As a DJ are you "Sound Obsessive"?

I mix lots of stuff. No scratching though.

Hang on a sec. Have you got one of those A&H mixers where the gains are on the back? If so, it explains a lot.

The 32. 🙂

Palms on the faders! Sounds nuts, I cant imagine it. It must look like you’re praying :p

The correct way is to mix with the faders!. To understand why, you might want to visit Harmony Centrals site and do a search on “Gain Structure.’ This is one of the primary reasons house tech’s have such disdain for DJ’s. Red lights blinking anywhere in a system,(be it amps, channel strips, or main output) are a warning. To many DJ’s don’t even have a basic understanding of how a sound system works. Do yourself a favor and get a basic understanding of how a high powered system works. The gain knobs should be set and left alone.

I think most DJs need to realize the mixer is a CONTROLLER. It controls the sound.

I’ve gone to events where things are a total mess. I’ll see a turntablist mixer being used for normal play…mixers with a 2-band EQ on each channel (bass and treble). I’ve see guys with expensive Pioneer mixers, but the channel volumes are at 3, gains at 2, master at 3, and they wonder why things are so maxed out.

I don’t know if “my way” of doing things is the best, but here’s how I approach gain and levels. Let’s say I’m the one setting up the gear for a party or event and all levels and such have a 1-10 range:

1. Set all the channel volumes to 8, the gains and EQs to 5 (the middle spot), and the Master to 8.
2. Put something on to play. Pick something that plays loud.
3. Raise the volumes on the amp until you hit the “loudest” you think it should ever get both in terms of what people can handle and what won’t distort.
4. Take moments to toy with a few tracks and see if you need to tweak the individual EQs.

Just because they’re all at the middle, it doesn’t mean the speakers are balanced. The stack or setup could have loads of woofers and thus you find everything is bassey. Again. Use the mixer as your control to adjust that. Also be a tyrant if guest DJs simply want to crank the bass up to insane levels just to look cool. It shows how unprofessional they really are.

Now you have things set at the max, but it doesn’t mean you have to start there. The settings I suggested give you leeway to play around. So it’s early in the night you might have the master at 4 and then slowly raise things as they go up.

The gains IMHO should only be raised or lowered if the track is competing. So you have that really well-mastered but very loud tune overpowering your more normally mastered stuff…you’ll want to lower the gain on that one. Same deal with raising if the tune you’re playing is quieter. You want to maintain a balance of volume…not have too many ups and downs.

I set the channel volumes also at 8 because it gives you plenty of slide room if you’re fading in and out, but also some leeway in case you need to move a track to 9 or 10.

That to me is how I think it should be done. A good DJ should also get out of the booth a few times in the night to walk around and see how things sound to the audience. Your monitor might sound “fine”, but you’ll find out things aren’t that way on the floor.

Now if you’re doing a quick quest spot…then you have to fix as you go. So if the mixer volumes are all at 3 and things are very loud…turn down the amp then if you can. If not, then deal with it. If you’re only playing an hour and can’t do walkarounds, then turn off the monitor and try to adjust there.

Forget bitrates and that garbage…because I know most of you wouldn’t play crappy sounding tunes. Just worry about making a clean clear balanced sound from the monitor. It’s not about “THUMP THUMP THUMP” but about atmosphere.

I hate venues that compensate lack of “oomph” by turning up the volumes by any means necessary T.T