DJ Vintage
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DJ Vintage
ModeratorThere you go, praise for something you didn’t want to finish in the first place. You have at least impressed one person :-).
Greeetinx,
C.ModeratorLOL, I guess I am flattered.
Good luck with Ikea (try to go easy on the Swedish Meatballs) and hopefully the info will be useful to someone, somewhere, sometime :-).
Greeitnx,
C.ModeratorStill, Terry, thanks for the veiled compliment though.
ModeratorAnybody can be a DADDY DJ … but GRANDdaddy DJ? mmmm lol
ModeratorHey,
Although I don’t own either and haven’t played with the combination of the two, I did a little reading and it basically boils down to this:
There are three ways to hook the RMX-1000 up:
- Take the FX send signal, run it into the RMX-1000 inputs, then take the RMX-1000 outputs and run them back into the FX return of your mixer. Clearly only works if you have FX send/return (or any aux send/return). The DDJ-SX doesn’t have it.
- Take the output from your CDJ or other mediaplayer, run it into the RMX ins, then RMX outs to the channel input on your mixer. You’d need one RMX per mediaplayer. Unfortunately, no sound out on the DDJ-SX other than main/booth.
- Take the master output from the DDJ-SX, run it into the RMX ins, then RMX outs into the amplifier, active speakers or club mixer. This would technically work, but you have no opportunity to cue listen to your FX, they can only be applied to your master signal which is already going out to the PA at the moment you apply FX.
Assuming you are using Serato, there doesn’t seem to be a external FX send/return possibility in it (but I am not well versed on Serato, so don’t take my word for it). If there were, you could hook up an external USB sound card, send the FX send from Serato to the RMX-1000 ins, then the RMX outs back into the inputs on the USB sound card and into the FX return in Serato. Again, no such thing in Serato that I could find.
I THINK that it could be done within Traktor. In Traktor you can use one of your FX channels and set it to “send”. That means it would send the channel for which you selected the FX to an external source (in your case the RMX through an extra USB sound card) and then back into Traktor. In theory! I think this would be a workable solution, provided you don’t get slapped in the face with latency problems.
By the look of it, the RMX-1000 wasn’t designed with controller DJ’s in mind and Serator wasn’t designed to use external (outboard) FXs. So in this combination you’d be up the proverbial “sh*t creek”.
The RMX-1000 would work wonderfully well with Pioneer mixers, like the 900, that have FX send/return channels. My Denon X1600 mixer also has send/return and would work well with the RMX-1000 as well as I am sure other brands will have models with FX send/return as well.Is there a true solution? Good question.
1) I’d check to make sure, but I think you could set it up with Traktor and an extra USB sound card 2-in/2-out.
2) Go for seperate mediaplayers or controllers (you could check out the Denon SC-2000s) with a small DJ mixer with FX send/return. If you want to keep using Serato, you’d need to get either a supported mixer (some or all of the Rane mixers have FlexFX send/returns) or a supported soundcard and then into a DJ mixer with send/return.Sorry, not a simple answer (they hardly ever seem to be), but an answer this time. So that is progress for you.
Unfortunately no nice way to get this setup working as intended with your current hardware/software combination. If you want to keep the hardware and are willing to switch software, you need to check out Traktor or perhaps VDJ with an extra sound card (latency I can see as a potential pitfall there). If you want to keep Serato, you might need to switch hardware.Greetinx and I hope this made some sense. If not, ask away and I’ll try to answer you,
C.ModeratorHey RB,
I would only wonder about this if you plan to play exactly the same set, track for track. THAT, I would consider creative poverty. Some painters have used only a few primary colors their whole life and yet managed to make every painting different, yet distinctively “their” style.
When I was still working my 5-star hotel gigs (4 months on end, 6 nights a week, 6-8 hours – monster set???- a day) in the vinyl days, you know I wasn’t playing a new set every day.
People will know if you play A after B after C after D every night. But A after C might be totally different energetically than A before C. So, don’t worry about the amount of stuff you are gonna play. Look at a) what is my core set, the tracks that are everyone’s favorites that they expect to hear and how can I change their order creatively and b) at some new tracks (trust me, 1-2 an hour can already be plenty in that respect) that you can toss in to keep things fresh. 5 classics/favorites with one new track thrown in then another 5 classics/favorites sounds different than 10 classics/favorites in a row.
And maybe you can research a little and find 10-20 more (semi-)recent tracks that are in line with the general trend of the night. There are so many smart playlists around (in iTunes and Spotify to name two popular ones, but also on the more DJ oriented sites), that with literally 10s to 100s of thousands of tracks per genre, it can’t be too hard to find those 10-20 new and 10-20 “older” tracks.
It’ll be fun preparation just figuring out which of these new tracks in your collection go well with others (harmonic mixing and energy levels should help you a lot with that process). You’ll discover new combinations and mixes and probably can’t wait to try them out live.
Let’s say you find 15 of each. That is 30 tracks. At 1-2 bucks a track, 30-60 dollars to buy them legally and in high quality. Have your friends pay you the 30-60 bucks or part of it (even if you are gonna play for free otherwise). If you play for another 6 hour set, you now have 5! different tracks per hour. That is about 25-30%. So, with those simple 30 tunes, you have brought down your set to be only 70-75% identical, purely based on the tracks you play. Toss those 70-75% in a different order and I doubt anyone will think you are repeating yourself. It will still be a joy of recognition with a few “hey, I haven’t heard that one in a while”, “oh, I had forgotten about that one” and “nice, hadn’t heard that one yet” moments thrown in for good measure.
