DJ Vintage

LOL, I hear you on the wanting to understand stuff. I am like that (much to the dismay of my surrounding sometimes lol).

The pm offer was for Private Message. Sometimes these sessions start to go beyond the scope of a thread on the forum and it is better to take it to 1-on-1 conversation.

Curious to see what you find out.

As far as the settings on the Rokits go: the level knob has a max level of +6dB. As I said in my earlier reply, you want to set your amp to max (in this case the mentioned +6dB, which as you figured out is the factory default setting) and control the actual level going INTO the Rokits with your master volume fader/knob. The treble setting just allows you to finetune the highs a bit compared to the low/mid section. This is often relevant when tuning the monitors to the space they are used in or the condition of your ears :-). Them being set to 0dB means in relationship to the total level setting of the Rokit. If you were to set the total level setting to max (+6dB), but you would set the treble to -3dB, the effective signal for the treble amp would be +6 – 3 = + 3dB. Hence the flat setting for default as the Rokits are factory tuned to sound balanced with no extra or less treble.

Greetinx,
C.

What it says is that if you drive it to 0dBfs (decibels relative to full scale) which, too keep things simple, is the no clipping limit of a digital system (in this case your FocusRite), it will output an analogue level of +10dBu.

Autogain should mean that Traktor normalizes your tracks, i.e. make them all equally loud by changing the gain for you. Which is what you would normally do manually in say a CD setup. It shouldn’t make your entire system sound less loud.

The limiter is supposed to make sure you don’t go louder than the level it is set to. You could switch it off and see what the difference is, although I don’t think that is where your problem sits.

Question is, where does it sit?!

In effect, a software mixer (like in Traktor) is no different from a regular analogue mixer as far as the gain structure is concerned. In a PA environment you’d set your amps to max (in your case your Rokits to +6dB). Like Henley said you use the channel gain knobs to set the correct channel level for the song that is playing (or have Traktor take care of that for you through autogain) and with your faders at 100% you should be at 0dB average output for that channel.

You now have a channel that sends 0dB average into your setup and an amp that is open all the way. The only thing sitting in between these two and what determines how loud it will sound is the master volume/gain. You want to keep it under a certain level to prevent (digital) clipping, but apart from that you can run it up to the level you need to get the sound level you want out of your speakers. And like Terry said, usually you won’t be able to turn everything up to 100% because it would be too loud.

The only thing that is an unknown for me at this point is the setting of the FocusRite. I know on my DigiRack002 I can control my sound levels with the monitor knob on the AI. I know your Focusrite has a monitor knob. It MIGHT be the one control you need to turn up to get the level you need. Alternatively you might be able to set the output level in the FocusRite tool.

Something else I noticed on the FR, is that it has an input/playback knob for direct monitoring. What that does (I think) is give you the possibility of choosing the mix between listening to what comes into your in ports (which is nothing in your case!) and what comes back out through the USB port. If that is set like it is in the picture (halfway) or even further towards Input, I can imagine that would lower the actual output as well.

Sorry for the long a** answer (again lol), but I really do think that the correct settings for the FR might be where you need to look.

Greetinx,
C.

p.s. the offer of pm still stands 🙂

p.s. 2. I just took a quick look at the FR manual and it more or less confirms what I said here. The monitor knob controls the total sound output to the speakers connected to the balanced TRS connectors (not the RCA’s though) and the Input/Playback rotary knob lets you blend direct input and return from DAW (or your traktor sound). So, the Input/Playback knob should be fully to the Playback setting, the monitor knob, well, as high as you want the volume coming out of your speakers 🙂

I did that in my early years, anything to play in front of a “crowd”. Both skills, gear and (still important at the time) collection weren’t all that professional (yet). If I did this now, I’d probably be playing 4-6 parties a year for free, hauling equipment back and forth, setting up, breaking down (I don’t let people help, it hardly saves times and has on occassion hurt my gear). Since I need to drive afterwards, I don’t drink when DJ-ing (anymore lol), so no bonus there either. Needless to say that if it were a friends party where I was invited, I’d be expecting free drinks anyway!

And has anybody noticed you sometimes get the worst flack if you play at a friends party? 🙂

Greetinx,
C.

