rmundell
Hello folks,
I'm considering trading up from my American Audio VMS4.1 to the Pioneer DDJ-SX.
My VMS4.1 has a sound card which is switchable between 8 out and 4 in/4 out modes.
I'm struggling to find good information on the DDJ-SX's sound card. From other posts here it seems like it might only have a 4 out sound card (i.e. one stereo output for the master out, one stereo output for headphones).
Can any DDJ-SX owner on the forum confirm this? If so, how does this work with having 4 decks? Let's say I used two CDJs into the DDJ-SX as analog inputs, and kept the other two decks coming from VDJ, does the mixing for the VDJ decks end up being done in the software, and the analog inputs done by the hardware? If that's the case, then how does the cross fader work between internally mixed and analog sources? Or have I completely gotten the wrong end of the stick here?
Thanks!
Richard
I'm considering trading up from my American Audio VMS4.1 to the Pioneer DDJ-SX.
My VMS4.1 has a sound card which is switchable between 8 out and 4 in/4 out modes.
I'm struggling to find good information on the DDJ-SX's sound card. From other posts here it seems like it might only have a 4 out sound card (i.e. one stereo output for the master out, one stereo output for headphones).
Can any DDJ-SX owner on the forum confirm this? If so, how does this work with having 4 decks? Let's say I used two CDJs into the DDJ-SX as analog inputs, and kept the other two decks coming from VDJ, does the mixing for the VDJ decks end up being done in the software, and the analog inputs done by the hardware? If that's the case, then how does the cross fader work between internally mixed and analog sources? Or have I completely gotten the wrong end of the stick here?
Thanks!
Richard
Mensajes Wed 26 Mar 14 @ 9:18 am
PhantomDeejay
1) DDJ-SX offers a 2 in - 4 out soundcard
2) The mixer of SX is a hardware/MIDI hybrid. So yes, analog inputs mixing is done by the hardware of the unit and "digital source" mixing by the software
3) With VirtualDj all the mixing is done by the software and the sound goes directly in the SX audio bus right before the master level knob (Master Level is hardware controlled)
4) When you mix "software" with "hardware" you can still crossfade between the decks as normal.
That's because the crossfader control both the software and the analog sources.
Let's say that deck 1 is software and deck 4 is a CDJ.
When you have the crossfader full on the left side the CDJ won't go through master because it get's no signal from crossfader. At the same time the software is being instructed to play deck 1 with full volume since crossfader is all way on the left
Now when you move crossfader to the left the CDJ will play on air because it get's full signal from the crossfader. At the same time the software crossfader is full on the right and this actually tells the program to cut the sound of deck 1.
So inpite the fact that the 4 channels are not fed with sound directly from the software, you are still able to switch and crossfade between software and hardware channels without any issue.
2) The mixer of SX is a hardware/MIDI hybrid. So yes, analog inputs mixing is done by the hardware of the unit and "digital source" mixing by the software
3) With VirtualDj all the mixing is done by the software and the sound goes directly in the SX audio bus right before the master level knob (Master Level is hardware controlled)
4) When you mix "software" with "hardware" you can still crossfade between the decks as normal.
That's because the crossfader control both the software and the analog sources.
Let's say that deck 1 is software and deck 4 is a CDJ.
When you have the crossfader full on the left side the CDJ won't go through master because it get's no signal from crossfader. At the same time the software is being instructed to play deck 1 with full volume since crossfader is all way on the left
Now when you move crossfader to the left the CDJ will play on air because it get's full signal from the crossfader. At the same time the software crossfader is full on the right and this actually tells the program to cut the sound of deck 1.
So inpite the fact that the 4 channels are not fed with sound directly from the software, you are still able to switch and crossfade between software and hardware channels without any issue.
Mensajes Thu 27 Mar 14 @ 4:40 pm
rmundell
Cheers for the reply. Will it be natively supported in VDJ8?
Mensajes Thu 27 Mar 14 @ 4:43 pm
PhantomDeejay
All controllers that are nativelly supported now will remain nativelly supported in future versions.
DDJ-SX IS nativelly supported!!!
