Selecting the bag
As a Mac newbie, my first place of research was MacWorld magazine, where I saw an ad for the Axio Beatbox DJ Bag. The bag looked sizable with room to carry a keyboard controller, laptop, and additional gear. Knowing that it was co-designed by the BPM Magazine crew gave me the impression that it would be great for a digital DJ. I logged onto the Axio website and looked around for a bit. I figured this was a good time to test customer service, so I called the general information phone and asked for help with selecting a bag. My questions were quickly and knowledgably answered, so I ordered the bag directly. Shipping was reasonable and the bag arrived ahead of schedule.What is the Axio Beatbox DJ Bag?
The bag is designed for the laptop DJ/musician and has seven main compartments and several pockets. The two largest compartments in the center are a padded and fabric lined for a laptop (fits a 17" Mac Powerbook perfectly) and a deeper padded pocket for a controller (it holds the Vestax VCI-100 and a Dexia Rack with room for a power supply, other controllers like the M-Audio Ozone and the Total Control would fit easily as well). Two padded compartments fit a large size external hard drive (the 1TB LaCie Extreme drive fits in either - so two could be carried). A fabric-lined compartment fits a standard size pair of headphones with two smaller compartments for power supplies. The additional pockets can be used for magazines, cables, DVDs, or even vinyl (20 records can be carried comfortably in the bag).
Testing
The design on the bag is really strong and it took a few days of usage to best fill the bag. I found that the pockets for vinyl can also safely carry a secondary Powerbook. The pocket for the second hard drive can also hold the sound card. The smaller pockets are great for power supplies and cables, so that everything has its place. After a few days, I am safely carrying the following in the bag - 17" Mac Book pro, 15" Powerbook, Vestax VCI-100, Dexia Rack, M-Audio Fast Track Pro-USB, Technics headphones, Power/Surge Strip, LaCie 1 TB external Drive, TView Scan Converter, and all the power supplies/cables to connect everything. That is a lot to carry in one bag, and the Axio Beatbox carries it all.
