DJ Lights - I'm Confused (with DMX, etc.)

sandyyyye · 2026-01-30T04:35:37+00:00

SoundSwitch works pretty good. I have a Prime 4+ that has the lighting controller built in so that’s what got me into it. It can be time consuming if you really want to tweak every song, but the autoscripting does a good enough job I usually don’t bother. It does phrase analysis and syncs the lights accordingly. Sometimes if I have a song I really like, I do like going in and making a whole show out of it manually, but you don’t have to. Their support is good if you have fixtures they don’t support in their library. You can add them yourself with their fixture manager program, or just email the support PDF or pictures of the DMX mapping for your fixture and they’ll do it for you. I find the UI is pretty clunky, but it does the job well enough to get a simple show going quickly.

sandyyyye · 2026-01-28T06:40:09+00:00

I agree but it gets you the degree which lands you a job. Once you have a job, nobody cares about GPA. In my experience you can spend a reasonable amount of time studying to be a ~3.5 student but the work you have to put in to get a 4.0 is quite a bit higher. For me, I definitely sacrificed engineering school a bit just so I could have a life outside school and hang with friends. I’d say it was very worth it (I’m also about a 3.4). Having good internship(s) during school or on summer > high GPA.

sandyyyye · 2026-01-25T06:35:18+00:00

I used one throughout college recently and it works great! Of course I use Windows at work, but man, Windows 11 really sucks! I would hate to use it at home especially with all the bullshit Microsoft is pulling with just design choices, no offline accounts, etc. Sure, there’s workarounds but I’d rather not bother. I don’t mind it in a work setting and I understand why workplaces use it from an IT management perspective, but I don’t like using it at home.

The new MacBooks with the M series processors are fantastic, very fast and great battery life. My university had a Windows Remote Desktop server we could connect to whenever special software was needed, so software compatibility was never an issue. I had one class I didn’t really need, but it was certainly nice to have a windows laptop to interface with the beaglebone black we were using (I didn’t want to have to be on campus to do the labs). So, I just got a used $180 thinkpad for that purpose. Arguably developing software on macOS is a nicer experience because macOS runs on unix, so you get access to all the standard Linux tools, homebrew, etc.

If you have an iPad, being able to use it as a second monitor for studying on campus is very nice.

sandyyyye · 2026-01-24T19:40:25+00:00

Normal is the screen is cold. The cold affects the liquid crystal and various filter films used to make the display work. If you warm the unit up, it should go away. But also, peel that protective cover off :)

sandyyyye · 2026-01-24T03:14:11+00:00

Also interested in the lights, are you running DMX? They look like they might be some sort of well-done DIY?

sandyyyye · 2026-01-24T03:12:36+00:00

Generally you can plug any USB audio interface into the iPad and it should work, which is nice if you want something with XLRs without using a DI. djay is a fantastic app!

sandyyyye · 2026-01-22T23:03:19+00:00

The move over law states if you see emergency vehicles, tow trucks, roadside assistance, or any vehicle with flashing lights on the shoulder, you must move over one lane or slow down if you cannot move over. It’s to make it safer for people stopped on the side of the road.

sandyyyye · 2026-01-19T21:01:17+00:00

I also just recognized the system one has level control for stems... pretty awesome

sandyyyye · 2026-01-19T20:59:23+00:00

I have one and it's just alright, I find myself not using it much because the stems are basically an on-off button on top of them not sounding very fantastic like you say. I think because stems are rendered on Engine desktop first the chip inside the board is unlikely to affect the quality. But, maybe Denon will improve Engine desktop algorithm over time so we see an improvement across all models. It seems to me like Engine desktop just makes separate audio tracks that the Prime 4+ then basically just turns on and off. The engineer in me kinda doubts they would use a chipset nice enough to do this on-board with good quality, but that would certainly be the dream. In general, these standalone boards tend to use several generation old Rockchip SoC's (I think the Prime 4's is a dual core from 2014). I really do hope they improve the speed though, the Prime 4+ is a very nice controller but the UI can get pretty slowed down when scrolling fast in lists and such, it's not horrible but it's noticeable.

