DJ Vintage

I believe gain corrections are saved in a tag that just says the up/down dB level. And as such the other info should not be affected.

Then there is the issue of compression. If you take two songs with relatively big compression diffences, that have the same true gain level, they can (and usually will) sound vastly different. So, what you PERCEIVE to be the loudest track might actually have the same gain level. I am not sure that autogain functions (all) compensate for that.

So far I have been using Platinum Notes (see article on blog) and it does a very nice job. Not just autogaining, but also correcting clipped signals, key corrections and since version 4.x adding “warmth” as an option. Not cheap, but high quality.

Sure Terry can help you out with Serato specifics, it’s his thing :-).

Greetinx,
C.

Yeah, I know … I was homeless before this place too … now … 3 square meals a day and a bed to sleep in.

Greetinx,
C.

I remember glueing a coin to the shell for some extra weight in the early days … hehehehe

LOL, yeah vinyl is definitely not CDs 🙂

Especially for those faint of heart who were used to less than 1 gram needle pressure and now having to turn stuff up to 3-5 grams … then forgetting that you need to set anti-skating accordingly.

Cartridges pretty much limited to Stanton or Ortofon. The latter I prefer(red) because of the unobstructed view of the needle, which made dropping it at the right place a little easier. Just be sure to carry enough spares, they will break eventually.

Greetinx,
C.

I am with you on iTunes. Hateful piece of software. You can either do it the Apple way or not at all. Ever tried copying a few playlists from one device (iPhone) to another (iPad)? Especially if one of those devices is not yours? Drama.

But, this thread is not about iTunes bashing.

Depending on what you want your software to do (it sounds like you need it to be just library management really) and what brand CDJ’s you are gonna end up with, RekordBox (Pioneer) and Engine (Denon) would be valuable options.

Which brings us to the subject at hand, what CDJs to buy (and what mixer? … assuming you want something to hook the CDJ’s up to).

Obviously there is a big choice out there. If you plan on ever playing on rented equipment or in clubs/venues with fixed installations, then (unfortunately according to some) your best bet would be Pioneer.

When you say Pioneer, you could either go low budget and get the Gemini CDJ 700s which are more or less copies of the high end Pioneer models (and oddly enough have been taken out of a lot of shops here recently, copyright infringement anyone?). The only cost a fraction of “real” CDJs and give you the almost exact same workflow.

Then there is Pioneer itself. Don’t go the 350 road, they are way too basic to be any good, unless you use them as controllers for Traktor or VDJ or something (although I think they are a tad on the pricey side for that). 800s, 900s or 2000s. None of them qualify for your criterium of “cheap” though. Starting at about 850 euro here (800) up to more than 1800 euro (2000) a piece, they are pretty high price.

An alternative that I chose is the Denon SC2900 (and I got the X1600 mixer with it). Not cheap, but definitely way lower in price than the Pioneers and Denon is, for sure, a pro brand. They make great quality gear.

You could also opt for stuff like American DJ Radius 3000 or such. There are plenty of low(er) end CDJ players.

Greetinx,
C.

The manual sucks :-).

Apparently you can use it in a full stereo 2-way (2 amp) configuration (i.e. subwoofer and mid/high top speaker with passive filter built in) or you can use it as a mono 3-way with seperate subwoofer output (this would then be a 4 amp setup).

In your case you would be using the stereo 2-way setup. The x-over frequency probably set for 125HZ (check the manual on your subs), the sub amp connected to the Mid/Low XLR output on the back. The mid/high amp then goes into the XLR for high. You want to set the mode switch to 2-way stereo on the back and the x-over frequency switch to low.

On the front you want to activate the low cut (everything under 25Hz is cut with -12dB slope, since your subs probably won’t be able to go that low, it adds an extra protection layer to your subs – inaudible lows can take a lot of power and also ultimately hurt your speakers or amps). You want to set the low/high x-over frequency to something suitable for you subs. Not sure which Peavey sub you have, but if it is the Pro II active series, then they run as high as 300Hz. You might want to play around with the x-over frequency. 125Hz is a typical subwoofer setting, but you could try out 250Hz, in which case the Peavey’s take away some of the low mids from the mid/high top ends, freeing up some power there. Clearly you’ll lose some definition in the real lows since the sub now has to handle everything up to 250Hz).

Hope this helps.

Greetinx,
C.