That is probably how I would set it up. One dedicated USB port for all the outgoing sound, the other for all the midi data thru a hub.

Greetinx,
C.

I’ll agree with that. Being a mobile DJ, I don’t want to carry around SL1200s, to heavy, big and cumbersome (pretty shock sensitive for 1). I have a controller (MC6000) and used it with two backup CD Players (old low end American DJ thingies with no features apart from digital fx). Apart from the backup aspect (if the laptop dies on me I can continue on the night without a hitch on CDs) it is also a visual thing. I charge my customers for rent of the gear and I have noticed they like to be a little bit in awe of the stuff you set up. So just having a single controller with a laptop there, well … not TOO impressive to the laymans eye.

When I figured that it would be nice if my CD Players would be controllers too, if they could handle USB sticks and drives and my old ones really needed replacement AND I was getting a bit tired of the size of the jog wheels on my controller, it boiled down to wanting CDJ (like) players that could do midi/usb as well as good ole CDs and use them as my primary deck controllers for Traktor.

So, I changed out my old CD Players for Denon SC2900s, with as much functionality as I could want and nice, big jog wheels. I wanted to connect them together with my controller and make that my setup. Instead I decided to swap my controller out too for a Denon X1600 mixer that also has midi functionality.

In a sense I have offered up some portability by going to a full size mixer with two full size CDJs in one DJ Coffin (the old CD Players and the MC6000 were all in seperate flightcases), but in return I got a versatile setup that let’s me play any way I want. Laptop/Traktor, USB/iPad (Engine) or just plain old CD (with an 8 channel Traktor Scratch certified sound card on board I could even do DVS). All cabling is hooked up permanently inside the coffin. So when I get to a party, put the coffin on its pedestal, hook up power, PA speakers, monitor speaker and mic and off to the races.

And it looks impressive and awesome and has got the wow factor.

It wouldn’t be the setup I’d want running out to the clubs. The times I had to play on club gear I’d use just a laptop (connecting older style CDJs with USB cables I bring along or stuff USB sticks in the players and just use the setup as is.

Very interested to see how DJ-ing in general, in digital in particular and club setups will change in the coming years.

Greetinx,
C.

Oh, there is sooooo much to choose from.

In addition to what is said above, things you want to look into are:

• Build quality. ABS plastic is less susceptible to scratches and chips than wood cabinets. BUT, wood cabinets tend to have better acoustic characteristics.
• Weight. It does matter if you go out two or three times a week if you are carrying around 40 or 60 pound speakers
• Size. Do you really need 15″ top end speakers, or would 12″ suffice (especially if you are also bringing one or two subwoofers to the scene).
• Amp. If you get active speakers (which I highly recommend, if only because amp failure leads to no sound, where as if an amp in one speaker goes you still have number two going :-)), you should probably be looking for digital amps. They weigh a lot less, are a lot less bulky, produce less heat (which means more power goes to the speakers than to the room temperature) and generally sound better (although that is a matter of debate and I would agree with the notion that cheaper model digital amps might sound worse than their analogue counterparts).

And I would like to emphasize the point DiscoVideo made, SPL (i.e. the amount of dB = decibel = sound pressure that a speaker produces for every 1 Watt you put in it, measured at 1 meter distance) is the most important measure for P.A. speakers.
Without getting to technical, but a 3dB increase in SPL equals DOUBLING the Watt level of the amp. A 10dB increase to the human ear sounds TWICE as loud.
So, a 100W amp powering a 125 SPL speaker will sound as loud as a 50W amp powering a 128 SPL speaker!
When it comes to Watts, you must also take into account things like RMS, Peak, Program or Music Power and other fancy (marketing) terms. Music is never a constant. RMS is the constant power a speaker can provide. Peak or Music Power is usually double of RMS.
In short, not an easy thing to advise on.
Greetinx,
C.
my P.A.: 2x Mackie HD1221 with 1x HD1801.

Just make sure you get the USB Hubs that have a processor for each available port (multi-TT) and of course it has to be powered. That way there shouldn’t be too much problems. Apart from the tow channel audio stream, all that goes over the USB connection is Midi data and that is a relatively low load. So the USB bandwidth shouldn’t be a problem, even with 4 devices hooked up.

Greetinx,
C.