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Mixer volume level
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| dj darroch |
Ok i'm trying to balance out my levels on the DJM 800.
What's the right way to have your levels on the mixer at? i.e. should the level on the gain match the same level on the master? or should the master be lower than the gain?
Also, is 0db the optimium level ?
Cheers. |
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| BOOsTER |
| if nothing goes to the red it's all ok :? |
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| Jarvmeister |
to the best of my knowledge:
The master simply controls the master volumne - in a professional application that would be the main sound volume of the club. These should never red line.
The levels on each channel I always have with the green lights permanently on, the yellows bounce and the reds should never light up.
This way, any recordings never clip, and should be of the highest quality. It also follows that the sound quality going out on the master is of the highest standard too.
I ignore the dB level of the master, I find it not worth worrying about - this is more one for the sound engineers in the club. However, on the DJM800 in order to split your cue you have to have the master at the correct level in order to make the most of it. I never split the cue signal, so it's not important to me.
I might add that I know sod all about any of this - so I stand to be corrected.
Jarv |
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| SPAWNmaster |
all greens on each of your channel meters...yellows should be kept to an absolute minimum (these are essentially to tell you "hey off your gonna clip rreal soon" and should be heeded). at a show i spun at last week the dj's before me basically were in the high yellows 90% of the time and a little bit of red every now and then and the entire recording was completely clipped even though the master was mostly green w/ a bit of yellow.
the way you should even everything out is with your channel faders all the way up you should adjust the gains so that they average as close to the "over" dot as possible without going into yellows...and then the master you shouldnt worry about. the vast majority of monitors or club speakers as well are so loud you should never have to worry about clipping the master output. |
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| dj darroch |
| quote: | Originally posted by SPAWNmaster
all greens on each of your channel meters...yellows should be kept to an absolute minimum (these are essentially to tell you "hey off your gonna clip rreal soon" and should be heeded). at a show i spun at last week the dj's before me basically were in the high yellows 90% of the time and a little bit of red every now and then and the entire recording was completely clipped even though the master was mostly green w/ a bit of yellow.
the way you should even everything out is with your channel faders all the way up you should adjust the gains so that they average as close to the "over" dot as possible without going into yellows...and then the master you shouldnt worry about. the vast majority of monitors or club speakers as well are so loud you should never have to worry about clipping the master output. |
Ok cheers for that. Do you try to keep the levels on each channel mixer at 0db or...?
I'm just trying to know what db there best kept at! |
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| J:\Digital |
| don't worry about the db mate... as long as they are not clipping into the yellow/red as SPAWN mentioned.. you will be fine... Every track is recorded at different volumes, so you will constantly be changing the gains anyways... |
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| Tony Morello |
although i find at least with the djm 600 that the sweet spot is 2 reds in
but you shouldn't be running your mixer past yellow
run your levels too high and you start sending distorted audio to your amps which could fry both your amps and speakers
loud audio doesn't blow speakers, distorted audio blows speakers |
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| Glassball |
| quote: | Originally posted by Tony Morello
loud audio doesn't blow speakers, distorted audio blows speakers |
Are you 100% sure about that statement? I've heard otherwise. You can turn your monitors down nice and quiet, but have all reds on the mixer with distorted audio.. but as soon as you crank up your monitors, then you run the rist of blowing the speakers, no? |
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| Tony Morello |
true, i was speaking in terms of a club setting though
you can have your distorted audio running at low volumes, it will still sound like crap |
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| starboy |
| quote: | Originally posted by Tony Morello
although i find at least with the djm 600 that the sweet spot is 2 reds in |
Same with the 500. However do you think its ok to record like this? |
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| DJRecess |
Hey folks,
Can I just chime in on this one re: levels for recording. Technically, it's not what goes OUT of the mixer that is going to make the biggest difference, it's how you've set to go IN to the recording device that's the issue.
It's all very good saying 'stay away from the reds' - but if your recording device isn't turned up, you're going to get a really low level recording. And, if you're device is set to record at max, then even the yellows flashing might make a massively clipped recording.
Years ago, on my site, I wrote a big thing about recording levels etc when going onto tape - as ten years later, it's all about recording to CD/PC etc - I'll re-write is, as there's a lot of confusion about this it seems.
As far as throwing out to AMPs, sure - it's bad bad bad to max peak out the reds for some installations - but others, you need to - as the amps aren't set up right. There's a fine line between playing out strong and maxing everything out and creating distortion though!
And remember, if that little bastard of a screw is still on the back (I'm assuming it has it, like my 600) which reduces the master output strength anyway - then it's all a bit 'moot' in terms of "Don't go in the red" "Only stay in XXXX etc..."
Set up for what you're going into (and obviously how it sounds) and you should be fine.
Darroch - what are you setting up for? Recording or playout? What do you use (ie, amp, hi-fi, powered speakers.)
And where'd you get the 800? Somewhere in Glasgow? Good price? |
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