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Mixtrak and serato. Slowing down, cpu light, limiter etc

Home 2023 › Forums › DJing Software › Mixtrak and serato. Slowing down, cpu light, limiter etc

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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  • December 7, 2015 at 2:55 am #2310041
    Luke Butzen
    Participant

    Install more Ram and turn down your Master gain on the MTP some more.

    Serato recommends 4 Gb of ram, 5 (Or more) if you’re incorporating Serato Video or lots of effects & possibly recording. I still have a MTP Gen 1 and don’t even go past 25% on my master unless I’m playing a show with it when I don’t want to cart my NS6 around in it’s flight case. (Keep in mind though, I have my monitors set to 75%)

    That volume difference you noticed can be answered in two ways from from what research I’ve done: Learn how to Gain Stage tunes while you’re beat mixing, or get Platinum Notes. A lot of that is due to the “Loudness wars” and the gain knob being turned up higher & higher by the time it hits an online market. The auto gain I would say makes almost no difference. I’ve told it to set the auto gain from 89 to 96 (closing & reopening Serato each time) and can’t hear the difference.

    The OS should be fine but if you can, get Win 10 and make a clean backup of that. Serato now officially supports 10 and after using it for my personal PC, I’d say Win 10 is one of the more positive steps for Microsoft. If you can’t for whatever reason, it looks like you’ll be pirating an OS or paying for a new one. You could also call MS and maybe get the license re-validated if you lost it due to a HD crash.

    Best of Luck!

    December 7, 2015 at 8:57 am #2310331
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    2 GB RAM is too low and probably your CPU is not cutting it too.
    For the current Serato versions I recommend at least an i3 processor and 4GB.

    December 7, 2015 at 8:26 pm #2310711
    Dj goonie
    Participant

    Ah, I’m using an amd processor and 2gb. I’ll grab some more ram

    December 7, 2015 at 8:29 pm #2310721
    Dj goonie
    Participant

    I’ll try keeping my master turned down a bit more. Im using to having the master at full then using my gains to control volume. I have to say though for 50 quid the mixtrak was a worthy purchase and intro to digital mixing

    December 7, 2015 at 8:41 pm #2310731
    bob6397
    Participant

    The fact you’re using an AMD processor won’t be helping.. Serato recommend that you don’t use AMD processor’s to DJ from as they don’t support them nearly as well as they do Intel processors..

    As Terry said, you definetely want more RAM (cheap to upgrade) and ideally probably a new cpu too – which means it’s new laptop time as changing the CPU in a laptop is tricky and limited as to what you can upgrade it to..

    I personally use a 2nd Gen i5/8GB of Ram and wouldn’t want anything less…

    bob6397

    December 8, 2015 at 4:30 am #2310821
    Luke Butzen
    Participant

    Serato’s official statement on AMD processors: “Some users have reported problems with Serato software running on machines with AMD processors. Our in-house testing has also shown that AMD equipped PCs can, in some cases cause serious performance problems. (You)

    We do support use of Serato DJ with computers running AMD processors however if you are having constant performance issues please consider checking if your computer is meeting the minimum system requirements.”

    So yeah, it sounds like it’s time to upgrade. That way you can get a new OS, (Almost anything brand new is running Win 10 unless it’s Mac or Refurbed.) and if you’re a smart shopper, can probably end up with something that will last you for years to come if you can use it exclusively for Dj’ing.

    Let us know how you turn out!

    December 8, 2015 at 6:23 pm #2311421
    Dj goonie
    Participant

    A new laptop isn’t really do’able at the moment, wondering whether some more ram and a switch to traktor would do it?

    December 8, 2015 at 10:24 pm #2311571
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    Traktor isn’t all that much “lighter” than Serato I think. More ram would be the quickest way to maximize performance. Get up to 4GB if you can.

    Another thing is to go easy on the FX (CPU intensive) and BPM swings. The further away from the original speed, the more work for the CPU and the sound quality will go down relatively quickly to an audible level.

    Using WAV instead of compressed files can help lower CPU load too. MP3s need to be “uncompressed” before they can produce audible sound, this requires RAM and CPU power.

    Give the (time-limited) trial version of Mixvibes Cross a try. It’s free and supports your controller natively I think. It’s my software of choice and I have used it on many laptops, some with not much better specs than the one you currently have. Feature-wise it’s way closer to Serato too (trust me, if you like what Serato offers, Traktor is not gonna make you happy, take it from someone that came from Traktor and ran the opposite direction).

    December 8, 2015 at 10:26 pm #2311581
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    OH and before I forget, there are plenty of sites with useful tips about optimizing a laptop and Windows for DJ-ing purposes. Also only use the laptop for DJ-ing. If you can’t for some reason, since you have plenty of HD space, at least make it dual-boot.

    December 8, 2015 at 10:44 pm #2311601
    Dj goonie
    Participant

    I’m currently in the process of stripping the computer to its bare bones, I.e removing to dvd the 25gb my Mrs has saved on it!! then all programmes I don’t need

    December 9, 2015 at 6:14 am #2311871
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    Remember, in Windows, just because you remove stuff (programs) doesn’t mean you have removed all the detrimental effects from having had it on there in the first place. I highly recommend a clean install, then an optimization. Do not install or at very least don’t activate things like bluetooth, network, antivirus (yes, keep your DJ laptop disconnected from everything once installed!), sync software for smartphones, etx.

    If you get the right optimization tips, it will focus mainly on removing all those processes that play in the background. Another total memory hog is the indexing feature. And since the only way you will look for tracks is from your DJ software with it’s own index … get rid of it.

    You’ll be surprise how much stuff goes on in the background? Used a printer? There is bound to be at least one or two background processes for the printer/scanner going on. And the list goes on.

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