Hi!

I friend gave me a Dell Latitude E640 laptop Win 10 Pro Intel Core i7-2640M CPU 2.80GHz. I upgraded the RAM from 4 to 8GB and the hard drive from 250 GB to 2 TB from spare parts I have around. I plan to use it to DJ and play some tracks on the road I bounce from my beefier PC and MacbookPro that I use for production.

What software do you recommend for DJ and DAW (in case inspiration strikes) for this one? Thanks!

 

Cockos REAPER. You can get it on sister site.

 

Interesting. Anything else comes to mind?

 

Reaper. Hands down. Smooth as silk on my aging laptop.
WARNING: Be prepared for a whopping 11mb download. ;)

 

I wouldn't know about DJ'ing software but for a lightweight, all-round DAW, I'd say Ableton Live. Probably the most CPU efficient DAW out there. The standard plugs sound good and are very, very light on the CPU.

Even the free Lite version, with its limitations, is pretty good for ideas/drafts.

P.S. Recently, I switched from Live to FL Studio mostly because it suits my workflow better. FL Studio is still a bit wonky when it comes to CPU efficiency, hence my recommendation.

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2018

what else could I do but concur with the Reaper suggestions .... ?
one of the reasons I use it is it has given me the least trouble compared to others.. but also on the
positive side.. the greatest flexibility... but it's not natively set up to do what Ableton does... though you can
probably get it pretty close, and also modify the GUI to look fairly close to it...

try a few out.... and do some of your own testing for your purposes, the best way to really know..

then check out this multi page hash out of a similar question right here at home..

https://audiosex.pro/threads/best-daw-for-cpu-performance-question.23361/

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2018

Thank you kindly. Keep the suggestions coming.

Plot twist: I just learned that this particular model can be Hackintoshed. Hmmm.....

 

As others say, For CPU efficiency, u can't beat Reaper.

BUT Ableton is a DAW which is slightly more tailored to live performance, though with a few scripts Reaper can prolly come close.

Otherwise, maintain DAW/DJ separation by using a classic DJ app such as Traktor, PCDJ, futureDJ, mixxx (free) etc.

 

Not to hijack the thread or anything... but I use Reaper for 95% of everything i do. Except flipping samples.
Ableton Live and FL Studio alike has a function in their samplers that let's you play a sample from difference triggerpoints. In FL studio's Fruity Slicer, it's called "play to end", in Live's simpler, it's called "thru mode". I know there are a few VST's that kind of does this, but they add way too many extra steps. Do you know of any Reaper script that lets me do this?

 

You can do this in a project w/o scripts. Set a few markers, hit play, and press kbd numbers corresponding to marker#. Is this close enough?

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2018

Traktor + Ableton

 

I am used to FL Studio. Just have to learn Reaper and/or Ableton's workflow and Traktoe for DJ work. I am used to Deckadance or DJayPro.

But like recommendations from the CPU standpoint. Keep them coming.

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2018

Speaking of CPU efficient recommendations, when you deal with VST plugins, should I aim to install VST3 over VST2 if the host is VST3 capable?

I might be stating something obvious to you, but I just want to learn from your experiences.

 

Yes, whenever available, install VST3.

Main differences are related to reliability and performance improvement.

RE: Performance
"VST3 helps to improve overall performance by applying processing to plug-ins only when audio signals are present on their respective inputs. Instead of always processing input signals, VST3 plug-ins can apply their processing economically and only when it is needed." - Steinberg, developers of VST technology.


There a few more features and you can read more about it here:
https://www.steinberg.net/en/company/technologies/vst3.html

 

https://www.reaper.fm/
or
https://www.magix.com/index.php?id=...R36KIjsv5B1kxEg-G1Y7-SbVHyVc4DdsaAksxEALw_wcB
mofo.

 

unless you now suddenly are fed up with FL by some reason you should not waste all your invested experience to jump to something else, if anything add ableton and thats it.

and in the case you think you really want to leave FL then just use ableton. focus focus

when it comes to cpu there is no definitive answer but when you reach the ceiling it wont make a real difference gaining one or two more vsts here and there. when done you will be done

 

Use REAPER as a DAW.

Use FL Studio as a sequencer.

Use them both at the same time.

 

thanks for the suggestions. lots of food for thought. keep them coming.

 

I'll try this!