I think laptopless djing works better if you're playing a single genre or tend to play for a particular scene - like festivals.

Open format and mobile djs can probably make it work, but I will always prefer a laptop for those gigs.

That’s a good point but I must admit it feels way more fun without the laptop

If you can locate the tracks you want quickly and easily enough then no need for a laptop. I roll with a 4T drive for my open format gigs (audio & video). Changing to decks only will require building a new drive and extensive editing of my collection, which I never seem to have the time to work on. Just picked up a pair of XDJ1000mk2s to start working on that but it will take months of prep at least before I would consider using them only for an open format gig.

Laptop Pros:
Waveforms, visual aid
Quickly find music
Easier to quick mix
Great for longer, open format sets and genre hopping, better for Hip Hop


Laptop Cons:
Heavy load to carry, loads of cables etc
Can be stressful when changing over
Sometimes not enough space in booth

USB Pros:
Light travel, huge bonus when going from gig to gig
Minimal set up time, no stress during changeover
Easier for shorter, single genre sets, especially EDM

USB Cons:
No waveforms / visual aid
Finding music can take ages
harder to quick mix
terrible for longer, open format sets and genre hopping, espescially for Hip Hop

All of those "USB Cons" are eradicated if you use RekordBox or Engine and prepare your crates/playlist before your gig. *Provided your are playing on professional gear.

I think the No laptop route is a lot more fun to play with I find myself doing it at home more and more but it's tough to switch from having a laptop and having all your music at your fingertips vs not having all your music. I think the reason I'm considering it more and more is because I feel like The Prime series features are a waste when using Serato DJ you can't take advantage of the touch screen the way you do on stand alone you can't search tracks on the players you're pretty much handcuffed to the lap top when using them with Serato.

I think to a certain extent, you have a point, but overall I disagree with you. I’ve been playing on the CDJ 2000s since they came out and have observed that:

- The waveforms are so basic, contain far less detail than serato. No colour, no tempo matching display, spikes in the middle

- The search function is horrible, firstly to get to search is an ordeal, secondly to key in the letters individually on the needle drop is a pain. Super slow, no where near serato

- The cue points work kind of well, although they are more limited than serato in terms of colour coding and number of cues

- You dedicate more time to adjusting levels with lack of auto gain

- It’s far more fiddly selecting, playing and mixing on CDJs. I can’t speak for denon. But as I said I’ve used rekordbox since it’s infancy. While I love the convenience of taking just usbs and headphones to gigs, nothing will cover me better than serato

On the Denon Prime it’s definitely easier then the Pio way more detail waveforms and the screens are amazing

^ Yeah they look amazing. Shame Pioneer dominate so much

That should change with time the NXS set up is way too over priced for what you get the Denon players are $400 less and you get more if someone is on the market for players I can’t see the benefit of the Pioneers

The new Pioneer CDJs & XDJs have color waveforms and a keyboard on the touchscreen to type in searches. Still not the best, but much more usable than what they offered in the past.

Damn Pioneer like Apple releasing shit every year like it’s the iPhone. In increments to maximise consumer purchases and company profits

That’s what I love about the Tecnhincs 1200, but it once, and it will stay with you for a lifetime

Buy it*

I just ordered an Akai MPX8 to load samples on when I go Laptop less

For air horns sirens and explosions? Lol

Ya can’t beat a laptop for search, prepare, doubles, cue points, loops, effects, crates, samples, organization and all the other stuff serato gives you but you can bounce around the world with a bunch of thumb drives and keep it easy. That’s pretty much the pros and cons right?

^ Prettymuch

You can see why the big festival DJs keep it to a thumb drive. They only play for an hour, their sets are all planned out, and theyre only mixing at 128bpm. Theyre constantly travelling. Makes sense for them.

I myself as a working DJ play lots of clubs and bars, sometimes for 6 hours. Open format, multiple genres. Serato makes sense for me

Not quite just mostly name drop for marketing purposes I find that air horn pretty annoying

I don’t see why you can’t do 4-6 hours on a one or two 128gb thumb drive I do possibly a lot more genres than most (reggaeton bachata merengue típico salsa hip hop trap house cumbia) and could see myself doing it, but I can definitely understand that working with a laptop is just a lot easier

^ Its definately possible, and I have done many a gig like that, but just a lot easier with serato

I like the ease and reliability of the thumb drive over laptops. It feels like it's rare that someone brings a computer and easily jumps on the decks without a bunch of head scratching and trouble shooting.

That's 100% correct just had a huge issue this weekend with my brothers NXS setup trying to switch over it just froze and the music went out so I ended up playing on his laptop.

Been using serato since the beginning.

Scratch live has never, ever failed me on Mac. Ever. And I’ve played out every week. It crashed on PC a couple of times and I vowed never to touch a PC again.

Serato DJ has crashed on me once with a Mac when in the early days.

I guess that’s like a 99.9% success rate. No need for head scratching and trouble shooting once you’ve mastered the art of setting up. And it is somewhat of an art doing it quickly and efficiently. I can set up in HID mode in a giffy. I can set up time code in an instant without touching the back of the mixer without touching cables.

... without touching the back of the mixer by just swapping cables ***

Both me and my brotherr have 2017 MBPs I’m not saying it was serato I’m saying I had the issue I’m not sure what the problem was but there was definitely an issue, one of the reasons I want to dj without a laptop (for now) is because I feel that Serato fails to take advantage of all the features the Denondj system has to offer

This is an interesting topic. I tried the RB XDJ-RX2 and couldn't really get into it. It was decent, but I ended up going back to Serato. I'm curious about the new Denon Prime 2 and Denon Prime Go that were just announced a few days ago. I might give the all-in-one another look. That Prime Go is like the baby yoda of the Prime gear. :P

Remember learning SSL when coming from vinyl? I'd always bring a stack of vinyl and just dip into SSL until it was familiar. With the Prime 2 and Go that kind of easing into a new workflow isn't an option. It's all in or nothing.

A 7" screen is also tiny for on the fly searching and adding to a prepare crate all night. But if the flip side is superior stability and simplicity then I'm all for it.

If down the road you could plug an iPad into one of the charging usb ports and have it serve as the touch interface like the QSC TouchMix mixers that would be killer. Then you have the option of bigger screen closer to your face than at deck level.