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Posted by SeventhSun on Oct-08-2002 21:58:

Help with VU matching :)

Help with Volume matching please!

My mixer only displays the VU of the live playing record.

when i mix the incoming tune its always louder or softer than the other.

without buying a new mixer is there anyway of telling how loud its gonna be?

Thnx

Posted by Devbert on Oct-08-2002 22:11:

There is no real accurate way to do it. The best thing I can recommend it to listen to the live and the cue fliping back and forth in your headphones and get the cued as close as you can to the live.

Posted by SeventhSun on Oct-08-2002 22:27:

If i move the channel fader/eq's/trim on the cued track, will it change the sound in my phones as well?

Posted by migitymike on Oct-08-2002 22:56:

if u dont have it to where u can monitor the channels on stand alone
turn the gain all the way down when u bring it in..like ALL THE WAY
and bring the channel all the way up..adn bring the gain up slowly..till they match

Posted by Dmatrox on Oct-08-2002 23:29:

thats a good idea. That also gave me the idea of trying to beatmatch just with the vu meters

Posted by migitymike on Oct-09-2002 03:31:

if u think i mean beat matching..i dont. sorry i know how to mix..i wouldnt need lights to show me whats on...and whats off. but i was saying match..like key match..or do the levels match...or it just sounds good.
mike
sorry if that sounds hostile..its the only way i could think to put it.

Posted by Dj Thy on Oct-09-2002 18:41:

I posted a similar thing some time ago on this board.

Use the VU's only for setting the initial gain when cueing (cue a loud part of the track where much is going on). The trick is, the leds/needles/whatever system your mixer uses, should AVERAGE around 0dB for the best result. Peaks don't really mean much (the faster the response of the meters, the more true this statement is). Average, that's the key.

The loudness of tunes is mainly a result of compression. Some tunes use pretty little compression (big dynamics, big movements of the meters), others are just squashed to death (little meter movements).

When you have a tune that has big dynamics, it's perfectly allowed to let short peaks go in the yellow/red zone (+ 3 or even +5 dB is really not a problem for peaks, unless you got a crappy mixer with almost no headroom). With heavily compressed tunes, you'll see on the meters that they dont move much, so the "working zone" around 0 dB will be smaller (for example they'll move from -1 dB to +1 dB).

Why? Your ears are usually not as fast as meters (the real pro VU meters with needles (and I don't mean those you see on consumer gear) follow the ears delay). So they won't notice shorter peaks as loud as they really are. The loudness you will perceive is the average signal you hear).

But once you set the initial gain, my advice is, forget the meters. Don't watch them, close your eyes, tape the meters over, whatever. Once you actually start mixing in the tunes, use your ears, and only them. Meters can sometimes give you a completely wrong idea (like you try to keep the meters moving at about the same rate, but you clearly hear a drop in sound). Just listen and correct to keep it steady...

Posted by SeventhSun on Oct-09-2002 19:30:

My mixer only displays the Vu of the live track i cant use that at all
I'm not sure if adjusting the channel fader eqs or trim will effect the sound of the cued track in my headphones?

thanks

Posted by benoitfan on Sep-27-2003 02:09:

quote:
Originally posted by SeventhSun
My mixer only displays the Vu of the live track i cant use that at all
I'm not sure if adjusting the channel fader eqs or trim will effect the sound of the cued track in my headphones?

thanks

at least in mine (VMX-300) EQs and trim/gain do affect the sound in the headphones.volume doesn't, only if the kob is turned all the way to live output of course

Posted by Freak on Sep-27-2003 03:04:

Heres what i do

when i put a enw tune to cue on- if i have time i will drop the stylus on the loudest part of the tune to see the average peak level and match it- either on split cue/Vu meter or by flipping the cue between cue and whats playing out at the mo

Works for me

Posted by MERiDiAN5i2 on Sep-30-2003 20:11:

just use your ears and pre fade listen, you'll get good at it

Posted by `pr0digy on Oct-01-2003 01:29: