ProDJpc

The topic of this post (& hopefully thread) will be ideas for a new and improved prodjpc touchscreen skin for Virtual DJ. There are all sorts of djs that use the current skin and we want to implement more of the features that help you do your job faster, easier or just plain better. Over the next 2 or 3 months I plan to start development on either a single skin or set of skins if we have enough different ideas for functionality to support it.

Since it’s my/our first prompt for discussion, I would like to set a few ground rules. First, you must be registered and logged in to post here. So please register. You will be prompted to do so when you attempt to comment. Second, set up a gravatar, that’s the pic next to your name when you post. It looks so much cooler when you can see who it is that’s posting. Plus when you set up a gravatar (global avatar I think) it will show up on any blog that you post on. I’ll explain how to set it up below. Third, positive comments and contributions would be most helpful. So if you can make your point with out bashing previous prodjpc skins that that would be appreciated. Fourth, if you can point to examples in another currently available skin that would be awesome.

Setting up a Gravatar

1. Step 1: Go to wordpress.com and set up an account.
2. Step 2: Go to gravatar.com and use your new worpress.com login and sign in
3. Step 3: Set up your gravatar.com profile. Basically you will add an email address and associate a profile pic with it. Use this email address when you register to post here.

Suggested Changes

• 5 Cue Starts – over 3
• Better Access to FX

Hi All,

I’m talking about digital dj database back up again.  I have had a number of calls concerning my recommendations on back up over the past few months, so I thought it might be time to write about it again.  I know that there are a number of good ways to do it, but I just wanted to describe my thoughts for back up and describe the basic plan that I employ.  You can modify it however you’d like, but for goodness sakes, make sure you back up your digital music, video and settings files.  They take a lot of work to develop and refine and you don’t want to have to do that all over again.  So, here is my article from some time ago.  Other than the drives getting much bigger, the process is still pretty much the same. 

Hope this helps,

Paul

What is Back up and why do DJ’s need to worry about it?

At ProDJpc, we feel an obligation to do everything in our power to make your digital DJing experience enjoyable, easy and safe. Through our design process, we try to make the products fun and intuitive, but when it comes to the safety part, our design can only go so far. We need your help to protect your most valuable asset, your media database. With this in mind, we put together an explanation of the basics of back-up strategy and have provided a few examples to help you get started.

Compiling a terrific collection of digital music, videos, karaoke, ambients, and lighting schemes can take a tremendous amount of your time and effort. It is, therefore, important to protect that investment with a back-up plan that fits your situation. Every plan should take into consideration failure or loss of the hard drive where the data is stored, the computer that the hard drive is connected to, and the potential destruction of the facility where the hard drive, computer, and/or back-up is stored.

A DJ’s performance computer can be kept safe by storing it in a secure location between uses, not exposing it to the Internet and not installing unnecessary software, (especially right before an important upcoming event.) Another safeguard is utilizing some form of mechanical redundancy, such as RAID 1(or mirroring). Although recommended by ProDJpc, RAID 1 only protects against mechanical failure of one drive. In essence, RAID allows the show to go on, in case one of the drives fails. But, computers (and computer users) being what they are, there is always a chance for system or data corruption. With a RAID 1 system, if your system or data becomes corrupt, you’ll have a perfect copy of the data corruption on both disks in the volume. The only real protection against corruption, theft and malicious digital vandalism is a backup strategy.

To help you develop your back-up strategy, we’ll describe the strategies we have developed for our own usage. You may not employ the exact methodology we do personally, but as long as you consider and protect yourself from mechanical failure, system corruption, physical vandalism, natural disasters and theft, you are probably doing it right.

Paul’s personal back-up strategy.

I have installed a network in my office with a wireless router. I rip and encode all of my music, videos, ambients, etc. on my tower computer at my desk. I have a 500 Gig media hard drive installed in my tower that I keep up to date with new media that I process. About once a week, I take the 500 Gig USB media back-up hard drive out of the fire resistant safe I keep in my office closet and update it with the media drive in my computer with ViceVersa, a really terrific piece of software from TGRMN Software (http://www.tgrmn.com/).

With that done, I plug the USB hard drive into my ALLn1 and use ViceVersa again to update my performance unit with my back-up hard drive. Then I put the back-up hard drive back in the fire proof safe and leave it there until the next update. This system always keeps three copies of my media database in different locations in case any one of the hard drives or computers fails and keeps one copy in a fire resistant safe in case a fire destroys both my desk computer and performance machine. Also, at no time are all three of the drives connected to each other in case of system corruption on one of the machines. This would usually happen due to a malicious virus, typically picked up on the Internet.

What about tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes you ask? Well that is where the bank safe deposit box comes into play. If the event of a major fire or tornado hitting my office, I figure I could restore 6 months worth of data pretty quickly with the help of my subscription service. So, once every 6 months, I swap the 500 Gig USB media hard drive in my safe deposit box with the one in the fire safe in my home. In combination with the RAID 1 system I use in my DJ performance system, I sleep well at night knowing my data is safe because I employ a good back-up strategy. If clients ever ask me about my back-up hardware, I also add in a little blurb about my database back-up strategy. Occasionally, the person I am speaking with will understand and be impressed. Otherwise, I think they just feel like I have all the bases covered on their behalf.

What about nuclear attack you say? Well, then you need something like this, (http://infobunker.com/.) If your goal is to be the first DJ playing after a nuclear event, give us a call, we know these folks and can hook you up.

With this article we hope we have not caused any undue concern about digital DJing. For the great majority of computer users, none of the disasters we described will ever happen. But, we believe a good IT based company has to acknowledge these realities and do all it can to protect its clients for the worst case scenarios, so they can ensure the highest odds of easy success.