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club DJ using dual I-openers for work!!!
club DJ aspiring to go digital.

New Messageclub DJ using dual I-openers for work!!! (modified 0 times) DJchris
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Nice to finally fine a good I-o hack site! I'm a DJ in NJ and I'm looking to use dual I-openers for work! I have one now, unhacked, but completely torn apart. I see where everything goes, and I fully understand how the I-opener works with the hard drive and fan/heat sink. I plan on buying another I-o and 2 mod-kits next week and I'm going to copy my couple thousand MP3's off my hard drive on my computer to both drives on the dual I-o's. I'm gonna use them just like you would 2 CD players and a mixer when DJ'ing, however I'm going to just have to "fade" into each song via volume controls. Trust me guys, this IS the future of DJ'ing and I'm sure you will soon see ALOT (i mean alot) of DJ's using laptops for DJ'ing. Personally, I just don't wanna spend hella bucks on 2 laptops for this kinda stuff ya know? Anyway enough with this petty crap, let's get down to bizz.

I desperately, DESPERATELY, need someone's help with all this. I need to know how to get Winblows 95/98/ME onto the drives and how to get sound output. I realize I can somehow hook the speaker outs into 1/8" headphone style jacks into RCA or speakers outs right to RCA jacks, but I just dont know how. Those 2 problems are my main concerns, the rest I can handle on my own (i think). Also, when running Winblows on the I-o, is it best to run Win 95, 98, or ME? I notice the WinChip says it's "designed for win95", but is that just BS? Also, when running Winblows, can I still use the original I-o keyboard and mouse pointer?
Well, I guess that's all the tech questions I have at the moment, until I really get into this project. Please, PLEASE, someone find it in your heart to forgive my ignorance and computer-related inabilities and help me out. I can assure you, I'll be the very first DJ to be using the I-o's for work and I can guarantee others will follow. I guess you could say I feel like a pioneer without a map right now, and I really need some help. Email me anytime @ NJsentra91@msn.com or IM me @ ChriszMonte. Any and all help is GREATLY appreciated.

DJchris
06-11-2001 21:29:12

New MessageRE:club DJ using dual I-openers for work!!! (modified 0 times) Wild_Pencil
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Not to rain on your parade -- it sounds kinda cool, but I just don't see any "serious" DJ's using standard PC equipment for gigs anytime soon. IOpener, Laptop, or Desktop. Maybe a sturdy rackmounted PC with an LCD panel would work, though.

Think about this: Do you REALLY want to drive 500+ watts off of a mere 1/8" jack, hand-soldered onto a pair of tiny pins deep within the IOpener? Um.. I wouldn't gig with that -- it just seems too fragile to me. Plus, you'd get a better signal to amplify if your setup used Balanced Outputs. I'll just bet the IOpener would *love* to give you that ugly ground-fault *Buzzzzz* noise we all know and love..

I used to do gigs for a Mobile Karaoke company long ago, so I have a fair idea of how stressful live gigs are. And that was when the equipment was "simple". If anything broke (almost always a cable-end), I had a gas-powered soldering iron to quick-repair the cable in no time.

I'd sure hate to dive deep into an IOpener for any quick-repairs.

I totally agree, though -- DJs will eventually move away from turntables and cd players, and start mixing on a PC platform. But unless you're doing gigs for friends, using IOpeners in this way is risky -- a faulty soldering job can cause you to breach your service contract. (It's a "hack" after all).

Don't do weddings or school proms with an IOpener setup... unless you're absolutely confident of the soldering job.

-WP

06-12-2001 00:18:49

New MessageRE:club DJ using dual I-openers for work!!! (modified 0 times) I-O DJ
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Well, I understand the risks of the I-O crashing during play, but if it does, I have the other I-O, two CD players, two turntables, satellite club music channel, and vrc tape club mixes to fall back on. :) I'm not too worried about it. A 3 second break at a go-go bar (that's where I DJ at) isn't anything since all the patrons are staring at T&A and the girls don't care what happens as long as they're getting tips. I understand the risks of running something like this during live performance, but I'd like to think I'm pioneering something here, ya know? Matter of fact, contrary to your belief, ALOT of DJ's are using the PC platform for DJ'ing...some laptops, some in-house PC's, etc. One of the DJ's at works uses a Mac for MP3's...switches back and forth betweeen CD player and laptop. one of the top DJ's in the nation is using a PC platform at some BIG NYC clubs, and fo course, it's a $10,000 setup but that's besides the point. Anyway...as far as soldering jobs go, I have no doubt that my soldering skills are at their best and will never fail me. Total wattage on the system I use is approximately 900 watts, and that makes no difference to me because when music as loud as it is in work, you can't hear imperfections, even during mixing. All I'm worried about is getting the whole freaking thing to work, and work right. :)
DJchris
06-12-2001 00:56:35

New MessageRE:club DJ using dual I-openers for work!!! (modified 0 times) ckbone
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I totally agree with Wild_Pencil here....The I-Opener, with it's fragil construction, flimsy stand, easily broken screen, is not at all suited for what you suggest. For ten years or so, I video-taped weddings and other live events as a week-end hobby/job. The toll on equiptment was very high...An I-Opener under similar conditions wouldn't stand a chance. Besides, for the costs involved in hacking one, you could easily afford a good laptop....designed for hard usage.
06-12-2001 03:17:32

