I were at a rave, the DJ were terrible! He blew the speakers after 5 minutes. Everything were at full! My head got all scrambled becaouse of the terrible sound!
wow your lesson was incredibly goood for me ! I always wanted to get a mixer and nice equipment and I turned down some good offers just because I didn't know how to use them ! you vids are very useful ! excuse my english I live in Romania
normaly standard is= "input channel fader set to max you must use gain to max 0db and then when master output volume set to max0db and head volume on the amp on 70% then you are playing loud and clear" all the rest just makes public leave the podium.. and try allways to play music just at level of loud speaking if mobile dj,for the clubs is another story..people like ti loud,BUT not too loud...
Also my Sony twin tray recorder always peaks in the red and it never distorts. Out of the hundreds of mixes I've done, only one or two had any noticable distortion!
So in other words dont be so anal about it. But also dont take the piss out of someone elses mixer and respect others equipment!
Im yet to find a mixer that gives a truly accurate read-out. As an owner of the djm600 and now the 800, I never really went by the lights as some choons would be miles louder though its not redlining! Making sure the mix is level is far more important then stressing about it going into the red!!! You do this by splitting the headphones and not by simply looking at the lights! Also never take the bass, mid or treble past 12 o'clock!
If you're using a proper sound system and you don't want to kill it.
0db is your friend. Your amps are you workhorse, your mixers job is to send it a clean signal. You shouldn't be red-lighting, if you need to do it you are over stressing your gear.
0db and your PA will last a long time. Your sound will be clearer too.
clipping with digital audio means the wave form reaches and exceeds the threashold of your system and the sine wave thats a nice big S gets "clipped" off at the point at which the wave exceeds the system, when it does it you get a sharp jagged sound because it turns your S shapes sine wave into an almost square wave- not pleasant sounding. you can push it farther in analog to get tape distortion which adds a warm punch but can distort if too hight
The only way id know how to explain it would be to think of it as a pipe and maybe some water (The water being your sound from the turntable, cdj - whatever a source of sound) and as you increase the volume lets say the water increases also now at a certain point all that water will not be able to fit in that pipe and you will probably end up with bits of it not getting through or "clipped" so to speak.. anyway thats the only way i could think of explaining it. hope it helped :D
Like in ableton if you use it its someting that you can launch and it will play. Its a premade sound or something you made ready for launching. Correct me if im wrong its actually hard to explain that lol
Clipping is when the signal going to your amp hit's maximum. If you were to look at proper signal with an oscilliscope, you would have a nice smooth curvy wave (depending on frequency), when you clip (or go to maximum) you get what's called a square wave, or clip. Clipping can actually harm your speakers. It makes things sound horrible too. Hope it helps a bit.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
this guy is not very smart. firstly, the LED's are not telling you whats happening inside the mixer, they tell you the amount of signal coming from an audio source ie. cdj. the gain is not the volume of each channel, it is used to control the AMOUNT of signal you are letting in to the channel. volume is the amplitude of sound.
You're not excactly right, The LED's are telling you how much db the signal inside the mixer is, the signal incoming is very low, but your mixer strengthens the signal.
The gain does strenghten the signal, if you're were right, that would mean that the signal inside you mixer before it reaches the gain would always be wel over 0db, not good ;)
I got the 1000's in jan, never played on any other till i had a go on the 800.s a few weeks ago. i have to say there was a massive difference in quality and ease to play. I think it was worth the extra few hundred quid. if your really stuck for cash u could maybe downgrade to the djm 700 there doesnt seem to be a whole world off difference between them, although the cfx are sweet. your call
really useful vid Jonathan...but i need to be sure...if the LEDs hit red, its okay to increase the master and lower the Gain? So as to get back to the Green zone? Cheers.
More and more mixers can take that beating, you could let that djm-800 play with the leds full on for the whole day,,.well..
DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!
