Some thoughts from a D.J. about RockBox firmware dedicated for D.js

[danielrussel]

Hi, My name is Daniel, and I'm a D.J. (Not an Alcoholic lol  )
(Please forgive my spelling mistakes as English is not my native language)

I will start at the bottom line:
Apparently, your knowledge and expertise as a strong Open Source project can transform almost any regular MP3 player into a full blown Stage-Sampler or Professional CDJ player, by developing a capable firmware..
My suggestion is to make a rockbox D.J. edition, that will incorporate professional Player / Sampler features into a regular cheap MP3 players.


Some Background:
As a D.J. i was astonished by the way your firmware can add capabilities to regular cheap MP3 players and really transform them.
This let me realize that a simple player like SanDisk Sansa Clip+ player (which i have several of those at my disposal and use them in my sets)
are no different from a stage Sampler or a CDJ professional player that cost me thousands of $$$...
With a Rockbox Firmware that concetrate on professional market needs - means Beat Counting, Sync, Looping and Indexing functions, pitch, and sampler, and ofcourse Midi, you can open a new range of products and leverage the creativity of live sets of thousands of D.js around the world!!!

10 seconds after Iv'e discovered Rockbox, I start thinking what if my MP3 player can replace my Yamaha / Roland stage sampler, or be used as a MIDI controller connected to my Laptop via USB....

Form Hardware prespective - the ARM7 / 9 processors is much stronger then any CPU incorporated in a 5 years old Stage sampler or player.

I think before Rockbox becomes another Android App... you should concetrate on Embedded development and turn the professional gear industry upside down!!! 

We, as a D.j's doesn't need the fancy Players that comes with Pic albums, Video capabilities etc.
Aside from the Professional Stuff (Laptop running Tracktor, CDJ's Mizer and Sampler) I use 4 SanDisk Sansa Clip+ which i found easy to operate, have great Lume on the display and thier buttons are easy to use. there are many archos players and old generation iPods that are great stuff.

The Players your firmware supports are great products and are much preffered over new generations of Android / iOS phones when it comes to Playing music

And let me finish from a real world example:
The Technics SL1200 was a legendary and industry-standard turntable manufactured for almost 40 years, and is still the standard today 3 years after manufactured.

For me, those players you support with custom firmware are the "Technics" of today and worth to be preserved with a descent "RockBox D.J" Firmware.

Reagrds,

Daniel.

[saratoga]

My suggestion is to make a rockbox D.J. edition, that will incorporate professional Player / Sampler features into a regular cheap MP3 players.

We have no interest in doing this, but this is an open source project so if you and other users are interested in this they are free to take the source code and make these changes.  People here would be glad to help where possible.

[danielrussel]

I wish i knew how to program...   

It probably takes 4 years in University to learn how to do this magic 

Thanks anyway

[gevaerts]

I wish i knew how to program...   

It probably takes 4 years in University to learn how to do this magic 

It doesn't.

[monoid]

No, you may be able to do programming in few weeks.  But it takes a lot of time to be good programmer.. 

It is comparable to driving a car. One is able drive quite fastly, but to become a good driver takes usualy few years. 

[danielrussel]

I've always taught that programming is a craft that demands formal education and BS degree. at least that what I've been told by others.

I might get the courage to start with Java as it is a good language to start with.

Thanks for your positive approach answers  .

[torne]

Pretty much everyone I know who's very good at programming was already very good at it long before having formal education or a BS degree, though many of them got that *later*.