Chuck Van Eekelen

How to Digital DJ Fast is the quickest way to get accustomed to working in the digital realm and – maybe as important – help you set up a training regimen that will let you train the right things (effectiveness) the right way (efficiency), without the need for countless hours of looking for and watching youtube videos, only to find you have to unlearn something because you trained the wrong way or wrong thing or both.

Welcome to the forums and enjoy your time here!

<note from moderator> I removed your other post with essentially the same question. Please refrain from doing that.

Sounds like a beast :-). 13″ is too small for my old eyes, but my wife has one and loves it.

Yeah, they are are like windows 7, 8 and 10. Called OS X up til Sierra. Sierra is called macOS. If you buy a new one, you will get Sierra pre-installed.

Not too sure what CPU load on Traktor is these days, but if the price is not too radically different, generally speaking the higher the frequency the better the performance. Especially in things like DAWs that might make a noticeable difference.

Easiest would be to just record the master out from you Numark.

By the look of it the N4 has an option of sending one stereo channel of sound back to the software. You need to make sure the switch on the back is set to USB in Rec (not timecode). Then you need to set the correct input channel in Traktor.

Under Preferences:

Tab Audio setup – under “phone/’line” – Input channel. Here it should give you the option of picking the N4 input channel.
Tab Input routing – under input Deck C – choose both L + R channel

That should do the trick. I am a bit rusty, so anyone that knows more and/or better, don’t hesitate to correct me 😀

Hi Dec, I say welcome back to them here forums!

As you have been here before, you know there is a big helpful bunch of folks ready to answer any question you might have. And if you can contribute your two cents as well, we love having you here (again.

Enjoy your time.

Be sure to check out all the offerings on the main site for production courses. A new free one is coming this week I think.

Let me step in here for a minute. While I am not disputing nor affirming the opinions about DJ City as a store or Skytec as a brand, there are some things to be said about this topic before we put it to bed.

As can be easily found out, the general consensus at these forums is that for PA the universal truths “if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is” as well as “you get what you pay for” are valid.

If you want good quality PA, stick with the reputable brands. If you stick to the budget end of their offerings, you will still get something halfway decent. There are, however, no shortcuts to getting good PA sound for near to no money.

Watt ratings on no-budget speakers have always been highly exaggerated by their manufacturers. The only “formal” way to rate and compare speaker power is in RMS. Over the years music power has gained some traction, typically twice the RMS value. The better brands will generally report RMS values. I believe it was Jamo who, in the late 70s/early 80s invented PMPO (Peak Music Power Output or something similar). This was something like twice the amount of music power, bringing the values up to 4 times RMS.

This is the first thing to watch for when buying speakers. RMS is an accepted measuring technique and all reported RMS values should be measured the same way. Music power is not an official measurement, but -again- take half of the music power rating and that would be your RMS value.

However RMS rating is only half of the story. This only tells you how much amplifier power the speakers can handle. Or for an active speaker, how much output power is available.

The other half of the equation is the efficiency of the speaker. This is measured at one meter from the speaker while it is fed 1 Watt (RMS indeed) of white noise (a signal that contains all audible frequencies at identical levels). The result is reported in dB. It is important to note that increases in this value are logarithmic, meaning that a 3dB increase is equal to DOUBLE the amp power. So if you have one speaker with an SPL (Sound Pressure Level) of 92 and one that is 95 dB, you would have to double the amp power to the first one to get the same volume!
You can see how amp RMS power on it’s own means little without the efficiency of the speaker.

Finally there is max. SPL. This is the maximum volume in dB that a speaker can deliver before it reaches a certain distortion level. Again, the “cheapo” brands will often use higher distortion percentages so they can report higher max. SPL levels. You want to watch this as well when comparing speakers.

If you look at some of the Skytec speakers (and other OEM, no-brand offerings) from DJ City, but also from companies like Amazon, you can clearly understand that at the price point they are offered, it can’t be quality gear. Simply take the purchasing cost into account of the cabinet wood or plastic molding, the speakers, connectors, (often) carpet covering, cross-over filter and in the event of active speakers, the actual amplifier and you know that there is no way that can work. Let alone the factor labor (putting it all together) and Research & Development (which they really don’t do much).

You get a 4 foot high, double 15″ low, mid horn, triple high end speaker for 150 bucks or so. Which is less than you pay for a small 10″ PA speaker from a reputable brand.

Ok, so why is this stuff still produced and sold? Because many a man-cave or kids bedroom is dominated by a set of speakers that are both BIG and LOUD and … CHEAP. Quality does not come into the equation.
And as such these speakers have a right to be.

What is silly, is being a serious DJ and expecting that this kind of home/bedroom stuff for next to no money is suitable for your purpose. If you think that, you have missed a few of our reviews and posts.

If you are on a budget as a starting DJ that wants something to use for parties or even practice room, it is often better to get a used pair of decent brand 10″ or 12″ active PA speakers than throw away your money on the no-brand stuff, even if that comes brand new in the box.

In conclusion, bitching about companies like DJ City, Amazon and others still selling sub-par equipment does not make much sense. Sure they know what they sell and who they target. If you haven’t put in the effort to find out a bit more about what makes a speaker a good speaker and you decide to go for price as your only purchasing criterium, you shouldn’t be to surprised when things don’t appear to be what you thought they were. Consider it a lesson about proper preparation learned the hard way.

The good news is, you won’t have spent TOO much money yet.