In the video from DigitalDJTips.com above Joey Santos and a few DJs provide their opinion on if it’s OK to DJ off an external hard drive.
In short, it is, and many DJs perform using an external hard drive without issue. However, both Joey and a few clearly technically-savvy DJs make a case for why DJs shouldn’t DJ from an external hard drive unless absolutely necessary.
In the event you must DJ from an external drive, as many DEX 3 mixing software users do since the combination of music files, video files and karaoke files means they’re often tapping into libraries that exceed 300,000, the video provides a few clever tips to insure optimal performance.
In our opinion if you can use your internal hard drive (ideally a solid state drive) there’s less opportunities for technical failure or performance related issues. While DEX 3 (and DEX 3 RE) does buffer the entire track into RAM upon placing it into a deck, therefore nixing the requirement for the software to constantly buffer the song/video/karaoke track as it plays, you may still notice overall better performance.
What are your thoughts on using an external hard drive for Djing? Have you run into any issues or has it worked smooth like butta’? Share with us in the comments section below!
