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digital jukebox
I am not a DJ; I have no background in music or sound technology.
Neither am I a computer technology wizard.
However, I do have the necessary skills to: (1) download a song, (2) copy that song to a CD, (3) insert that CD in a player, (4) cable that player to a powered mixer, and (5) amplify that song over two speakers . . . for people to dance to the music.
I want to eliminate (2), (3), and (4) above.
What I want to do is: Download my song library to a Dell notebook in a "digital jukebox" (e.g., Musicmatch Jukebox, somebody recommended I-Tunes to me) software program. Then, I want to send a selection from my song library DIRECTLY to my powered mixer for amplification so people can dance to the music.
Isn't that technology out there now?
I'm spending way too much time copying to a CD and then using the CD player.
Is there a Dell notebook that would take on this chore? I don't want to buy a system that is overkill, but I don't want it to be lacking or overworked, either.
Jim Coates
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Posted April 13th, 2006 01:00
If I'm not misunderstanding you it's pretty simple: you connect a cable from the headphone jack of the computer to the mixer; click on the name of the file wherever you stored it on the hard drive; a player opens and plays the file. I guess any computer for the last 20 years can do it. Basically you just put the computer in the signal path where the cd player was before.
A jukebox or playlist comes in handy when you have a set of songs you want to play without having to click on each one individually. Most players let you set up lists, such as the playlists in Windows Media Player. It's really just a matter of which player you like to use.
One caveat: many Inspirons have a ground loop problem that occurs and causes a noise when you connect a cable from the laptop to an audio device, if both are plugged into a/c current. This flaw is caused by the design of the Dell power adapter. If you run into this problem then you will need to get an inexpensive ground loop isolator from Radio Shack (or more expensive ones from a variety of sources).
Jim