Don’t sweat it, you are out there doing your thing. Which makes you stand out from literally everybody else present at the party! Just realize that they need you to make the night as much as you need them. For them the alternative to a live DJ for FREE! would be to stick in a mix tape. Not half as much fun :-).
Greetinx and break a leg,
C.ModeratorWooohoooo … DON’T plug in to the mic inputs. Bad, bad plan. The signal on those XLR’s goes through the mic preamps. The inputs are geared to take VERY low level inputs. Your master out signal is very HOT (high level). So you run the chance of redlinining the mic inputs on the mixer, even with the gain turned all the way down. The other reason is that mic preamps will give some sound coloration usually, but that shouldn’t be your biggest worry.
Tip for next time: write down the brand and model of the mixer they have and mention it in your post. Easier to research for me/us and give you an adequate answer.
Now back to the situation at hand. If your gear is set up really close to the clubmixer, say less than 1,5 meter, you can just use a high-quality (so not the cable that came with your home stereo set :)) RCA-RCA cable. With the signal being so hot, you are not very likely to get interference (noise). If you make sure your power cord goes into the same group of power outlets that the club mixer is on, there is a more than fair chance that you won’t get ground hum either.
Obviously there are no guarantees. So, what alternatives do we have? You already said in your other post that your controller has TSR (balanced) outputs. The mixer has unbalanced inputs apparently (not counting the mic inputs). If you have to go greater distances or through “poluted” environments, like passed lighting systems dimmer packs (yippy!), and want to prevent as much problems as possible, this is a possible solution:
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=245-868
Well, maybe THE solution. It allows you to take your balanced TRS signal (use the TRS/XLR converter I mentioned earlier), run a long cable to this box (XLR in) which you stick right next to the mixer and then use a very short (still high quality) RCA (out) cable into the mixer. You should be good to go.
No hum, no noise and as a bonus this unit changes the output levels as they should be. Pro audio equipment runs +4dB signals (probably what your controller puts out on it’s TRS) while RCA inputs (usually) are rigged for -10dB. If you were to use an XLR to RCA converter (they do exist) on your cable and then plug into the mixer, you’d come in 14dB too loud for the input. Not as bad as with the mic input, but it would mean a bigger risk of overloading the input. This unit makes sure you get the output level you need. Also that kind of connection would be unbalanced by definition.
Hope that helps again.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorProbably a reason for that. I have to say that I got myself an Airport Express (latest model), not cheap but it works out just fine.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorSo now to qualify as pro you have to use 4decks? Sorry, don’t support that point of view.
My definition of a pro is someone who can create a great party with WHATEVER he has to work with.
I have and can use 4 decks, but I don’t like it and it does not fit MY style of DJ-ing. So I am perfectly happy using just 2 decks. I don’t consider myself less of a pro because of it.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorMy sentiments exactly. If I feel like going full force I’ll bring my laptop. Otherwise just bring my iPad and do wireless Engine.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorGood luck with the diapers Staz :-).
And +1 on the grumpy old DJs thread hehehe.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorSounds like a sweet deal.
As far as building a desk, might wanna check out this one : http://interstateaudio.nl/product/dj-table-2-foldable/. Not only is it sturdy and looks good (although I prefer closed ones, but that is just me), but it is also foldable. And if you go out with your gear, this is a good way to have your own table at the right height with you.
Flightcase is sensible if you are going to take it out of it’s normal location at all. I would never travel with my gear without it being in cases. Specially turntables are fragile, even with the lid on them (at least you’ll get nasty scratches on the lid). The wiring sticks out and has a habit of snagging behind stuff.
Coffin or seperate cases is a very good question. A few things to wonder here are:
- Will I ever use any of the pieces seperate. Like taking only your TTs to a venue?
- Can I live with the same setup forever? Some like the “classic” setup of TT-mixer-TT, others prefer to have the TTs together either left or right of the mixer. Most coffins don’t give you that flexibility because of the bracing inside of them.
- How much weight do you want to lift. Two SL1200s with a mixer AND a full size coffin is a considerable haul.
- Do you fancy plugging all your cables in and out every time. If you buy a coffin you can semi-permanently fix all your cables up to look tidy. If your coffin has a small cable lid (or you can make one easily yourself) you won’t see any of the cables. If you have seperate flightcases, you’ll have cables running all over the place. Not looking very tidy and a potential source of malfunctions.
That is the long and short of it in my opinion. Do some soul searching and figure out what it most important to you and go from there.
I recently moved from a controller (Denon MC6000) in one of those flightcases with a sliding laptop tray and two CD players (American DJ CDI-500s – I know!) in flightcases to a setup with two Denon MC2900 full-size media players and a 12″ X1600 mixer. I faced the same decision on cases or coffin. For me the coffin was the best option. Got one with wheels so I can roll it. I have all my cabling tucked away, my Apple AirPort Express built-in and powered USB hub and a network switch. Toss it in the car, unload it, set it on my foldable stand (ProDJUser but different model), take off the lid, stick in mic, headphone, two active speakers and power and I am off to the races.
Hope this is of some help to you.
Good luck with your decisions.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorGranny is FEMALE you dope … and thanks, Terry!
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorDaryl Northrop, post: 41103, member: 2350 wrote: … No kids though, so that helps.
Mine left the house years ago and take full care of themselves (heck, one is trying to make me a grandpa already … pffff), so effectively childless here too.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorYou are welcome 🙂
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