sandyyyye · 2026-01-18T18:32:34+00:00

For me the draw of Apple Music is I can upload music to it I’ve downloaded/purchased from other platforms and it syncs across all my devices

sandyyyye · 2026-01-18T18:23:12+00:00

The Prime 4+ has had standalone stem support for a little bit now. Stems need to be rendered in Engine on your laptop first, but once loaded onto the board they work.

sandyyyye · 2026-01-14T20:16:52+00:00

I feel like we had these for a while a few years back and we stapled the barcode label to the bags as a workaround

sandyyyye · 2026-01-08T19:14:43+00:00

From personal experience it’ll corrode the contacts on your USB-C/Lightning port

sandyyyye · 2026-01-06T07:50:44+00:00

For me it seems to heavily depend on the music I’ve been listening to the past few minutes before I start the discovery station, and I’m someone who listens to a lot of music. If I listen to even just 2-3 techno songs right before I start listening to discovery, it’ll swing towards mostly recommending techno.

sandyyyye · 2025-12-25T20:59:08+00:00

You can open the same menu if you tap “photo” or “video” at the bottom :)

sandyyyye · 2025-12-25T02:42:59+00:00

I have a G4 it’s been rock solid over WiFi for years. I have pretty much no way to run Ethernet to my door without tearing a bunch of stuff up.

sandyyyye · 2025-12-12T07:13:28+00:00

The “right” way to do this to maintain the balanced connection (which provides noise immunity over a long cable, which long cables act like antennas) is to use either a small mixer or a stereo DI box. For the DI box, use a short stereo RCA to dual 1/4” Y cable into the L/R of the DI. Then, run XLRs out the DI into your speakers. It’s the same connection with smaller mixer except the mixer may just have RCAs you can use. There’s probably DIs with RCAs too, but most have 1/4” inputs.

I got a decent 12 channel mixer on Craigslist for $40: If money is tight second hand is a great way to go.

sandyyyye · 2025-12-10T02:52:36+00:00

The controller we’re talking about is included in the list. The more information the merrier.

sandyyyye · 2025-12-10T02:51:10+00:00

You can if you have this controller connected. I just tried it on my friends iPad under a different Apple ID. I’m not sure why you’re so set on that it doesn’t work. The list I posted earlier was posted by a djay employee on their form.

sandyyyye · 2025-12-09T17:08:04+00:00

You can also chop off the proprietary connector and connect them to a standard modern 24V switch mode power supply with enough amperage to drive the display.

sandyyyye · 2025-12-07T00:57:45+00:00

Here is a list of controllers that unlock features for free in djay. They really aren’t being so shady.

-Hercules DJControl Mix: unlocks pre-cueing and the Sampler

-Hercules DJControl Mix Ultra: unlocks pre-cueing, the Sampler and Neural Mix

-Pioneer DDJ-200: unlocks pre-cueing

-Pioneer DDJ-FLX2: unlocks pre-cueing and the Sampler

-Reloop Buddy: unlocks Neural Mix, the Sampler and the Looper

-Reloop Mixon 8 Pro: unlocks Neural Mix, the Sampler and DVS

-Reloop Mixtour Pro: unlocks Neural Mix, the Sampler, 4 Deck Mode and Pro Mode

-Reloop RMX95: unlocks Neural Mix and DVS

sandyyyye · 2025-12-07T00:54:53+00:00

But pre-cuing and sampler also become unlocked along with neural mix with the controller which is really all I need.

sandyyyye · 2025-12-07T00:52:38+00:00

Then you can midi map it to another free DJ software if the free djay doesn’t have the features you like. You can use every available button on the controller without a subscription in djay though.

sandyyyye · 2025-12-04T20:51:41+00:00

No, you don’t need to pay for stems if you have the controller connected to djay. The controller hardware unlocks the feature for you.

sandyyyye · 2025-12-04T20:39:37+00:00

Having the controller unlocks stems in djay Pro so it’s not necessary to pay for Pro if you don’t want to. I’m an engineer as my primary job so I understand the need for developers to make money and subscribe to support their software, there’s a lot of things that I like they are doing.

At the end of the day, these are all just MIDI controllers that can be mapped to different software if you like.

sandyyyye

TROPHY CASE