quick question about mixers and cueing

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-- quick question about mixers and cueing

Posted by nrjizer on Apr-08-2004 22:50:

quick question about mixers and cueing

I'm wondering... do all mixers allow you to turn the cue for both channels on so you can hear both tracks going in both channels of your headphones, while only one is being played live? Becuase my Vestax 275 has a split cue option, which is one of the reasons I bought it, but I think I was mistaken as to exactly what it does, becuase I never use it. All it seems to do is play the live track in full, while the cued track plays in one cup of the headphones, which isn't what I was after. I like to cue and beatmach entirely in the headphones, because this is how I've learned to do it after years of traktor, plus I plan on saving my ears by using good headphones so I can mix at a softer volume (though I do use 1 cup monitoring for mixing in live).

So I'm wondering... can all mixers do this? And exactly what does split cue refer to?

Posted by djeternal2004 on Apr-08-2004 23:02:

well on my numark dm3002x i have 2 options for headphone cueing :

Split and Blend.

Split : Allows you to cue with one channel playing out in one cup and the other in the other cup.

Blend : Allows both the cued and live track to be playing in both cups simulataneously.

As far as i know most modern day mixers have both these options..4 - 5 years back i only knew of the split option.

Thats how the split and blend work.. ill have a look now at ure mixer, which im assuming is the pcv-275.

*looks*

yeah i see what u mean .. i can see the split cue function.. have you tried turning that "split cue" button off and turning the balance knob on each channel to the middle (ie 12 o clock on the knob). Very nice mixer wouldnt mind one

Sorry if im wrong on this one .. ive never used this one before

Posted by nrjizer on Apr-08-2004 23:13:

Yeah, that does work (the trick with the balance knobs).

See, one of the reasons I bought it was specifically because it had the split cue option... which I never use now (not that its a bad mixer tho). I leave the split cue off, and when I turn cue on for both channels I get the 'blend' feature, which is what I'm after (and which is how I much prefer to beatmatch).

Not only do I prefer to beatmatch blend style, I also worry about my hearing, and using a good pair of closed headphones while cueing in both cups is a good way to help save them. I know that split cue isn't the most common feature so I was planning to practice single ear monitoring for beatmatching too, but since I beleive I was mistaken as to exactly what split cue is, I'm trying to figure out if this 'blend' is something all mixers can do.

Posted by Dzokayi on Apr-09-2004 02:45:

Rane Empath

You can cue any way you like.

Posted by djeternal2004 on Apr-09-2004 10:06:

Yeh i do know what u mean mate... with the 'blend' option. I find it much easier to beat match that way because ive preferred that option since i started djing.

The advantage of it is that you do hear a noticeable difference when ure beat-matching ... even if its the slightest touch because the kicks/percs in each track can be heard through both ears. That does have its downfall though as you have to crank the volume up to see that difference.

I 'split' cue very rarely which i guess is a bad idea, because i should be as flexible as possible because you never know what kind of mixer a club/pub could provide for you.

But im 99% sure most dj specific mixers provide a blend function in one way or another these days.

Posted by groovable on Apr-09-2004 20:06:

Cueing the all the channels you want in booth cups is the normal way mixers work so dont worry about that.

Split is not one channel in a a cup and the other channel in the other cup. Split is master/live in one cup and all the channels that are being cued in the other.

Some mixers also have a pfl mix knob so you can hear cue and live by the hp�s, but not in split, in booth cups, I think that�s what you call blend.

Imo the best way is one ear on the hp hearing only the cued channel, and the other ear on the air hearing the live music, its very importan to be always monitoring the live sound. In this way you dont need to move the position of the hp�s never. When you begin mixing with three sources you realise of the advantages of this method.

Posted by nrjizer on Apr-09-2004 21:35:

quote:
Originally posted by groovable
Imo the best way is one ear on the hp hearing only the cued channel, and the other ear on the air hearing the live music, its very importan to be always monitoring the live sound. In this way you dont need to move the position of the hp�s never. When you begin mixing with three sources you realise of the advantages of this method.

Well like I said, when I'm actually bringing a track in I use this method, but to beatmatch I prefer to blend.