DDJ-SX IS nativelly supported!!!
Mensajes Thu 27 Mar 14 @ 4:45 pm
rmundell
Really? Nice. Thanks! Sorry VMS4.1. You're about to be upgraded...
Mensajes Thu 27 Mar 14 @ 4:46 pm
rmundell
So... my DDJSX arrived yesterday and it all works great. Tried Serato DJ but can't say it's won me over and I'm back to VDJ Pro. Was wondering if anything in VDJ8 is going to allow more Serato-like control of the effects (I.e. Two banks of three configurable effects which you can select for each deck, where each effect can be controlled by a single wet\dry knob). Obviously the controller was designed for Serato and this is the only bit which doesn't seem to map nicely in VDJ.
Mensajes Thu 03 Apr 14 @ 10:16 am
burnyabad
try using the Swap or Swap HD skins. and then using a custom mapper which offers more effects control.
Mensajes Sun 06 Apr 14 @ 10:02 pm
rmundell
That's not what I'm looking for. I get I can adjust mappings and skins, etc etc (on my old VMS4.1 I heavily adjusted the mappings) but for the DDJ-SX I'm really looking for out-of-the-box support for it, which is as tight as the Serato mappings.
It's pretty close, but the problems I'm seeing is..
1) the effects don't map the same way
2) VU meter LEDs don't match up with the master out (which is problematic as I'm using two CDJ inputs as well and the VU meters aren't consistent between software-powered inputs and hardware inputs)
3) The needle search doesn't seem to work
I much prefer the waveforms, file browser and performance of loading and analysing files in VDJ compared to Serato (not to mention the fact VDJ has key detection and Serato doesn't), but the mapping just isn't tight enough. Really hoping this is improved in VDJ otherwise to get the best DDJ-SX experience I'm doing to have to switch to Serato DJ :-(
It's pretty close, but the problems I'm seeing is..
1) the effects don't map the same way
2) VU meter LEDs don't match up with the master out (which is problematic as I'm using two CDJ inputs as well and the VU meters aren't consistent between software-powered inputs and hardware inputs)
3) The needle search doesn't seem to work
I much prefer the waveforms, file browser and performance of loading and analysing files in VDJ compared to Serato (not to mention the fact VDJ has key detection and Serato doesn't), but the mapping just isn't tight enough. Really hoping this is improved in VDJ otherwise to get the best DDJ-SX experience I'm doing to have to switch to Serato DJ :-(
Mensajes Mon 07 Apr 14 @ 3:44 am
groovindj
I'm pretty sure there's been discussion here before about mapping effects on the SX. Have a little search.
Here's one -> click me
As for VU meters, can you not balance them by adjusting the SX gains, or the VDJ output level?
Here's one -> click me
As for VU meters, can you not balance them by adjusting the SX gains, or the VDJ output level?
Mensajes Mon 07 Apr 14 @ 5:23 am
rmundell
Thanks groovindj. I had seen that post (sorry... should've mentioned that before) but it's still kinda clunky and slightly different to how Pioneer intended it for it to be mapped to Serato. I guess I'll have to wait until the (hopefully very imminent!) release of VDJ8 and compare its user experience with the DDJ-SX to Serato and make a call on what I'm going to stuck with (I'm rooting for VDJ!)
Mensajes Mon 07 Apr 14 @ 10:59 am
PhantomDeejay
rmundell wrote :
That's not what I'm looking for. I get I can adjust mappings and skins, etc etc (on my old VMS4.1 I heavily adjusted the mappings) but for the DDJ-SX I'm really looking for out-of-the-box support for it, which is as tight as the Serato mappings.
It's pretty close, but the problems I'm seeing is..
1) the effects don't map the same way
2) VU meter LEDs don't match up with the master out (which is problematic as I'm using two CDJ inputs as well and the VU meters aren't consistent between software-powered inputs and hardware inputs)
3) The needle search doesn't seem to work
I much prefer the waveforms, file browser and performance of loading and analyzing files in VDJ compared to Serato (not to mention the fact VDJ has key detection and Serato doesn't), but the mapping just isn't tight enough. Really hoping this is improved in VDJ otherwise to get the best DDJ-SX experience I'm doing to have to switch to Serato DJ :-(
It's pretty close, but the problems I'm seeing is..
