Chuck Van Eekelen

Somehow my reply got lost …

This is a relatively recent article: http://www.mixonline.com/news/guides/really-small-pro-grade-powered-speakers/426863

Clearly going smaller from the already small-ish Rockit 5s, you will lose – apart from power – a bit of your low end frequency range, maybe going up as high as the mid-60s. Considering a tuned 2.1 system might actually be a serious option to consider. The sub-woofer will fill a lot of the missing low end and sit under your desk not taking up precious space on your desk and the satellites can be a lot smaller as they don’t have to accommodate the 3″ or 4″ speakers.

Yep, you are (making a school boy error) 😀

I have to go sound engineer on you here for a minute.

Since it’s a relatively simple mixer, it only has an aux out (often labelled as FX Send/Return) and no aux return, but it is stereo. In bigger (studio) mixers aux-buses are typically mono, but will – generally speaking – have aux send/return combined in one 6.3mm jack, meaning it comes back through the same “channel” as it’s sent. Also typically aux sent is what is known as “pre-fader”, meaning that the position of the channel fader does not influence the amount of signal flowing to the aux bus. This is done so that level of return signal can be adjusted separately from the channel volume.
Thusfar the “normal” setup on a (studio)mixer.

This way of routing means that by controlling the aux level knob for an input channel, you can determine how much of that channel’s signal is sent to the FX unit. The return (FX-ed) signal is then sent back to the (often) separate aux return channel where you can control the overall FX level for all channels at once. And then the FX unit itself has some level settings (like dry/wet for example). All-in-all plenty of knobs to fiddle with to control the amount of FX per channel, per FX and for the total mix.

Your :32 though is, as said, a simple mixer. It has only one AUX out. So what to do with the return signal? You got this part right, routing it to line inputs of the third channel would make the most sense, although some other (more elaborate) setups could be possible, but are beyond the scope of this answer.

Concluding you have the physical hook-up done correctly, here is where you go wrong:

In order to get sound to the FX unit, you turn up the aux volume ON THE FX RETURN SIGNAL! What happens now is that you have created a sound loop which pretty much is identical to what happens when you hold a mic in front of a speaker with the same horrific (FX-ed) screech as a result. By opening your aux volume on the FX channel, you basically send the output of the FX back into the FX. It will quickly (almost instantaneous) amplify itself until max level screech is reached. Your channel meter will max out, your speakers and ears will get mad at you and end of fun.

So, what ARE you supposed to do?

Clearly you want to send music to the FX unit. So you use the MUSIC channel aux knobs to determine how much you are sending out. The aux knob on the return channels stays turned ALL the way down. What you have now created is that music from your playing track is sent to the FX unit and comes back as a regular line input signal, as if it were a third player (CDJ/Vinyl/whatever). With the return channel FADER you determine how much of the FX-ed signal you want to add to the mix (like a wet/dry knob).

One thing you will have to test if the aux channel is indeed pre-fader. To do this, start playback on a channel, leave it’s fader down and only turn up the aux button. Now open up the FX channel fader. You should hear the FX-ed sound come from the speakers, WITHOUT the original sound from the playback channel. This is what I expect it to be and what would make most sense. In this situation you can control the playback volumes as you normally would, determine the amount of FX you want for EACH channel by using each channel’s aux knob and how much you want to add to the complete mix by using the return channel fader.

Your cue button on the return channel is now a pre-listen option for the FX. You can listen in your headphones to what the FX will sound like, so you can set it to your liking, before adding it to the mix with the fader, just like you would any other sound input.

I hope that makes a bit of sense. The most important thing here is to keep the AUX knob on the return channel CLOSED to avoid that horrible feedback loop/noise. Also set the return channel to line (not phono) of course and the input level setting (gain/trim) on the back to 0dB average on the meter to avoid gain level issues.

My 3 cents as usual.

