Chuck Van Eekelen

Frankly, if you just want to practice mixing, I’d get a set of small (10″ or so) PA speakers. This is what you will hear when you play out also and you can take these to small house parties and such, something not possible with monitors.

Monitors and their sound qualities become important if you start producing your own tracks and you need as close to “true” sound as you can get for mixing and mastering. For “regular” DJ-ing the slightly colored sound of PA systems can actually be easier to listen to for longer periods of time and usually they will pack more of a punch.

A 12″ in a small space will most likely “boom”. They are made to provide sufficient bass sound to a slightly larger room. In a small room the bass will reflect of the walls and intensify causing the boomy effect.

Generally speaking you should aim for a 0dB level path all the way to either the amp of your passive speakers or your powered speaker inputs. So starting with channel gain/trim at 0dB, then master up so the master output is 0dB (average, it can peak to the next light = typically +3dB) as well. You now have a 0dB output signal to your amps/speakers. This will be your max setting for the night with the channel fader fully up and the master fader/knob at the setting you just made (be sure to mark it with a bit of white gaffa tape or something). At this point you are 100% certain that when you run the loudest level you will all night your amps will get an undistorted 0dB signal offered. Clearly you will want to run balanced cables everywhere. Now set your amps to their 0dB levels (or at least so they stay just below clipping) and mark this position as well. This is as loud as your amps should go. Do the same with the level knobs on the powered speakers. Those don’t usually have meters on them, so just turn them up til the clipping light starts to come on occassionally and then tune it down a notch.

At this point your entire sound chain is running at max. continuous power output. Anything over this will push you into the red and into distortion. Not loud enough? Then you need a bigger system.

Now you can use the master fader/knob to turn things down at the beginning at the evening and slowly raise it as needed until you hit the max. mark and then it’s done.

Hope that helps some.

For the record: It is NOT allowed to use spotify in any public function without express written permission. So we can’t help you on that end.

Secondly, at the core of DJ-ing is the most important skill of all”: “knowing what must come next”. Something that can only be learned by DJ-ing out in front of an audience. For that reason it is not really possible to prepare a playlist in advance. What you can do is create mini-playlists of 3-4 tracks that go together which you then use as building blocks for your live set, taking away some of the stress of having to think about every next track.

While I haven’t tried the setup you are describing, I am guessing this will work. While the transmitter might fit into the headphone jack, that is not the place to hook it up. It should be hooked up to the master output of the controller. The headphone jack should have (duh) a headphone attached so that you can pre-listen (cue) the next track. In silent disco you will actually do all of your mixing in your headphones as you can’t hear what the audience is hearing from monitor speakers or anything.

Hope that helps some.

The MC6000 mk2 is still an awesome controller and certainly road-ready and indestructible. Denon is still alive and kicking and available for warranty and service, as opposed to Vestax which is no longer in existence.

If you want a fully loaded controller my money would be on the Denon. I used to own one (the original, not the mk2 which I consider slightly better due to more clever ergonomics) before my current SX which is making way for the MC8000 I am phasing in.

You are at the DIGITAL DJ Tips forums, so be sure to check out all you can that is said on “traditional club gear” vs controller-based DJ-ing. The latter offering so much more creative potential at way lower cost.

Thanks for the introduction. Glad to see the DDJT course have made such an impact and helped revitalize your love of music and DJ-ing! Keep it up.

It’s best to post mixes in the Mixes, Music and Shows section of the forums for maximum exposure.

Welcome and enjoy your time on the forums.

I use a (Mackie HD-Series) 18″ sub with two 12″ tops, total of 2,000W RMS and I usually turn the sub down 3dB. Have no problem playing 150-200 people rooms.

Also monitors are tuned for “honest” sound (i.e. flat frequency response), while this is not the most comfortable tuning for prolonged listening at higher volumes.

And, like most monitors, the conus of the speaker is not protected, so changes of being touched/damaged are substantial.

Other than that, you are right. As a dear friend always remarks: “Every person has a right to his own problems”.