Gain, Clipping , Volume Levels – And In Between

You need to set MP3 gain to a higher level.
Also you should not be playing at 0Db because then there is no headroom left if you engage an efx!
You will the end up at +3, +6 or even higher and the sound will have digital distortion wich sounds very bad!
In most mixers (mixerpart of the controller) a gaincontroll for each channel (most often placed in top of the EQ)
You need to use that to gain the track to whatever level you want on every track before playing it.
In most cases you have level meters for each track as well as level meter for master volume.
Or it could be changed between the two by a switch.
That way you can see that track A and B has the same level but you will also need to hear it by ear that you have a
constant volumelevel on the dancefloor.
If everything is as it should it would work as described but in many cases the music is not in a constant level even if your meters shows that it is. That is because the venues soundsystem is colored in the sound out so there is not a flat eq curve!
Studio monitors like your M-Audio has a very flat eq curve but PA speakers does not!
There is often tops in the EQ curve in the lower frequence so you really has to learn to hear when to adjust the volume/gain or any of the EQs for any channel on your mixer.
And if you play music from different genres or old and new music there is a very big difference in how it is mastered and compressed wich has a big influence in how it sounds in a PA system…..

I can write a meter or two more but to sum it up trust your ears!

i cannot stress enough how important it is to NOT USE AUTO GAIN dvs systems and software based dj’n system analyse each track for gain, but they do not account for the increase in vaolume (there fore distiortin sound) when mixed.. further more they do not leave room for effects like hessler said…. part of being a good dj is knowing how to use ur ears… like beatmatching… ur ear will always be better than a sync button

Dima, post: 15208, member: 1509 wrote: Thank you, DJ Hessler. I have another question for you:
Based on what you said, I need to make sure that the signal that leaves my mixer should be a little bit below the 0db (last green light) so in case I use FX or my EQ I would not distort the sound. What about the meter in the Traktor software? If a song “touches” the red markers in Traktor, does it means that the song comes out distorted even before I had the chance to adjust anything on my mixer? And, since I am connecting my system to a house mixer, my level meter should match the other’s mixer levels? Or should I be concentrated only on the house mixers’s volume level since it sends the signal to the PA?
Thank you for your help

Well I will try to answer your qs:
If you reaches the red light in Traktor you might get a distorted sound out to the PA mixer.
You need to always keep under 0db all the way in the music chain.
If you go over 0db anywhere you might get distortion…..