New Dog, Old Tricks Revisited
I’ve been thinking the past few days since I had the original conversation with my friend from yester-year and wrote the article New Dog, Old Tricks. Specifically I have been thinking back over what I wrote and that there were some other things I wanted to mention that I didn’t touch upon. A few things that I didn’t hit on that I thought would be good to write a follow-up article about was that of using obsolete software on newer machines or newer software on obsolete machines. Aside from the fact that those who are stealing music and/or software opening themselves up to all sorts of headaches such as viruses, Trojans and computer hackers, there is also the issue of most software developers now placing more means of thwarting software piracy.
Now the biggest problem with using obsolete software is that it is no longer supported. In other words you are not going to find any updates as well as finding little or no support. Additionally, some programs will not work with the 64-bit versions of Windows XP as well as some programs not working at all under Windows Vista. The other side of the coin are those folks that are using an ancient laptop to spin tunes on, such as Windows 98 and are finding it increasingly harder to find new programs that will run on them if they are able to find anything at all. The bottom line is that sooner or later, laptops break and you have to replace them with something newer. Conversely speaking, if you decide that you want the latest software program from XYZ company, you will also need to take a good look at whether or not your old laptop is going to be able to run the software.
For those of you who have read my books and/or been to one of my seminars, you know that I am a big fan of maximum hardware and minimum software. What goes hand-in-hand with that is that I am also a fan of keeping my CPS current if I upgrade the software. For instance, for the longest time I was using Windows 98 SE and PCDJ Red 5.2, it was a bullet-proof combinations that I used for many years without issue. When I decided that I wanted to start using my karaoke more often, I started looking around at the software that was available at the time paying close attention to hardware requirements - I eventually settled on Virtual DJ and I built a new CPS using Windows 2000 Professional. Now just this past year I upgraded my software yet again and upgraded my CPS along with it, in addition to finally breaking down and buying Windows XP Pro 64-bit to run it.
The moral of the story is this; if you upgrade your mixing software (as in buying a legal copy of it), then you are also going to need to look at possibly upgrading hardware and maybe even the operating system. Always keep that in mind and you will have considerably less problems even if you are using a laptop! Oh yeah, and save the piracy for the costume parties this time of year…
Tags: computer dj, cps dj, digital dj, laptop dj, laptops suck, music piracy, software piracy
