Hey there, I spin trance and have been trying to record a profesional quality cd using my vestax pcv 275. my question for all you TA's is where should i be setting my eq's when recording into a program like peak or logic? i dont put them up all the way but often push them to 3/4 of the way up because i think the sound of the record gets distorted anywhere above that. my speakers are kinda shitty and only put out 75 watss each but i think its good enough to hear what i'm doing. could someone give me some pointers on eq's settings when mixing also. is it bad to have the bass on the cued record to the max when throwin it in? also what about the volume faders and the cross fader. should i be using max volume on the volume faders and just use the cross fader? or should i keep the cross fader in the middle and use the volume faders when mixing.

any advice would really help. i will give everyone a linke to my killer trance set once it is recorded flawlessly and the sound quality is good. Also, as far as converting an aif into an mp3, what program works best for mac? and what bit rate should it be converted into, is 192 high enuff?

thanks everyone,
-DJ RyanTrance from Philly

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-RyanTranceDJ

well when I record with the PCV275, i usually have the high and lows about 1/4 to the right of neutral. Reason being is you want your recording to be cleared and not too amplified by the equalizers.

for the cued record coming in,
i usually have the bass to about 1/4 to the right and every notch i increase the volume, i decrease the notch on the otugoing record's bass.

as for all those other questions about how to mix.. it's all personal preference. I can do it with gains, volume faders, or xfader. Just work with whatever you feel comfortable with. I prefer volume faders though since the gains directly affect monitoring levels. Also, for mixing purposes you should avoid the xfader if ur doing house/trance because if you're gonna get a third turntable into your set, that might mess up your coordination and everything. Mind as well get used to it early on, ya know

yeah 192 is high enough. Remember, you need to consider space vs quality. Is having a file that is 1.5x the size of the original worth the extra ounce of subtle sound difference?

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DJ Xquisite
Hip Hop & Trance DJ for the new millenium

yeah i think your right about space vs. sound quality. you can only fit about 800 megs of an aif file into toast to burn as an audio cd. recording less than 80 minutes is no alternative if you increase the quality of the sound you record it at.

wish you could fit more megs onto a cd and time as well.

as far as using the cross fader. i really think that the pcv-275's x-fader was designed to be used. its very sensitive. even having the fader over just a slight bit u can the other record which is key when bring out a record that has vocals or something u want to slightly be heard right before the other record kicks incompletely.

i dont want to use 3 tables. i only can handle 2 at the moment and i think using 3 is defeating the purpose of trance mixing, for drum n bass or something where u have much more freedom in mixing 3 tables is perfect, but i dont think so for trance. I have never seen Tiesto use 3 tables in all the times i've seen him spin, i think he know's how to do it and i'm sticking with that for the time being.

thanks for you imput,

anyone else have any comments?

-ez DJ RyanTrance

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-RyanTranceDJ

The only reason you would ever want to have your eq's above 0 dB (the middle setting, where it will "notch" into place) is if you are doing some kind of effect. You should *never* have it above this, especially when recording. If the levels are too low, then adjust the line-in volume on your soundcard. If you have the eq's above this, then it will beging to distort. If, when you have finished recording, you think the bass is too low, or there is too much mid or whatever, you should master the recording with a suitable program.

The golden rule for recording is;

0 dB or as close to as possible.

As for the bit about mp3, you said you are doing a CD, right? So why the mention of mp3 at all? You should certainly not try to encode it as an mp3, you will lose sound quality. It has been said before, and I'll say it again. mp3 is a *lossy* format, that is, each time you encode something as an mp3 you will *lose* sound quality. Even if you encode, say, a 128 kbps mp3 into a 320 kbps mp3. You cannot gain sound quality in this way, mp3 takes things out of the sound to reduce the file size. The only way to get these bits back that it takes out is to have the original before it was an mp3.

So, if you are recording a CD, leave it as a WAV.

i want to encode it into mp3 so other people can download it online and not have to download a 800 mega bit file lol. but the cd will definatley not be mp3,

quick question, where should the master volume read outs on my mixer be hitting. should they be below the red in the green or is the red ok?

thanks,
-Ryan

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-RyanTranceDJ

Hey everyone

I heard a few of Ryan's sets.... blew me away...he's totally awesome, and on top of that, he's not an asshole! lol I'm sure he'll be a big name DJ up-and-coming soon. You'll see

~Zoë

quote:

quick question, where should the master volume read outs on my mixer be hitting. should they be below the red in the green or is the red ok?

I am not totally sure on this as I havent started DJing yet but I am pretty sure it is ok if the bass beats just peak in the low reds. Once again not toatlly sure tho.

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quote:

as far as using the cross fader. i really think that the pcv-275's x-fader was designed to be used. its very sensitive. even having the fader over just a slight bit u can the other record which is key when bring out a record that has vocals or something u want to slightly be heard right before the other record kicks incompletely

that is true except the fact that the xfader is gradual curve. So it wont really make that much of a difference if you use the volume sliders over the xfader.

[quote]quick question, where should the master volume read outs on my mixer be hitting. should they be below the red in the green or is the red ok?
[/quote

I think you should try avoiding red. Try staying in green to be in the safe zone. What happens when you sometimes go into red zone is your sound might get distorted or amplified too much. But having a little red is not bad... it's just telling you that your decibal levels are getting rather high.

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DJ Xquisite
Hip Hop & Trance DJ for the new millenium

Like I asid, the golden rule is 0 dB... the VU lights on the mixer should be marked, and you want to peaks to *just* reach the 0 dB mark. This is the ideal volume.

DJTJ: What if I'm mixing and I use the EQ
I Need to change frequencies so if the EQ is allready set to above 0 DB and I will return it it will ruin.
One more question
When I cue 2 tracks in my PCV-275 the Cue meter reaches like 8 DB
Is that normal?

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quote:

Originally posted by Scorchio DJTJ: What if I'm mixing and I use the EQ I Need to change frequencies so if the EQ is allready set to above 0 DB and I will return it it will ruin.

Well it shouldn't have been more than 0 dB in the first place. Before you start mixing, set all the eq's to 0 dB.

quote:

One more question When I cue 2 tracks in my PCV-275 the Cue meter reaches like 8 DB Is that normal?

Yes, this happens because the two tracks combined are louder than one track on its own. To counteract this, on the song you are mixing in, turn down the eq's. Once you get the two voulmes the same (i.e. crossfader in the middle) start turning up the eq's on the new track and turning down the eq's on the old track. But, don't turn the eq's past 0 dB on the new track! This way you get the smoothest mix possible.

So if 0 DB is the best how come the mixer has +16

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