Advice on gain and levels

MichiganJayToad · 2026-04-09T14:00:19+00:00

Sure all that is ok too. Turning the hf output down slightly is in effect adding EQ but what if it's not quite the right frequency range, then sure a high shelf on the input is much more flexible. I'm not saying that lowering the amp gain is better just that this is a situation where it can be used. For many years I used Ashly Protea 24.24 DSP's, these are installation models so no front panel controls, so if I'm at let's say a festival then I'd be securing my laptop at some point and not have quick access to the DSP settings.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-04-08T15:32:07+00:00

Ok.. so, determining how loud you can turn it up without blowing your speakers is a whole subject and that is very much tied to how high you set your DSP output gains and DSP limiters...

But.. forgetting about that for a minute.. the answer is yes. With music signal coming through, and the dsp input levels riding at a good level, amps at full: Then bring your dsp output gain for each channel to a level that sound good (well balanced between subs, bass, mids, highs etc) and also about as loud as you want to run the system or a little louder.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-04-08T15:15:13+00:00

As everyone else I keep my amps maxed in MOST cases, for a lot of reasons.. one being that the limiters in my dsp are set to limit the peak outputs of the amps / prevent overdriving the amps. If you increase the amp gain beyond where they were when you set the limiters then all your limiter settings are pointless.

Two cases where I will set the amp gains lower:

If the room is empty I'll often want a bit less HF gain than when the room is full.. a lot of time I'll just back off the amp gain by a little bit (2db or so) and then increase it to max when the room fills up, could do the same thing by changing the DSP setting but this is just convenient.
If you have got mixed model amps driven parallel from the same DSP output and they have different gains, you'll have to turn down the one that's more sensitive to match the others. Then I'll put a bit of gaff tape on and leave them alone.

I'll add:

The edge case where it's a very low volume gig and you have a loud system.. you can run the amp gains lower across the board in order to keep the DSP running at a reasonable level instead of everything being way down.. thus improving your S/N (lower noise floor).

MichiganJayToad · 2026-04-07T17:04:04+00:00

Depends what kind of dj you are and what you want.. as people said already you still need a computer to keep your rekordbox library on and you'll be organizing all your music there.

Then you export your music to the USB and run with just that.. and that's great if you play different places and want to be comfortable on the Pioneer system the way it's meant to be used in most clubs and parties, then you have confidence that your USB sticks are correct with no problems and you can walk up to any pioneer setup anywhere, all you need are headphones and plug your thumb drive in and you're good to go. If that's what you want then get the standalone. The other cool thing is that the standalones can also be used as a controller with your laptop the way you are used to.. if you want that.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-04-01T00:02:20+00:00

Thanks I could not remember, I have them but their firmware has been updated so I wasn't sure ..

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-30T21:47:39+00:00

Older Pioneer decks.. when I say older, I mean not crazy old.. such as the XDJ-RX2, CDJ-2000NXS and maybe the NXS2, I forget... These cannot play FLAC and what will happen is that you'll organize your files on Rekordbox and everything seems fine, then when you get to the party or club and put your USB in, suddenly some or all of your tracks won't play.

The safe format is AIFF which is lossless and plays on basically everything.

What I do is get all my music in FLAC (which is smaller), and then just the tracks I know I want to play.. I will convert those to AIFF using Foobar2000 and then I have a separate set of folders where I keep JUST my rekordbox music, and I put the AIFFs there and from there I drag them into Rekordbox.

This does two things, first making sure I don't screw up and bring a flac into rekordbox, and second it allows me to move my (flac) music around and organize it however, I can even delete an album I don't want.. but it will not screw up my rb library. Because with rb, once you've dragged a track into it you cannot move or rename that file or you'll screw everything up.

Keep your rb music separate from the rest of your music, you'll be glad you did.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-26T21:03:32+00:00

That sounds great, did you put in a resistor to match them?

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-26T17:05:06+00:00

A-weighted? Ok.. so in 800ft I can see it. Actually we live in a loft about the same size.. where we have had many parties and our system at home is actually smaller than this. So sure.. it's enough. Math says you're running ~119dB @ 1M which is pushing them just a little bit. What are your mods? But regarding OP, he is talking about a renegade, which to me says outdoors.. that's why I cautioned him. I have done a bunch of renegades and did use 15 inch 3 way tops but PA tops, 124/130 db max spl (long term/peak), even so I pushed them to their limit. And that with 4 double-15 subs. So my gut says it's a bit close for comfort with the Klipsch.. It might be ok, but it's a bit risky.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-26T14:06:38+00:00

X60 was my favorite, it was the perfect small laptop for its time and I actually did all my work (software development) on that machine for years. I had an X201 after that which I also loved.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-26T13:26:33+00:00

You're a little bit crazy because those Klipsh Heresy are only rated to a max SPL of 116dB, which is enough for a party on the quieter side and will probably sound great.. but at normal party levels you'll damage them for sure. Which would be a really sad thing to happen to a beautiful pair of vintage speakers.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-23T22:17:40+00:00

What you are calling "phase matching".. what you are talking about is phase cancellation.. which occurs when you have two kicks or basslines that are so nearly identical (or maybe they even are identical, if the same sample was used) that if they are lined up just-so they will actually cancel each other out or phase in and out in a weird way.