New MessageRE:club DJ using dual I-openers for work!!! (modified 0 times) 02U2
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I agree with Wild_Pencil and ckbone, An i-Opener is not what you need, it's to flimsy. A professional grade rack mounted system is the way to go!
http://www.discjockeyamerica.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
06-12-2001 03:50:55

New MessageRE:club DJ using dual I-openers for work!!! (modified 0 times) Programmer
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As Devils Official Advocate, I find I must point out that the IO can be toughened up, and that if you remove all tension from the lead going to the sound chip, you won't much have to worry about it getting yanked off. If you further set up with a small UPS and LINUX you can get around the accidental crashing and trip over the power cord problems. Remove the plastic base and hook the metal to a deck and you remove the possibility of the stand crumbling on you. secure some plexiglass in front of the screen and bruno no longer "accidentally" sticks his fist through it..

Hey when you're done, send me pictures.. (of the dancers not the IO:)

06-12-2001 06:06:08

New MessageRE:club DJ using dual I-openers for work!!! (modified 0 times) laserfan
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Hmmm, I thought we HATED guys who say "why would you want to do THAT???".

Instead I want to suggest to I-O DJ that you SEARCH THIS BOARD like the rest of us have, because answers to all of your questions are posted here already. If you're really desperate, DESPERATE, then please, PLEASE do your homework. After all, when you're done with your hacking you'll want and need to know exactly what you've got and how you got there, won't you.

06-12-2001 07:30:16

New MessageRE:club DJ using dual I-openers for work!!! (modified 0 times) Wild_Pencil
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OK, assuming the fragile issues are put to rest, and the IO's are hooked up to the mixing console properly...

Next, you'd need to consider storage space. I'd suggest setting up a small Ethernet LAN within the entire coffin -- USB Ethernet Adapters are easy to get, and so are Ethernet Hubs. The reason I suggest this is so you can get an off-the-shelf Network Storage device, like those "Snap!" products.

Now you have this little network storage device that you just plug into the coffin when you get there, and you don't have to tinker around with the IOpeners to update your MP3 collection. (To update the MP3 collection, hook the storage device to a LAN with a real desktop PC.. )

Cool, so now you're a DJ with a pair of sturdy, permanently mounted IOpeners.. with a removable MP3 audio collection that you can share between the two IOpeners.

Nice.

-WP

06-12-2001 13:52:54

New MessageRE:club DJ using dual I-openers for work!!! (modified 0 times) beatniks3
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""I can assure you, I'll be the very first DJ to be using the I-o's for work and I can guarantee others will follow""

are you very confident about this statement? if not, search for a post i started a few months ago. i think that the i-opener has potential for the dj, but there are some limitations as well. what are you going to do about user interface? somehow the idea of a dj standing in the middle of the club clicking on two mice just isn't as appealing as one working two turntables. hope your project works out, beatniks3.

...escalation is only a puerile game left to the military
06-14-2001 10:58:24

New MessageRE:club DJ using dual I-openers for work!!! (modified 1 times) jaydogmc
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I-O DJ.

It was very good to read your post, because I thought that I was the only one that was trying to do this I-opener DJ thing. I'm at college and DJ parties.

Here is my setup: Technics 1200 turntable, numark 1001x mixer and an iopener:

Here is what I did to the i-opener to get it to play MP3's into my mixer:
1) bought a lasagna fan - you have to do this.
2) bought the i-mod 3 kit from codeman - you also have to do this to get the laptop HD to talk to the i-opener
3) bought a laptop hd, 6 gig - good enough for some MP3's
5) bought a linksys ethernet adapter
6) just ordered a USB to 1/8" audio adapter from crutchfield.com - this should just plug strait into the back of my i-op's usb port and then I can run a male 1/8" to RCA connecter (radio shack!) into my second channel of my mixer. This should work.
7) 128 mb of ram

Here is what I have discovered while trying to get MP3's to play well on i-opener.
1) my mp3's would skip, about every 5 seconds, even though I had 128 mb of ram. I thought it was a disk thing, because whenever it would skip the disk light would come on as if there was activity. I went through and tried the suggestions of the IDE channel stuff, but what fixed it for me was VERY simple. I just disabled virtual memory. Now it rarely skips and I can run ie, winamp and aim all at the same time.

Now to the hard part. I am using the stock 266mHz processor and NO level 2 cache. There is no prebuffereing either, so mp3's take awhile to load (2 secs). For cueueing and such this is unacceptable. So winamp is out of the question for now, because I need precision. I dont know if a program like virtual turntables will run well, because it not only does real time MP3 decoding, but other things as well (pitch changing, cueueing etc).

When I've got something playing on I-Opener I can cueue with turntable no problem, but going the other way is hard. Most of the stuff I do is precision scratching, so what I think i'm going to do is loop beats on the can-opener and then scratch over that with turntable.

I am running win98 because I had a fit trying to get rh linux installed, and win98 requires less of a footprint than win2k. Also, win98 has nice drivers.

Are there any other i-op dj's out there?

I just think it would be so cool to have 100 people dancing with me behind a dj table scratching on a turntable with the blue light of the i-opener lighting my face. yeah!

06-19-2001 08:30:34

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