bob6397

I’m afraid I disagree about the 2 levels of line – the 2 exist, yes – but my Focusrite outputs +4 on the balanced jack outs and on the unbalanced RCAs – there is no difference in sound output level when I have checked it..

And I would also disagree on the use of the pads – this just degrades the signal further – why bother sticking it through a Mic pre-amp when you don’t need to, just to then reduce the level again to get it to the same volume it would be at if you just plugged into a stereo jack input..?

I agree on the RCA’s though – I use them to plug soundcard into mixer but I can control all the leads on my table (And I don’t use old-fashioned lighting rigs – DMX + LEDs all the way 😉

And don’t pretty much all CDJ’s (apart from the nexus range) use RCA outs still? And the inputs on all club mixers and the outputs from turntables? I agree though, they aren’t great…

That cleanbox thing looks good though – isn’t it just a twin DI box though? Looks like it…

bob6397

Read the original post 🙂

He’s already done that… 😉

Have you got anything intensive running in the background? Or anything that could be eating up your system resources?

If the CPU maxes out, it could cause the sort of glitches you are talking about.

What kind of specs (and which OS) does your computer have??

bob6397

First of all, welcome 🙂

A quick summary of balanced vs unbalanced:

The main advantage of balanced are that it reduces interference (As it uses hot, cold and earth) – but this is only really noticeable over long cable runs or in areas with a lot of electric fields.. The other advantage can be that XLR connections (on cables) are generally longer lasting than RCA connections – but that is a by product not a direct result of them being balanced. The cable runs from your mixer to speakers or mixer to amps should be balanced though.

Balanced connections can be either XLR (the 3 Pole Mic-type sockets) or TRS (3 Pole Jack 1/4 inch Cables)
Unbalanced are usually TS (2 Pole Jack 1/4 inch cables) or RCA cables – and occasionally 3.5mm – headphone ports).

In your situation, where you are just going from your Macbook/controller to the mixer I wouldnt bother with balanced – what I would invest in is a better sound card (aka an audio interface) that can output much higher volume levels than the headphone port on your Mac. It will also be much higher quality than the headphone port on your Mac

These can come built in to many controllers – indeed any controller that has a sound output will have an audio interface built in. If you don’t fancy or don’t need a controller for the DJing you are doing, jusy buying an external interface will be cheaper and much more space efficient. I personally don’t use a controller – I use a Focusrite 2i4 – which is a high end card with functions that you probably won’t need. An alternative could be the Numark DJ-IO. The people I know that use this are very pleased with it.

This should give you a better quality and louder sound output, but it may also be worth checking the settings in DJAY to make sure that the software is outputting at a high volume level, as well as the obvious – turn up the volume on your Mac’s main output.

Hope this makes sense,

bob6397

I don’t think Martin will appreciate you sticking them in the same bin as American Audio and Chauvet

Ha ha – maybe you’re right. Although at the low end, brands don’t matter as such – many of the products are exactly the same with different logos on anyway 🙂

You are right about Martin though – their kit is way beyond anything that the budget end produces. They are however much more expensive as a result.. Their kit does work though – and my experiences of MAC 350s have always been positive 🙂

bob6397

I would add that I usually run my amps at 0dB – IE 12 o’clock.. My method is get the gain set (as said above) and then put everything to output at 0dB with the amps set to -infinity (no sound coming out). I then fade up the amps to the max level I will want for the evening.

This stops having ultra sensitive speakers (where you turn the master vol up/down small amounts but the resultant change in volume is massive, and it stops you from overdriving the speakers/amp later in the evening as your ears fatigue amd you keep turning the volume up to “add some energy” 🙂

A fail safe for yourself in many ways..

Just my opinion of course – everyone has their own way of doing this.

bob6397

So when you say nothing works.. what does that mean exactly?

I can’t comment on Serato as I don’t (and have never) used it with an approved sound card. So, Virtual DJ (On Windows):

First of all I would update to Virtual DJ 8 – this should be free with your current Virtual DJ license as all upgrades are free if you have bought the full license.

The reason I say this is that the mixtrack quad was released after they stopped developing virtual DJ 7 (this was roughly 2 years before V8 was released last july), and there is therefore no built in support for it.

Then download (and install) the mapping from the numark website (http://www.numark.com/product/mixtrack-quad), look on the right hand side as below:

Once you have done that, make sure that all the settings are how you want them in VDJ (IE correctly set up for the way you DJ and the system you use).

Then make sure that the audio output is set correctly, and check that the correct controller mapping is being used.

Then it should all be working..

bob6397

PS: A good tip is to always plug everything into the same USB port – don’t keep swapping which port you plug it into. This is less of an issue on a mac but because of the way that Windows controls devices, it will treat an old device in a new USB port as an entirely new device and try to install drivers for it each time – not heplful. 🙂