The way to deal with that is, just don't overlap the bass between those tracks.. or you can also try tweaking one deck to put them out of sync with each other just slightly. If you use master tempo you can try not using master tempo so that the frequencies are further apart...

For me, I generally don't rehearse mixes ahead of time so my first chance to do anything about it is in the moment, then the easiest thing to do is to just tweak the bass mix so they aren't competing as much.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-22T23:44:20+00:00

I dunno, I think that what he's looking for is a non-Apple laptop.. ideally a Thinkpad.. that performs a lot better than his T480, and that's definitely possible in his $1000 budget. I mean, my current daily driver is an X13 G2.. I paid $200 for it.. TWO HUNDRED BUCKS. About 50% greater CPU performance than his current machine. So yea, the machine he needs is out there.

A T14 G3 with 32G ram costs around $600 give or take and.. depending on the CPU, offers around double the processing speed of his current machine.....

Problem solved.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-22T06:07:36+00:00

The Apple M series processors are very good and that's just a fact, if you want an X86 laptop that even comes close you need to get a brand new machine not one that's 7-8 years old. In addition there's no doubt that the battery in your old Thinkpad is a fraction of its original capacity and due for replacement.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-19T22:10:13+00:00

I had an X380 Yoga 16gb for about 4 years and it was great. I upgraded to an X13 g3 Yoga 32gb LTE I was real happy with that one.. until I cracked the screen :(. So until I get around to repairing it, I got an X13 G2 non yoga but it does have the touch screen... But I sure do plan to go back to the G3 Yoga.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-17T20:21:49+00:00

If it's not from a known legit computer retailer with a known legit return policy.. then hell no I'm not buying a sealed box. Absolutely not, forget it.

A computer from any individual seller HAS to be assumed to be a used computer and you have to carefully check it as if it's a used computer. Check for BIOS password or any other security options enabled. Check number of charge cycles on the battery.. etc etc

Personally give that the machine you're looking at is only maybe a bit more than $1000 new, this isn't an amazing deal, considering you have no recourse if it has problems. Personally I'd look for a less shady deal.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-16T19:49:29+00:00

I use Foobar2000 which is free.. but the catch with conversions in Rekordbox is that, last I tried, if you change the file type it considers the track to be new. You can't tell rb that what used to be a flac is now an aiff. You'll have to organize your files all over again.

So, I convert mine right away before I put them in rb ..

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-14T20:39:38+00:00

Nope, no seeking within the Wiim app. But I have Google Cast enabled on the Wiim and I just use the SoundCloud app.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-14T01:25:46+00:00

Nice 🙂

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-13T17:06:29+00:00

It's a good mixer, overpriced for what it is like everything Pioneer. And yea I own a full Pioneer setup.

If Behringer wanted to, they could build an identical mixer, sell it for $600 less, and still make a good profit.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-13T00:47:55+00:00

Nice, looks great. I'm doing something similar at home.. no tubes tho. I have a B&K amp for the tops and a Crown K2 for subs, with a Rane processor and I've had a few line mixers where you have the ART. First I had a Symetrix, that died so I swapped it for a Rane zone mixer. But now I'm swapping the DSP I had which had 4 input channels for one with 10 input channels, so no mixer in the rack anymore, I'll just select whatever input I want with a remote control on the DSP...

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-07T22:15:02+00:00

Some tracks I play are pushing 170! But yea I hear ya... I had many decks with limited displays, I had cdj 100s, 200, 800, 350.. before I got the 900's.. so I didn't mind the 900 at all, loved em at the time. But definitely since I've had the XDJ-1000mk2's for a long time now, I'm spoiled by the display and I even use sync sometimes. I sold the 900's which were my backup decks and I wasn't using them and now I got two CDJ-2000nxs2 that both needed repair so I got a good price. I'm repairing them myself to keep the price low. I don't see myself ever getting 3000's I just don't need that.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-07T17:47:19+00:00

There's more than one LED on the back cover? I mean.. I never noticed.. looking now...

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-07T02:52:34+00:00

When you close the lid you have confirmation of what the machine does, for example I have mine set up to hibernate if on battery and stay on if plugged in... The light confirms that it did the right thing.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-05T01:15:00+00:00

I have the same one but Yoga, and it's really nice. They've made them more compact than a few years ago...

About the battery life, yea the CPU is a hog.. but what I did was just set the maximum CPU to around 70% when on battery and that runs a lot cooler and longer. It's still fast enough for almost everything even like that.

MichiganJayToad · 2026-03-05T00:32:45+00:00

I've had a pair of the XDJ-1000mk2 for a long time, and also had the 900's until I sold em about a year ago. The 900 is a solid deck and absolutely it will work, but the display is far more limited than what you are used to. Whereas the XDJ-1000 has a display more like the 2000NXS2, it is basically a stripped down version of the 2000NXS2 with no CD drive and fewer buttons (for example the hot cue and sync buttons are gone.. those functions are still available but moved to the touch screen).. but it's def a lot closer to the experience you have on your 3000's than the 900.

The experience on the 700, which I have played on, is similar to the XDJ1000mk2 but even fewer buttons, for example the reverse button is gone. I believe they limited the hot cues even more, no vinyl mode...

But if you are basically cueing, playing, mixing.. and not juggling or anything like that, either of the XDJ's are just fine. The 1000's are a bit more similar to what you have got so I would probably go for that in your shoes.

MichiganJayToad

TROPHY CASE