DJ

I feel exactly the same. But Shr3dder’s got a good point as well: all commercial music sounds the same; that’s why it’s commercial (I wouldn’t call anything by Hardwell “commercial” necessarily, but the principle is spot on). Anything that gains popularity is going to bring forth imitators, which are also going to gain popularity, because they sound similar to the original.

For instance (and I hate to mention the “S word,” but…) Skrillex hit it huge because, love him or hate him, he created a sound that was completely unique and transcended, if you will, most everything else that was out there. That’s the reason why you will constantly hear that (what used to be a) uniquely Skrillex-ish synth sound in a massive number of remixes as well as electro and dubstep tunes that are getting progressively more chopped up and with random sounds interspersed throughout simply because it worked for Skrillex.

I do totally agree with you though, and I am getting really sick of every “remix” now that is just the first normal 55 seconds of the song followed by 32 bars of the Skrillex synths, then back into the original song for another 32.

And the mic goes into the mic jack on the front of the Mixtrack. Am I forgetting something?

Nope, I’m pretty sure a mixer isn’t needed. Just hook the Mixtrack to your laptop with the USB, then connect the Mixtrack’s output RCAs to the speakers and you’re all set (assuming the speakers have RCA inputs which, hopefully they do).

How are the Red Waves by the way? I’ve been considering getting a pair.

Microsoft Sam is Windows’ text-to-speech function. You type in a word or phrase and a computerized voice reads it back to you.

Glad to see a fellow N4 user! For the crossfader, make sure you use the “X-Fader Assign” buttons to the right and left of the crossfader (for example, hit 1 & 3 on the left and 2 &4 on the right). If you don’t have any of them selected, the cross fader won’t do anything.

For headphone cueing, make sure the Cue/PFL button is selected on the track you want to cue, that the cue volume knob is raised above zero (so you can hear it), and that the audio settings in whatever software you’re using are configured correctly for the monitor/headphones (headphone cueing frustrated me for a long time until I realized I had VDJ’s audio set to “Single Out” instead of “Headphones).

Let me know if you’re still having trouble

I’ve definitely noticed it. I’ve seen it mostly in drum & bass sets but in many others as well. I liked it the first few times I heard it (maybe because it was just something different) but now it irritates me a bit (especially when it’s one of my favorite tracks that they cut short into something else). My theory (most likely unfounded– just a theory) is that it may be a cover-up for poor programming. Instead of selecting an appropriate amount of solid tracks that flow well together to make a set with, they cram in as many as possible knowing that, just by pure probability theory, the crowd’s going to like at least some of them. On the other hand though, they could simply be showing off how quick they can mix tracks.