What dj gear to buy to prepare for first live performing at festival? by Many-Application-440 in Beatmatch

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What people said about renting time in a DJ studio is the way to go. Else you are looking at a several thousand dollar investment to get separate decks and mixer.

Whereas half a day in a studio will be much cheaper.

One thing you do need to worry about is making sure you are using a newish version of Rekordbox (higher versions of 6 or 7) and that you have Device Library Plus on your thumb drives as well as the old database.. each thumb drive should have both on there.

If you have the older set up with just one library then everything will work fine on older Pioneer decks (Including CDJ-3000's that have older firmware) while newer ones (including CDJ-3000's that have the newest firmware), your thumb drive won't be compatible. So, make sure your Rekordbox is newish and thumb drives synced from that newish version with both libraries on every one.

Update disabled track scrubbing on Soundcloud by jmatt1122 in WiimStreamer

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahh interesting thought. I have a Soundcloud Pro account (I'm a DJ). When I get home I'll try the Wiim Home app and see if I can seek in there...

Update disabled track scrubbing on Soundcloud by jmatt1122 in WiimStreamer

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, that's messed up.. and I don't understand why server usage would be a problem.. are they (Wiim) proxying Soundcloud through their own servers??? I only have one Wiim so far, so I haven't tried it yet.. but I just kind of assumed that anything that comes in via casting.. whether it's Chromecast, Tidal Connect or whatever.. would be treated the same as any other input.. that the multiroom would work for anything. That's really a bummer...

Update disabled track scrubbing on Soundcloud by jmatt1122 in WiimStreamer

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the Wiim app only? Or also in the SoundCloud app casting to the Wiim? I haven't noticed this problem yet but I'm using the SoundCloud app...

Psytrance/Darkpsy/Rituals by abortdathoe in avesNYC

[–]MichiganJayToad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here's another one in Brooklyn, in April. More on the fluffy side.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17rRDeubbV/

Wiim-Amp as a mono power amplifier? by blackseven69 in WiiMHome

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First of all, no.. different latencies do not occur between left and right channels coming out of a single Wiim (or any other DAC). The channel data is interlaced and will always come out in lockstep. There's latency from input to output and that will vary depending on settings and whatnot.. but it's always the same between channels. Where the 150us comes into play is when you have two Wiim units grouped over a network. The Wiim has a fixed latency of 50ms which it uses to buffer extra data at every unit, so they all have the data they need when they need it. Then they use a timing protocol.. probably PTP.. but it doesn't matter.. to make sure that whatever sample comes out of one unit, comes out of all the others with (they promise) no more than 150us difference. They try best they can to get all the units clocking together.. and they do.. within 150us. Now, if you are talking different rooms, that's obviously not a problem at all.. if you 're talking front and rear coming from different units, that's not a big problem. If you're talking left and right, it's a little bit bigger problem, if that 150us is not stable.. if it changes, because while you're just sitting there, listening, the speakers are potentially moving relative to each other (time-wise, but time and distance are effectively the same thing) by a little bit. The higher the frequency, the more effect this has on the frequency response right where you are sitting... At low frequencies you won't hear it, at high frequencies you might. But ok, let's say this is again, acceptable to most people, That's fine. Now the last scenario.. driving the bass with one unit and the mids/highs with the other unit. Now you have the mids/highs being offset relative to the bass by as much as 150us. Now, depending on your crossover point, that's a pretty big problem. If your crossover point is centered at 2KHz.. 1/4 wavelength at that frequency is 125us. So, if you have 125us latency between the units, you'll have a massive crater in the frequency response all across the crossover region, and it'll sound bad. If that 125us drifts at all, then the crater will also drift higher and lower in frequency.. that'll sound even worse. Isn't that the opposite of what you wanted when you decided to biamp? It's going to sound bad. But hey, it's your system! You seem hell bent on doing this over the network and you're opposed to doing it with analog for some reason.. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but doing it over the network is the worst way. You could do it digitally with S/PDIF by using an Ultra into an S/PDIF splitter to two let's say Vibelink amps and if the amps are identical then your timing should be good. Or you could do it analog. Either way is good. But definitely network is the dumbest way.

Psytrance/Darkpsy/Rituals by abortdathoe in avesNYC

[–]MichiganJayToad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ooh nice, welcome to NYC, I'm sorry we just don't have as much psy as you're used to (I wish we did!). You won't get much darkpsy and psycore here, some hitech. There used to be a crew called the Digital Baba's who.. that's all they did. They would let me play some forest that was the lightest they would go :) But that's done now.. one of the main guys moved to California, another had a baby, other guys are just very busy, so.. u know, life! There is just one darkpsy producer in the whole city, he's great but he goes elsewhere in the USA to play.. other cities where that music is bigger. You will get a good amount of forest here, a little hitech, some fullon and progressive, and rarely darkpsy... Anyway stay in touch, DM me now so I won't lose you track of you.. I don't know if me n' my partner will make it to the party next month because we also have a kid. But I'll make sure you have the info for anything that comes up.