1) the effects don't map the same way
2) VU meter LEDs don't match up with the master out (which is problematic as I'm using two CDJ inputs as well and the VU meters aren't consistent between software-powered inputs and hardware inputs)
3) The needle search doesn't seem to work
I much prefer the waveforms, file browser and performance of loading and analyzing files in VDJ compared to Serato (not to mention the fact VDJ has key detection and Serato doesn't), but the mapping just isn't tight enough. Really hoping this is improved in VDJ otherwise to get the best DDJ-SX experience I'm doing to have to switch to Serato DJ :-(
1) That can be changed. But different software will always behave differently
2) That's a flaw of the unit's design. Don't get me wrong, but since the vu-meters are MIDI they can't be calibrated correctly in order to compare them with hardware inputs. Any "hybrid" unit experiences the same issue.
3) It works. But it has a "safety" feature: You must press SHIFT if the deck is playing. (SHIFT is not needed when SLIP is active)
The funny thing is that Serato now implemented this "safety" feature in the brand new "flagship" Pioneer DDJ-SZ and markets it as "innovation"
Mensajes Mon 07 Apr 14 @ 1:49 pm
PhantomDeejay
PS:
It's not that Serato followed/implemented "Serato DJ" to behave according to how Pioneer wanted/meant this unit to work. It's the other way around!
It's not that Serato followed/implemented "Serato DJ" to behave according to how Pioneer wanted/meant this unit to work. It's the other way around!
Mensajes Mon 07 Apr 14 @ 1:52 pm
rmundell
Yeah, I know PhantomDeejay. :-)
Regarding the VUMeters, it does actually all match up on Serato, but as the DDJ-SX was designed for Serato that's not a great surprise.
Very much looking forward to seeing what VDJ8 has to offer...
Regarding the VUMeters, it does actually all match up on Serato, but as the DDJ-SX was designed for Serato that's not a great surprise.
Very much looking forward to seeing what VDJ8 has to offer...
Mensajes Tue 08 Apr 14 @ 4:46 am
PhantomDeejay
You can "fool" the vu-meters if you wish... But you will have to calibrate them manually according to the rest of your gear.
<map value="LED_VOLUME" action="get decks 4 ? var "hwmixer" ? nothing : get level & param_multiply 0.9 : get decks 2 ? action_deck 1 ? var "hwmixer" ? nothing : get level & param_multiply 0.9 : action_deck 2 ? var "hwmixer" ? nothing : get level & param_multiply 0.9 : nothing : nothing" />
On this script, 0.9 will set the vu-meters to 90% of their capacity.
You need to use the same song on software and a hardware channel and try to find the right value in order to have the MIDI vu-meter to match the hardware (for the same amount of gain ---> hardware gain set to 0)
VirtualDj as a "digital" software can't generate volumes greater than 0 db. So, the upper limit of it's vu-meters is 0 db. Your analog inputs can have values greater than 0 db. That's why you have orange and red vu's. However the vu-meters themselves don't have any db marking! (guess why)
<map value="LED_VOLUME" action="get decks 4 ? var "hwmixer" ? nothing : get level & param_multiply 0.9 : get decks 2 ? action_deck 1 ? var "hwmixer" ? nothing : get level & param_multiply 0.9 : action_deck 2 ? var "hwmixer" ? nothing : get level & param_multiply 0.9 : nothing : nothing" />
On this script, 0.9 will set the vu-meters to 90% of their capacity.
You need to use the same song on software and a hardware channel and try to find the right value in order to have the MIDI vu-meter to match the hardware (for the same amount of gain ---> hardware gain set to 0)
VirtualDj as a "digital" software can't generate volumes greater than 0 db. So, the upper limit of it's vu-meters is 0 db. Your analog inputs can have values greater than 0 db. That's why you have orange and red vu's. However the vu-meters themselves don't have any db marking! (guess why)
Mensajes Wed 09 Apr 14 @ 4:51 am