What’s it going to be? Mac or PC? One is the toast of the creative industry with each unit being delicately hand crafted on a silk pillow by a choir of angels. The other is a clunking black hole sucking the cool out of the universe and replacing it with narcoleptic accountants and device driver errors. At least that is what we are led to believe. If you happen to fall into the latter camp you might grudgingly admit to having a PC stashed under the desk for mundane office work but you certainly wouldn’t consider taking it to a club? Would you?
REALITY CHECK
The reality is that, despite the bad press, PCs can be configured to work just as effectively as Macs, you just need to know your way around them. In this article we show you how to take the first step in understanding PC optimization for Traktor (amongst other things). You will learn how to use and customize a basic script that kills off dozens of CPU and RAM hungry Windows Services. This script is not a panacea but it is one piece of the puzzle you can play with before making more permanent changes to your setup.
Watch the video at the top of the article for a full walkthrough on using our handy optimizer script. Here is a basic glossary of terms to get you started:
WINDOWS SERVICES
Windows Services are programs that are loaded up during boot time. Each service is tasked supporting a specific feature or component. They require no user interaction, are transparent to the user and their numbers quietly grow as new applications are installed on your machine. Some Windows Services are vital, many are not and, all of them consume your system resources.
SCRIPTS
A script or “batch file” is simply a text file that contains sets of commands. Scripts are incredibly useful because they can contain multiple sets of commands that can be executed in no more than two clicks. The script that we have created enables you to stop and subsequently restart a number of common services that are not needed by Traktor and most DJ services.
GET THE SCRIPT
- Go to: http://themixtrain.wordpress.com/resources/djtt-pro-audio-optimizer/
- Copy and paste the script text into a Notepad file. Save the file as whateveryoulike.bat (Note: there is no .BAT option in the the ‘Save as Type’ in the Notepad ‘Save As ‘ dialog. By adding .bat to the end of the file name you will ensure the file is correctly saved as a batch file and not a text file.
- Watch the video in the header for full installation instructions.
SUMMARY
This script enables you to take the first step in optimizing a PC but it certainly isn’t designed to be a complete solution for applications like Traktor or Serato. Stripping you system down takes some time and know-how. In future posts we’ll cover topics like creating a dual-boot environment so you can create a stripped down system for Traktor alongside another instance of Windows that will happily support your day-to-day activities. If however, this level of OS tweaking is not for you and you are currently in the market for a machine that will run DJ software effortlessly, heading to the Apple store is still a good bet.
Special Thanks to Trancicted and Stashe for their work on the script