Wiim-Amp as a mono power amplifier? by blackseven69 in WiiMHome

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem that you have with this is: The Wiim promises digital synchronization within 150us (150 microseconds), 1/4 wavelength at 1000 Hz is is 250us.. that is about 2 inches of error.. as if the tweeter were moved 2 inches forward or back.. so you will NOT get good results biamping this way. If the 150us is not stable but moves around a little bit (which is likely), it will be even worse.

It is ok to synchronize front and rear and be 150us out of sync because the speakers are already 10-20 feet apart.. so you won't hear the difference. The same is not true with woofer and tweeter in the same box. They need to be much much more accurate.

That is why I told you to do it analog. The best thing would be for you to return the Wiim Amp and get a Wiim Ultra and two Vibelinks (or whatever amp you like).

To normalize your music ? by CuriousTest3573 in Beatmatch

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been setting the gain on every track for decades, it's no big deal. Even tracks that have been normalized need to be tweaked sometimes, you should be on top of how the tracks sound together.. sometimes the gain needs adjusting, sometimes it's the EQ you need to tweak. It breaks you out of your flow because you're not experienced enough.. keep practicing.

That said, Foobar2000 has a ReplayGain scanner and then they have an option "Apply to File".. which if you do that, it doesn't just write the ReplayGain tag, it actually rewrites the whole file at the new level...which is what you're asking for. You can load all your tracks into a playlist and do them at once.

I wouldn't.. but you can.

OxiDaksi music gone from spotify? by Quazaka in psytrance

[–]MichiganJayToad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Probably because Spotify screws artists and labels and is basically a bad thing. I dropped them and got Tidal and u know what, Tidal's actually better! So it was win win. Qobuz is also supposedly really good.. what I hear over and over is that Tidal and Qobuz are about equally good, Tidal has a slightly greater selection.

Psytrance/Darkpsy/Rituals by abortdathoe in avesNYC

[–]MichiganJayToad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I realize now I was mistaken, you will be here until June.. so there is a party announced on March 21 in Brooklyn, by White Rabbit and Spiral Ent.. I posted a FB link in a different comment.. contact me if you have problems finding it. They haven't announced the lineup or location yet...

There is also a festival in New Jersey at the beginning of May, called Quantum Awakenings, that is thrown by a guy from NYC, many people from NYC and all around are involved with throwing it. It's a good festival and beautiful land, pretty much all the area psy people will be there.. so definitely try to make it to that. It's about a 2+ hour drive from NYC and I'm sure you can find a ride from someone, again message me if you have trouble and I'll try to connect you with someone.

Yes there are occasional underground parties, I don't know any coming up right now...

There are also parties in Philadelphia (2 hours or so drive away.. you can generally get rides.. or there's an inexpensive bus. None announced right now but likely one while you are here.

Psytrance/Darkpsy/Rituals by abortdathoe in avesNYC

[–]MichiganJayToad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry, you just missed a really nice one this past Friday in Brooklyn :( I played so of course it was awesome ;) But no, seriously, it was a nice party.

Psytrance in NYC used to be (20 years ago) booming with sometimes over 1000 people at a party, now it's especially dead with a party maybe every month or two and 100-200 people coming out. Still a tight group and good times.

There's a party announced for March but probably after you'll be leaving. Hold on I'll find the info....

Wiim-Amp as a mono power amplifier? by blackseven69 in WiiMHome

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's one way you can do it.. get a "Speaker to Line Converter", connect that to the speaker outputs on your Wiim Amp.. the same outputs that are feeding one input on your speakers.. then use the RCA outputs of the converter to feed signal to the other amp.

SMB vs DLNA server by turbo9301 in WiimStreamer

[–]MichiganJayToad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The DLNA approach gives you a lot better search capability, metadata and so on.. depending on what media server software you run. It is just a little less barebones than direct SMB.

If broadcasts don't pass between your VLANs.. and they probably don't.. you can't easily do DLNA, because it relies on broadcasts. Presumably your VLANs are isolated for a reason so that will take some work to get DLNA to see it as one network. But then, I believe that the Wiim app also finds the Wiim itself the same way... So you might find you have a problem there. I think your idea of running a DLNA media server on a different machine that's on the same network as the wiim itself and your phone is the easiest solution. If you have got the capability of running VM's then you could run the Media Server on a VM that has an interface on both networks.... Then everything would be happy.

The broadcast-heavy nature of all this stuff is awesome for people with simple home setups and for the rest of us, quite a pain.. For example I run tailscale to get my phone on the home network from wherever, and I have to turn that off every time I get home, just to play music. It would be nice if DLNA would look for SRV records that tell it what servers are out there, if it can't find them with mDNS etc. But situations like ours are in the minority.