A club has a Limiter that "Limits" the sound to a surtain DB level (80/90 Db mostly) You CANNOT push this limit with your mixer, as soon as you do, your Disorting the sound!, and this does not sound good!! and most of all, it DESTROYS your kit! (clips Speakers, Burns mixers!) so dont do it! Be Easy on the gain! Practice & Enjoy
i am not jonathan but i kno that any sound going over 0db is accually just useless. >0db = poor quality, overheating and blown equipment. although distortion happens, ur set will be fine if it happens occassionally, but for any length of time it will ruin ur set.
i only found out about this recently, i had my 1st gig at a party i threw, now i've nearly always had my gains(trim) turned up fullyand my master up fully, i now know what the gains are for, but because i done this and just controled the volume by the faders on my mixer would this have been the reason why my amp started to get very very hot? so hot that i could smell it almost burning.
when you are mixing two tracks to gether shoud the master volume stay almost same level when you are playing just one track or how much it can go higher in the mix?
If the mixer meters are accurate you should see an increase of around 3dB when both tracks are playing, so it's best to keep each track playing at somewhere between -3dB and 0dB - so when both are playing it's hitting 0dB with peaks around +3dB.
Hi J. To set things where you will get the best sound quality, Idealy you should have your MAIN dial at 3 o'clock (or 8 if it's a fader) and your individual Gains should be hitting 0 (in the green and not into the amber) when your fader is set at 8. I did an old video on this, but I'll do a new one.
If you go into the amber on my system (how I have my amps set) you will hear distortion straight away. Someone was using my system a while back with full ambers running roughly +5db & I almost killed the kid... HA! I'm going to do a video this weekend on how I set things for what it's worth
@briansredd I watched your video, it gave me some good ideas! If I set a track to unity, not only do I not blow speakers resistors etc... the other track will be at the same level coming in :) I tired this and my mixes sounded much cleaner. Thanks for posting that
I love your videos. I don't have any of the equipment you're showing me unfortunately, but its preparing me for when I do and even helps me when I'm producing a track. Keep doing 'em.
Well yes and no... Gain acts almost like a master volume where you can boost or more impostantly: set maximum volume or gain for any track playing on that channel. The fader then becomes a mixing tool - you wont damaage your equipment if the fader is raised to the very top. Jonathon has covered this in another vid :)
Tracks from different albums (especially less recent ones) have different volumes. That would mean that, without Gain/Trim, you would set the faders at a different level but you'd hear them equally loud. This isn't logic. That's why you have Gain/Trim, you set the level for each track so it hits 0db at max, while your fader is in your preferred position (max for most people, a little below for some). Now you can put the faders at the same position and they will sound equally loud.
I were at a rave, the DJ were terrible! He blew the speakers after 5 minutes. Everything were at full! My head got all scrambled becaouse of the terrible sound!
texlyon 6 months ago
@navarro310 try to increase the treble and the mid and put your amp lower and turn your bass down :) hope it helps
EpikProductions123 6 months ago
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fep4e 1 year ago
this lesson came from the Huh Durrrrh section
slowgold20 1 year ago
so what something u can do to not get in the red buhh u wanna raise the volume???
navarro310 1 year ago
wow your lesson was incredibly goood for me ! I always wanted to get a mixer and nice equipment and I turned down some good offers just because I didn't know how to use them ! you vids are very useful ! excuse my english I live in Romania
MrPulamea 1 year ago
normaly standard is= "input channel fader set to max you must use gain to max 0db and then when master output volume set to max0db and head volume on the amp on 70% then you are playing loud and clear" all the rest just makes public leave the podium.. and try allways to play music just at level of loud speaking if mobile dj,for the clubs is another story..people like ti loud,BUT not too loud...
jigibao 1 year ago
Sometimes i play +4db but that really is the max (on my mixer +7db is red)
Armywar123 2 years ago
Also my Sony twin tray recorder always peaks in the red and it never distorts. Out of the hundreds of mixes I've done, only one or two had any noticable distortion!
So in other words dont be so anal about it. But also dont take the piss out of someone elses mixer and respect others equipment!
multipl3 2 years ago
Im yet to find a mixer that gives a truly accurate read-out. As an owner of the djm600 and now the 800, I never really went by the lights as some choons would be miles louder though its not redlining! Making sure the mix is level is far more important then stressing about it going into the red!!! You do this by splitting the headphones and not by simply looking at the lights! Also never take the bass, mid or treble past 12 o'clock!
multipl3 2 years ago
If you're using a proper sound system and you don't want to kill it.
0db is your friend. Your amps are you workhorse, your mixers job is to send it a clean signal. You shouldn't be red-lighting, if you need to do it you are over stressing your gear.
