On the LED's on the level meteres is it safe to play into the red section +3Db or will it distort? i ask this because whenever i apply an effect say flanger the level instantly jumps into the red section, am i ment to turn down the channel before i apply the effect?

cheers

HECK YEA ITS OK

its only when u go on or above 14 (i believe) that it will distort

its fun to punch it every now & then...just make sure you dont keep it all the way at the top cuz thats where it distorts

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hmmm
y is it red then ? doesnt red mean danger - not a good idea to play at that level.
dont most other mixers start going into red @ +3Db and you shouldnt go any higher?

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Originally posted by MClarke hmmm y is it red then ? doesnt red mean danger - not a good idea to play at that level. dont most other mixers start going into red @ +3Db and you shouldnt go any higher?

hmm......im just going by what my 600 shows me

i dunno.......i spin house.....and thats where i like to keep the punch

u should keep that level at "0" at all times, if its over it will distort, and it will do something similar if its under, cant remember the term atm, but keep ya db meter at "0"

mick

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yer thats what i thought

does anyone else have a djm 600 ?

btw, this is the same on all mixers

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It's not forbidden to go into the red. Just make sure the leds don't STAY there.

The thing is : you must average at 0dB. And this will be done differently from tune to tune, as every tune is mastered (and here most important, compressed) in another way.
The leds won't seem as active on a tune that's compressed fairly hard. They'll seem sticking around a tight zone.
On tunes that have high dynamics, you'll see large jumps on the leds.
So, it's safe to go in the red, for short peaks. Just average at 0dB. How high you can really go depends on the mixer. But most mixers have a fairly large headroom so it might not be a problem.

(For example having a tune that's just squashed down so badly it only makes the same led light up all the time, set it at 0dB, while on the other hand a tune that has very high dynamics on every beat, say 10 dB, it's safe to let the leds jump from -5 to +5 dB, it's still an average of 0).

Usually you should only look at the level meters for the first couple of tunes. Later you may peek at them for adjusting gains, but for the rest, trust your ears. It's not because two tunes peak at the same level that they'll sound equally loud. Trust your ears.

red just indicates your in or above full signal range on the output... the mixer has overhead beyond full signal so it wont distort.. however if your amp or other device that the mixers main out connects to cant handle the large signal, it may distort... but the mixer's output section has (some) overhead built into it, even if pioneer's overhead is fairly limited.. but its still there.

-mer

I have a DJM 600 and I usually try to keep the peak levels around the second red LED. It won't distort (at least not audibly) at all, as liquid said, it's only once you start peaking up at the top of the LED range that you will distort. As a general rule, I try not to go too much over the second LED because the more you use the red zone, the more it will wear on the resistors in your mixer and the shorter lifespan it will have...though this may not actually be tangible.

It is normal for the effects to make the track peak at a higher volume, but don't worry about it too much. I find that it's a nicer effect if you turn the effect level/depth knob down a couple of ticks unless you want to make the effect really explode and overcome the music. Otherwise if you make the effect more subtle, I find it's effect is more natural to the track and especially sounds better when listening to the recordings.