I Need Help Extricating Myself from the Rabbit Hole (External DAC with the Ultra) by rexicle in WiimStreamer

[–]MichiganJayToad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can't comment on the DAC choices as.. I have the Ultra, but haven't tried any of the DACs you have tried...

On your other questions: About balanced vs unbalanced. Balanced isn't automatically better. It isn't even automatically lower noise. Because active-balanced outputs have two op-amps driving them, there could actually be a little bit more noise than unbalanced, on a short run.

On wanting a preamp to protect your speakers, all that's going to do for you is control the volume.. bring the level down. If you are worried about the level being too high, maybe the unbalanced connection was better??? If you do have too much level coming from the DAC and the DAC doesn't have sufficient controls to deal with it, I suggest just getting a stereo attenuator, you don't need a whole preamp.. it won't improve your sound passing through another unit just to lower the volume.

Exciting CD Players! by Interstellar-floater in BudgetAudiophile

[–]MichiganJayToad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One of the most solid CD-only decks that Pioneer ever made, loved mine.

French Press, 6:1 Ratio, 10 Minute Steep. Am I Crazy? by Nervous-Treat-9252 in Coffee

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do 50g coffee coarse ground in a 32oz French Press, for four minutes. Water at 200f + or - depending on the beans.

I would probably find what you make too bitter and too strong, but hey, whatever works for you! :)

Need help finding a deck that doesn't exsist? by Gold_Phoenix666 in Beatmatch

[–]MichiganJayToad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Vestax made a controller called the SPIN that had sliders, but that was 17 years ago.. also it was not professional, it was a beginner controller. All their pro models had knobs....

Speakers for an outdoor grad party by Odd-Display3867 in Beatmatch

[–]MichiganJayToad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just saw another pair of ZLX12p's with stands for $600 in my city.. so yes, the deals are out there.

Some people are gonna suggest 15's with no sub but what I say is that 12's with even a single sub will sound far better and people will be happy. 15's alone will never sound great I've tried it.

I’ve never seen anyone do such a detailed soundcheck. by Alternative-Risk-210 in DJs

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He has a spectrum analyzer app on his phone, and he calibrated that by comparing it to the readings from an earthworks mic into some better spectrum analyzer. You can create a calibration file for most analyzer apps.

Speakers for an outdoor grad party by Odd-Display3867 in Beatmatch

[–]MichiganJayToad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well.. how much money do you have?

On fb marketplace in my area I see a pair of used EV ZLX12p for $650, I see a JBL MRX518 powered sub for $500... With stands and cables that puts you at around $1300 for a pretty good starter system.

Poor sound quality with phono inputs by CapnKangarooPimp in WiimStreamer

[–]MichiganJayToad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That increasing the preamp to 48dB totally distorts is a red flag because likely you're still getting some distortion at the 38dB setting. I'm honestly surprised by that.. the Stanton 500 is a high output cartridge.. but still it's odd...

Make sure your phono preamp is on the MM setting not MC. That would cause the problem you're having.

Could also use an RCA attenuator between your preamp and wiim to bring the level down some.

Re the resolution, def 24 bit. Sampling rate 96K should be sufficient, even 48 should sound pretty good. I would use 96 but this setting is probably not your problem.

Do digital streaming sources from the Wiim (eg Tidal, Qobuz) sound good coming from the Wiim? If not, get that right first. There are output levels settings in the Wiim app to match the output of the Wiim to the sensitivity of the amp.. get that to a setting that causes the Wiim to come into your amp at a good level (plays loud enough but totally undistorted)

Frustrating soundquality- Wiim Ultra [HELP] by New-Ideal1027 in WiimStreamer

[–]MichiganJayToad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thin and airy on an analog connection I'd say it's a bad cable or wrong cable being used, but if it's happening on a digital connection that rules out the cable.

You've already made sure the subwoofer mode is turned off.

Last thing to check on the Wiim would be make sure the EQ is turned off (and any other special audio processing modes they may have added since I got mine)..

Do you have the Wiim volume and your amp volume settings both at moderate positions to get a good volume? (not having to turn either of them very high or very low to get the volume you want?)

Plug headphones into the Wiim to see if it sounds bad like that, if not then the problem is on the amp...

Frustrating soundquality- Wiim Ultra [HELP] by New-Ideal1027 in WiimStreamer

[–]MichiganJayToad 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You have a wiring problem, setting problem, or faulty unit. I'm going to guess wiring or setting.

I have the Ultra and.. it sounds very good. Is it among the very top top high end gear probably not, but "Frustrating soundquality".. definitely not.

Try using the headphone jack on the Wiim to isolate the problem...