0db and your PA will last a long time. Your sound will be clearer too.
gavbag1234 2 years ago 2
clipping with digital audio means the wave form reaches and exceeds the threashold of your system and the sine wave thats a nice big S gets "clipped" off at the point at which the wave exceeds the system, when it does it you get a sharp jagged sound because it turns your S shapes sine wave into an almost square wave- not pleasant sounding. you can push it farther in analog to get tape distortion which adds a warm punch but can distort if too hight
Downbeat1984 2 years ago
@Downbeat1984 which is why analog is still superior. Digital distortion is incredibly destructive to amp electronics and speaker systems in general.
battlestarvfx 2 years ago
what does "clip" means?
dmc081 2 years ago
The only way id know how to explain it would be to think of it as a pipe and maybe some water (The water being your sound from the turntable, cdj - whatever a source of sound) and as you increase the volume lets say the water increases also now at a certain point all that water will not be able to fit in that pipe and you will probably end up with bits of it not getting through or "clipped" so to speak.. anyway thats the only way i could think of explaining it. hope it helped :D
elcko123 2 years ago
Like in ableton if you use it its someting that you can launch and it will play. Its a premade sound or something you made ready for launching. Correct me if im wrong its actually hard to explain that lol
Jimmylecroy21 2 years ago
Clipping is when the signal going to your amp hit's maximum. If you were to look at proper signal with an oscilliscope, you would have a nice smooth curvy wave (depending on frequency), when you clip (or go to maximum) you get what's called a square wave, or clip. Clipping can actually harm your speakers. It makes things sound horrible too. Hope it helps a bit.
DJRhinofart 2 years ago
It means the mixer can't handle the amount of signal you're putting through it, and it will be clipping off the loudest parts of the music.
gavbag1234 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
this guy is not very smart. firstly, the LED's are not telling you whats happening inside the mixer, they tell you the amount of signal coming from an audio source ie. cdj. the gain is not the volume of each channel, it is used to control the AMOUNT of signal you are letting in to the channel. volume is the amplitude of sound.
adman1308 3 years ago
yes, but for anyone looking to know what this stuff means. it was a perfect demonstration!
big reds = distortion. distortion + big amps = pop!
this isnt the forum for exactly what goes on inside a mixer, or we would be talking about THD and so on. This is for joe public beginner types.
smsno1 2 years ago 3
You're not excactly right, The LED's are telling you how much db the signal inside the mixer is, the signal incoming is very low, but your mixer strengthens the signal.
The gain does strenghten the signal, if you're were right, that would mean that the signal inside you mixer before it reaches the gain would always be wel over 0db, not good ;)
JollyJunkie 2 years ago
DJKeke17 sorry I meant you can not adjust it once,must do it every time
wowerman 3 years ago
i have just sold my axis 4s today, i am looking to buy the cdj800's and the djm 800 aswell, would i be better off getting the 1000's??
timks07 3 years ago
I got the 1000's in jan, never played on any other till i had a go on the 800.s a few weeks ago. i have to say there was a massive difference in quality and ease to play. I think it was worth the extra few hundred quid. if your really stuck for cash u could maybe downgrade to the djm 700 there doesnt seem to be a whole world off difference between them, although the cfx are sweet. your call
horriblemen 3 years ago
hey on my mixer you can still hear the music with the gain turned all the way down is that normal?
djunknown21 3 years ago
really useful vid Jonathan...but i need to be sure...if the LEDs hit red, its okay to increase the master and lower the Gain? So as to get back to the Green zone? Cheers.
anwarj 3 years ago
About Red Zone:
More and more mixers can take that beating, you could let that djm-800 play with the leds full on for the whole day,,.well..
DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!
A club has a Limiter that "Limits" the sound to a surtain DB level (80/90 Db mostly) You CANNOT push this limit with your mixer, as soon as you do, your Disorting the sound!, and this does not sound good!! and most of all, it DESTROYS your kit! (clips Speakers, Burns mixers!) so dont do it! Be Easy on the gain! Practice & Enjoy
rdknegt 4 years ago 2
Jonathon I have heard that it is best not to go to much over 0DB on the input volume on the channel is this correct?
kakejelly 4 years ago
i am not jonathan but i kno that any sound going over 0db is accually just useless. >0db = poor quality, overheating and blown equipment. although distortion happens, ur set will be fine if it happens occassionally, but for any length of time it will ruin ur set.
djsnowman06 2 years ago
shes oily!
omgdjlife 4 years ago
bello 6 spisso con quel mixer
loprex92 4 years ago
Hello Jon,
I just have a question about the gain control...
