Nathan Kelly
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Nathan Kelly
ParticipantBut then what is the advantage of having that higher sample rate on your DJ controller? Why would Native Instruments, for example, advertise their “pro quality” 96Khz, 24 bit audio interface on the S2? If even the highest quality WAV file is still 44.1Khz at 16 bit, then why make anything above that?
ParticipantThanks for your responses, all! Interesting stuff. So even if a controller audio interface is 48K, it’s still playing the digital file at 44.1K, yes? But it’s internally processing it at 48K? Still a little unclear about that.
ParticipantYeah, it’s interesting isn’t it? I mean, if there was no benefit to having a higher sample rate than 44.100, then why do it? Unless sampling a 44.100 file at 48.000 times a second somehow “improves” it. I was just curious because generally upscaling any digital file does not improve the quality. (If anything it reduces it).
ParticipantSigh. Well that’s embarrassing.
I’ll hook up the SB the proper way and see if that does the trick. Not sure why the master gain knob wouldn’t work in the software though.
Yeah, I guess the MC2000 must have been faulty if there was still noise on their system. I was just freaking out a bit because I’ll be heading back to the store to hopefully do an exchange for a different MC2000 (which I prefer to the SB). I wanted to make sure I wasn’t frying perfectly functional controllers as a result of my stupidity.
This bears repeating: Huge thanks for your help with this! Great support on these forums. Hopefully now I can get past this roadblock and actually, you know, learn DJing. 🙂
ParticipantI didn’t have time to fully run through the tests you mentioned, but I just wanted to ask about the wiring.
You mention the “loop” created with the speakers having two sources. Here’s what I’ve been doing so far:
Controller > Laptop (USB)
Laptop > Speakers (USB or 3.5mm jack)
Controller > Speakers (RCA)I just assumed the speakers would need to be connected to the laptop at all times. But if they’re getting input from the RCA out from my controller, then they don’t need to be connected to the laptop? So it would look like:
Controller > Laptop (USB)
Controller > Speakers (RCA)Was I just doing it wrong with my first wiring setup? If that’s the case, is that the likely cause the noise? And my big fear: would that cause any damage to the controller (or the speakers for that matter)?
ParticipantSorry, let me clear some things up about the speakers:
The speakers can be connected to a laptop by USB or 3.5mm audio jack. The speakers also have RCA input and output ports. I connected the MC2000 to the RCA input of the speakers and to the laptop via USB. Whether or not I connected the speakers to the laptop via USB or the headphone jack, the noise was the same. Is there some other way I should have connected it? Do I not have to connect the controller to the speakers if it’s connected to the laptop?
And yes, the shop had a completely different setup with their own headphones. The noise on the MC2000 remained.
I haven’t run through all the same procedures for the SB, but I definitely will. I just connected to the computer via USB, and the speakers via RCA. The speakers were connected to the computer via USB.
I will run through your troubleshooting guide later tonight. Thanks again for all your help!
ParticipantThanks for the reply.
(1) Yes. By operating normally I mean connected to nothing but the computer, just playing music.
(2) Don’t have anything else to connect to the speakers via an RCA cable.
(3) I’m not around my setup right now to confirm, but I’m fairly confident there was no noise unless the controller was powered on via USB. Something to double-check though.
(4) Tried all the ports on my laptop, tried speakers through USB and the headphone output, even tried USB port on a different computer and the noise was there.
(5) Don’t have another RCA cable, but the noise was present in the headphone output even when not connected to speakers (just to laptop via USB).
(6) Tried the controller USB for the speaker and the speaker USB for the controller, no difference.
When I brought the Denon in and they connected to a completely different setup, the noise was still there in the headphones. There’s no way the speakers could be “ruining” the controllers, is there? Creating some sort of fault that causes the noise even if the controller is moved to a different setup?
ParticipantI would say that as a DJ it’s your job to facilitate an experience. Whether or not that experience is underground hard techno, electro funk or top 40, you need to deliver and get people on the floor.
For me it comes down to clearly communicating what the sound will be like on any given night at any given club. If people come expecting a certain style or sound, you’d better bring that or it won’t matter how carefully your curated your mix of rare 70s psychedelic disco, no one will dance.
Likewise, if some “high roller” demands whatever genre that runs totally counter to the vibe for that evening, I feel like the club would have to weigh the short-term gain of one person spending a lot of money vs a potentially empty dance floor and bad word of mouth going forward.
ParticipantHm, very true! I hadn’t thought about Reloop since the “smaller” brands are generally harder to find in Canada, but there’s a site selling it for $559. I’ll add it to the list.
Are balanced/unbalanced converters and DI boxes essentially the same thing? What would you commonly find at a bar to plug into, a DI box or a mixer?
ParticipantThanks again for answering my questions.
There’s a pretty big jump from the $300-400 controllers to stuff with balanced outs. I think the next cheapest Serato controller from there would be a DDJ-SR which is $650 and still runs on bus power. But it does come with full Serato DJ and has an AUX in. Much less portable though. Any other options around there with balanced output under $600?
I’ve seen some RCA to XLR/TRS converters out there. Would that actually work in a situation where I need to run a longer cable?
ParticipantThanks for the advice!
My goals are pretty humble at this point. I’d like to just learn it for fun, do some sets at house parties and make my own mixes initially. Eventually I could see myself tagging along with a few friends who already DJ at smaller dance bars around town.
In terms of software, I’m leaning heavily towards Serato. I think the interface is a bit better – plus the stacked parallel waveforms seem better to learn beatmatching. I’m definitely interested in video in the long run, so that’s a big selling point.
I see the MC2000 gets a lot of love and great reviews. It certainly seems like the most “serious” entry level controller. The only thing I worry about is size – while it’s great that it’s super-portable, for someone with big hands I’d worry about it being cramped. The DDJ-SB is probably my top choice at the moment (plus it’s almost $100 cheaper). But it seems a bit more “gimmicky” with the filter fade function and performance pads. The layout, however, is a bit more spacious. Maybe I’ll wait for the review.
Two final tech questions, if you’ll indulge me:
(1) Ultimately, would you gig with a controller that only has RCA outputs? It just seems that there aren’t any controllers under around 500 bucks that have balanced outs. (Canadian dollars, keep in mind).
(2) Is an AUX input a super-important feature to have? The MC2000 has one but the SB does not. I can see it being valuable if the program crashes just to run some tunes from your phone while you reboot, but couldn’t you also just run over to the mixer and plug something in?
Thanks again for all the help!
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