderbolt?

  7. #7
    Member djknowledge's Avatar
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    how big is your music library? (as in gb)
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  8. #8
    I use a PC laptop for everything. I paid less than $1000 Canadian and then added a 500 GB SSD for $100 US so I have 1.5 TB of space. I have the OS and Serato installed on both drives so if one failes I can just switch to the other drive. No point in having 2 laptops.
    Last edited by Unknown DJ; 09-21-2016 at 05:05 PM.
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  9. #9
    You know...what about the Serato Folder that Serato automatically creates in the "music" tab in the internal drive? Assuming the Serato application is installed directly on the internal drive. My biggest concern at this point with using different drives is...although NO music will be stored internally, each external will have a completely different set of serato libraries/crates etc...for instance...right now one of my macbooks has its own serato dj application, it's own serato folder, and all of it's music on that internal drive. The crates in serato load up just fine. Same thing goes for my othet macbook. They are just completely different libraries with completely different crates with completely different music files. But it works, since they are both on different computers. Now...I worry....about merging those...and any conflicts that will arise since Serato automatically creates Just One Serato folder in the internal drive.

    This is one reason why I may just stick to using two or three macbook pro's with big internal drives. Cause I want the crates of my different hard drives to load up just fine and how I like them. I don't want that internal Serato drive to "favor" or "recognize" just ONE of the external hard drives crates and files.
    The only way I've tested it so far is by connecting my current "DJ Macbook time-machine Backup" to my production laptop. My production laptop has it's own samples, it's own crates, and a very systematic way of visually organizing my audio samples. When I plugged in my "external DJ time machine back up hard drive" to this computer and opened up Serato, I only saw my production stuff. I didn't see any of the "DJ laptop" crates pull up automatically in Serato. Hell, I didn't even see the external drive on the left "crate" side bar. I would have had to of gone directly do the "files" tab in Serato in order to access anything from the "DJ backup." The reason I don't like that....is because 1) I was hoping Serato would automatically populate my "DJ laptop" crates with all the DJ files in those crates automatically, but it didn't. It's going to be a big pain in the a** to have to not have Serato automatically populate the crates from the external drive. I ***suspect*** the reason it only populated my production crates was because the .Serato folder and all of my music samples are located on my production macbook. It probably has just one Serato folder and it's corresponding subcrates to refer to upon Serato application start up. So...I installed a second Serato application called Serato DJ 2. I opened it up, but no crates showed up...nothing. And all it did was freeze when hitting "exit." No new .Serato folder was created for the new Serato DJ 2 application either. I was hoping I could just run two different Serato applications but like I said, "my music" in the internal drive still had only the one original .Serato folder which still was reading all my production stuff just fine when using my original Serato DJ application. Hell, I even did this process with installing Scratch Live and the same result. There's GOTTA be a way to have ONE Serato DJ application installed on the solid state internal be able to auto-populate crates and music files from different external drives without me having to go into Serato's "files" each time I open the application when I have new songs weekly on those external drives (one which will contain my production stuff and the other will contain my DJ stuff). These $700 refurbished macbook pro's from 2012 are looking very tempting right now...so that I can just have 3 macbooks and never have Serato issues. But I'm also hardheaded and want to keep up with the times. It's just this darn .Serato and this auto population of crates and music files of different externals that's driving me crazy right now.

  10. #10
    I think you are making things way to complicated. But if you want you could make a partition and install the OS on each partition. Then install Serato on each partition.
    Hewlett Packard the backbone of Apple data centers.
    I will not read anything in Comic sans

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