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Forum: General Discussion

Tópico: Pioneer DDJ SX - Page: 2

Este tópico es antiguo y puede contener información incorrecta para la nueva versión.

Thank you PhantomDeejay and djdad / Virtual DJ crew... I just got the DDJ-SX thinking I could get use to serato but hate it..

I started the virtual world with the Hercules RMX and VDJ 5 lol ... Looked to upgrade and found the DDJ-SX to be the best controller given Serato would be good enough... Personal preference, I can't stand Serato and I don't like scratching and to many effects..

So I am looking to buy VDJ 7. Was looking to see if the DDJ-SX would work with VDJ and thanks to Phantom it does...
Please keep updating the code and tweaks for this controller. It's a nice controller..
But what is a controller without software right?

The ride from 1996 and technics to this has been a rather interesting one. Still have my MK2's and crates of vinyl lol
 
Hello. I am still having some issues with VDJ and my Pioneer DDJ-SX. I used it at a gig last night w my Mac and observed the following issues:

The Gain knobs on the controller worked at first and then did not.

After I set up and did a sound check, I went to get changed. When I came back all the lights on the controller were flashing and when I went to play a track nothing came thru the speakers. Ugh. I went into Config and selected the DDJ-SX again a hit apply. Then it worked ok.

I was using the DDJ-SX 1.2.1 Mapper found in the VDJ forums. Should I use that one or go back to the regular DDJ-SX Mapper that is included in 7.4.1?? I need to make sure it is 100% before wedding season begins next month. Im a bit nervous with it as it is now. Thanks for any assistance or help.
 
Is it possible that you lost power, or some kind of disconnect, while you were getting dressed? Some idiot touched your equipment? Check usb cable. I would set up at home, all week, to see if I could reproduce the same thing. If you have not had the same thing happen before, why would the mapper start to act up now?
 
I suppose its possible that it was the power. But still having issues with the gain knobs working then not working and other little nuisances. I think I may have been using the wrong mapper. Going to change it this evening and see what happens. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Software (MIDI) gain knobs 'not working' is normal - This is soft-takeover taking effect due to the optimal gain for each song being remembered for each song by VirtualDJ and set when you load the song. This will be different from one song to the next, so the software gain knob position will move and will no-longer match the real hardware knob each time you load a song. Turning the knob will have no effect until it's moved to the correct position to avoid a sudden jump in gain that would occur otherwise. Please see our FAQ pages: http://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/Soft%20Take-over%20or%20Non-MIDI%20Mixer.html

NOTE: Unlike playing from traditional CD and vinyl, when using DJ software, you don't need to keep adjusting the gain every time you play a song. When you load a song for the first time, it's analysed for BPM, key and is normalised to 0dB, so most songs should automatically be set to the optimal level. In some cases (E.g: A song with loud and quiet parts) the gain may need to be adjusted appropriately, but this is a once-off task. Your adjusted setting will be remembered and used the next next time you load the song.
 
best advice, do what most of us have done and turn off software gain control, and normalize ALL of your music. Trust me when I tell you, fighting the software takeover on this board is a losing battle, and you will lose.
 
Thanks for the info on the gain. For some reason all my tracks play at different volumes. One is loud the next one is not. ext... How do I normalize the tracks and set the gain up so all the songs play the same. Thanks so much for all the suggestions and help. :)
 
mkr160 wrote :
Hello. I am still having some issues with VDJ and my Pioneer DDJ-SX. I used it at a gig last night w my Mac and observed the following issues:

The Gain knobs on the controller worked at first and then did not.

After I set up and did a sound check, I went to get changed. When I came back all the lights on the controller were flashing and when I went to play a track nothing came thru the speakers. Ugh. I went into Config and selected the DDJ-SX again a hit apply. Then it worked ok.

I was using the DDJ-SX 1.2.1 Mapper found in the VDJ forums. Should I use that one or go back to the regular DDJ-SX Mapper that is included in 7.4.1?? I need to make sure it is 100% before wedding season begins next month. Im a bit nervous with it as it is now. Thanks for any assistance or help.


You can use whichever mapper you want. However please read:

1) By Default the DDJ-SX is set to "DEMO Mode" This means that if it doesn't detect any USER activity for 10 minutes it will start flashing and chasing it's lights. You can disable this behavior from the SX firmware (read page 26 on your SX user manual).

That's the reason your unit lights were flashing. However moving anything or pressing any button should stop "demo" mode and sound should come out from your unit. The fact that it didn't means a disconnection of the unit from your PC. Maybe a power loss as others mentioned or someone messing with your gear.

2) The "Gain" Knobs are mapped as "gain_slider" This is done on purpose to avoid sudden dramatic changes on the gain that gets applied on the tracks.
To use the Gain knobs on your unit properly you must move them until they "reach" the position they have on your screen mixer. Once this is done then the gain knobs on your unit "lock/snap" with the gain knobs on the software and they work as they should.
If you don't like this behavior and you want a more "analog mixer" feeling then you should open VirtualDj config and turn-off auto gain.
Once you do that then you must open your unit's mapper and change the "gain_slider" string with the "gain" string on all occurrences.
However this IS NOT advised:
Digital audio (audio processed on a digital level) is VERY sensitive to distortion. In the "digital" domain no bigger volume values than 0db can exist. So, ANYTHING that exceeds this value will get trimmed and it will result to audio distortion (clipping).