How do you adjust perfectly that gain control without having any LED on the mixer ?
Just by listenning ?
(I'm using the basic Numark 950 mixer)
Thanks in advance for your answer..
Thanks for posting.
Bye bye
DJ Kéké
DJKeke17 4 years ago
most mixers have LEDs,you can adjust it,every song has different dynamics and effects,so that what is dj for adjust and play with it
wowerman 3 years ago
i only found out about this recently, i had my 1st gig at a party i threw, now i've nearly always had my gains(trim) turned up fullyand my master up fully, i now know what the gains are for, but because i done this and just controled the volume by the faders on my mixer would this have been the reason why my amp started to get very very hot? so hot that i could smell it almost burning.
im a big fan of your videos by the way.
snakebrand 4 years ago
Don't forget that when you set gain on your mixer that you should be doing the same thing on your amps, processors and crossover.
The whole unity gain concept...Couldn't describe it - but I can tell you when you have it!
traderpete007 4 years ago
i use pcdj, its shit XD
daniel246 4 years ago
kelly should wear a bra.
great tips :)
BigMilan 4 years ago
Practise and enjoy...
Happy Painting and God Bless
mjmorgn 4 years ago
when you are mixing two tracks to gether shoud the master volume stay almost same level when you are playing just one track or how much it can go higher in the mix?
djSile 4 years ago
If the mixer meters are accurate you should see an increase of around 3dB when both tracks are playing, so it's best to keep each track playing at somewhere between -3dB and 0dB - so when both are playing it's hitting 0dB with peaks around +3dB.
groovindj 4 years ago 8
Hi J. To set things where you will get the best sound quality, Idealy you should have your MAIN dial at 3 o'clock (or 8 if it's a fader) and your individual Gains should be hitting 0 (in the green and not into the amber) when your fader is set at 8. I did an old video on this, but I'll do a new one.
briansredd 4 years ago
agree, i find so many people ALWAYS going into the red!, i find the amber is like the safe zone. j
ellaskins 4 years ago
even in the amber you have to be careful, a spike can occur at anytime. even if you bump into the mixer, that'll affect the signal.
GOOD VIDEO!
by the way!
Ragnarok420 4 years ago 3
If you go into the amber on my system (how I have my amps set) you will hear distortion straight away. Someone was using my system a while back with full ambers running roughly +5db & I almost killed the kid... HA! I'm going to do a video this weekend on how I set things for what it's worth
briansredd 4 years ago
@briansredd I watched your video, it gave me some good ideas! If I set a track to unity, not only do I not blow speakers resistors etc... the other track will be at the same level coming in :) I tired this and my mixes sounded much cleaner. Thanks for posting that
mordsgaudimachen 1 year ago
You don't know how much I would like to buy myself the same mixer as you. in my eyes this one is the sexiest on earth.
Nice tutorial as allways.
silvialain 4 years ago
I agree very nice bit of kit. I would love one aswell
brettland 4 years ago 2
It should be gained to stay at about 0 dB!
CDJSnede 4 years ago 4
I love your videos. I don't have any of the equipment you're showing me unfortunately, but its preparing me for when I do and even helps me when I'm producing a track. Keep doing 'em.
AutomaticTLC 4 years ago 3
can you do a fiew tutorials on some of the effects on the djm 800?
LEGENDOFMAXX 4 years ago
Why do I have a gain + fader below? In the end they are doing somehow the same thing?
Zen5656 4 years ago
Well yes and no... Gain acts almost like a master volume where you can boost or more impostantly: set maximum volume or gain for any track playing on that channel. The fader then becomes a mixing tool - you wont damaage your equipment if the fader is raised to the very top. Jonathon has covered this in another vid :)
firkasse 4 years ago 2
Tracks from different albums (especially less recent ones) have different volumes. That would mean that, without Gain/Trim, you would set the faders at a different level but you'd hear them equally loud. This isn't logic. That's why you have Gain/Trim, you set the level for each track so it hits 0db at max, while your fader is in your preferred position (max for most people, a little below for some). Now you can put the faders at the same position and they will sound equally loud.
yvesmdjgryphon 4 years ago