You kinda give the answer yourself as to why it’s impossible to answer a “what’s the best” question on any gear, including laptops. Highly personal and also depending on your own experiences. Your Acer flipped on you during an important gig? You are done with Acer, your Dell worked fine for 20 years? You will tell the whole world to buy Dell.
You love Apple? You will likely join the discussion wearing Apple-tinted glasses.

Apples do crash, Windows laptops do work perfectly, all brands fail or work admirably, etx.

There are reasons why I (a Windows fan) use a Macbook Pro for music/DJ purposes. These have to do with design features (like full metal body, backlit keys, magnetic power supply connector – just to name a few) that don’t necessarily make my DJ-ing any better or give me any specific edge over other DJs. It just so happens that – TO ME! – these are features I highly appreciate and am willing to pay the premium (bought mine used btw). It also has to do with the software. Imho Apples suffer less from performance degradation over time than Windows laptops do. If you use your Windows laptop solely for DJ-ing and have it tuned for DJ-ing this will be far less of a concern. You do have to tune a Windows laptop for optimal performance, while I personally use my MB as is. Handling of sound, midi and such seems to be implemented better in Apple OS (OSX) than it is in Windows. Less driver issues. But all these things can be mitigated with proper care of your Windows laptop. So, the Apple vs the rest discussion is also one of a highly personal (preferences) nature.

If you pick Windows, meeting requirements for the software is obviously the bottom spec. Having plenty of internal (RAM) memory is nice. The more the merrier. I’d say 8GB is as low as you should go. I’d go for an SSD drive. No moving parts, where fast access times and generally less heat production. Heat production of the whole laptop CAN be a serious issue. You won’t be the first DJ here reporting that in a warm club, in the middle of the set the laptop decided to quit due to overheating! So make sure you get a laptop with sufficient airflow and fans and/or get one of those laptop cooler trays to put it on.

Quality pays with everything. And generally speaking a similarly specced laptop gets close in price to comparable Apples. The premium you pay for Apple will usually come back to you as they tend to hold their resell value better.

You don’t need thousands of tracks to DJ. Less is more here anyway.

Also sound card does not come into the equation. The sound card in laptops is not used to DJ with. You will either use and external (DJ) USB sound card or the sound card built into your controller. And I have never heard of “burning out” a sound card anyway.

I don’t think lifespan gets shorter perse when adding DJ software to a laptop. That said, DJ software DOES put more stress on your laptop. The CPU (processor) needs to work harder as does the hard disk/SSD (lots of reading going on). Lots goes on in RAM memory (everything is loaded there for processing). Your laptop will work harder, get warmer/hotter and lower end, lower spec laptops might easily hit their limits and start having problems like sound breaking up (again, nothing to do with sound card) and such. Clearly, like with cars, if you use it harder it will age quicker.

Hope that helps some.

For starters, it seems this controller won’t work in a windows 10/usb 3.0 combination.

Secondly, I think it highly unlikely there is a mapping for it for Traktor (yet), unless somebody else did the mapping for you already. Traktor forums and the Traktor Bible websites are the place to look for mappings or help with making one (which you might very well have to do).

Thirdly, I see it comes with a version of Mixvibes Cross, which is good DJ software in/of its own. Might wanna give that a try, unless you have very specific reasons to want to use Traktor.

Good for you! And yes, been there, done that, got the shirt and tie 😀

Welcome to the zone LOL

Hard to advise on cans, it’s (arguably) one of the most personal choices you can make. Many things come into the mix. And telling you which is “better” thus is equally impossible.

You are in a price-frame with quite a bit to choose from, so that is good news.

Other than that the best advice I can give you, if possible, is to find a large (DJ/Music) store, bring your own music that you know well and just spend an afternoon trying various models out.

You would find that under “Our DJ Courses” and then “Foundation Courses”:

http://www.digitaldjtips.com/dj-courses/how-to-digital-dj-fast/

M-Audio has pretty decent controllers, but in that size/price range there is quite a bit of choice. I am no producer either, but my son is a musician so have looked into them before.

Most serious brands have similar controllers at the lower price range as they all want you to buy their cheap version to start with so you will then get their pro range gear when you are ready to upgrade.