3) The best way to handle gain is this:
a) Open VirtualDj and make sure that on the gain setting you have selected "Auto" This will force VirtualDj to automatically adjust the gain of your tracks on the biggest possible value without creating distortion (aka Normalize) each and every time you load a track on a deck.
Please DON'T use "Auto+Remember". Auto+Remember will Remember ANY changes you made on the fly on your tracks gain. It sounds cool and better that plain "Auto" but the fact is that if you mess with your gain knobs a lot then after a while all your tracks will start with wrong gain adjustments and most likely they will produce distortion. "Auto" is the safest option since when you load a track it always resets the applied gain to a "fail-safe" value.
b) Leave your unit's gain knobs mapped the way they are and learn to use them this way. Use a skin that provides a software mixer on screen and allows you to see the gain knobs of the software. This way you will know where to turn the gain knob in order to snap with the software and work!
 
Thanks so much for all the great info!!! Much appreciated. I hope to get this all straightend out this week.
 
Ok, ignore the last guys advice and disable autogain, and download mp3gain and normalize all your music. If you are a professional dj like many of us, you do not have time to WATCH a screen to see if your 'software gain knob/slider" moves. You need to adjust your volumes. most of us accept the nuances with virtualdj and the ddj-sx and roll with it. No need to fight software issues while trying to play a gig.

love you Phantom :)
 
burnyabad wrote :
Ok, ignore the last guys advice and disable autogain, and download mp3gain and normalize all your music. If you are a professional dj like many of us, you do not have time to WATCH a screen to see if your 'software gain knob/slider" moves. You need to adjust your volumes. most of us accept the nuances with virtualdj and the ddj-sx and roll with it. No need to fight software issues while trying to play a gig.

love you Phantom :)

It's funny how some people make their lives harder just to achieve almost the same result!

"Auto" Gain of VirtualDJ will perform a "normalization" of the track:
Quote :
the actual formula used in VirtualDJ to compute the volume is to do an RMS (= Root Mean Square) on 11.6 ms windows
(mathematically speaking that means the square root of the sum over 512 samples of the square of the mono signal, divided by 512), and smooth it on a shifting square window of length 64. The volume is the median of the results.


On the other hand MP3Gain uses 50ms windows and a slightly different formula that gives a little bit more emphasis on RMS values than peak values.
Quote :

Next, the energy during each moment of the signal is determined by calculating the Root Mean Square (RMS) of the filtered signal every 50ms.[2]
The signal is chopped into 50ms long blocks. Then, for each block:[3]
Every sample value is squared (multiplied by itself).
The mean average is taken.
The square root of the average is calculated.
For stereo signals, in step 3, the mean average of all squared samples from both channels over the 50ms measurement interval is taken.[4]
The result of this calculation is then converted to a decibel representation as follows:
L=20 \log_{10} \frac{2{L_{RMS}}}{L_{p-p}}
Where:
LRMS is the RMS value calculated above
Lp − p is the maximum peak-to-peak range of the samples in the audio file


For typical calculations (aka audio tracks with typical dynamic range usage - 95% of your tracks) the two methods produce the same results.
MP3Gain will do "better" only on files that have prolonged "quiet" parts (40-50% of their length or more)

You are welcome to use MP3 Gain. It's fine. However you just add another step on your tracks organization and analysis process which pretty much is "useless" if you use "Autogain" correctly ;)

Love you too!!! :)


PS:
If you are a "professional DJ"* then you should know that a "Gain"/"Trim" control over a mixer channel should be used to adjust the input sensitivity of the CD player/Soundcard /TT input signal that's connected on the channel so that it won't "clip"/ distort the sound. It should not be used to adjust the playback volume of a track nor on a "per track" basis.
For this you have your channel volume faders that you can use. You should always mix by using them around 8 or 9 (out of 10) so that you still have a "volume headroom" to temporarily apply extra volume on a quiet part of a track / quiet track.
Volume faders are not meant to be on 10 all the time! :P
*->
You may prefer the term "professional audio engineer" instead of "professional DJ".
However my personal belief is that a professional DJ should know the basics of audio engineering so that he will be able to provide the best sound out of his system/gear on any given place.
 
You are spot on with the volume control. I had to use mp3gain because of many issues I have shared with you all using the ddj-sx. So, just to clarify your statement, turn gain to auto will or will NOT affect my softtakover? I do not EVER want to fight virtualdj for volume control.
 
Also related to this, check the poll feature on facebook, the DDJ-SX is in the top 3 most used controllers for virtualdj, so please get 8 out soon so we can use ALL the features :)
 
Personally on my own personal mapper I have disabled the gain knobs (mapped as "nothing") and I have "Autogain" enabled.
I never had any issues this way... Generally I never adjust software's gain.
 


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