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common used headrooms on dj mixers
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Kitnam
Mantik
Started Topics :
110
Posts :
1151
Posted : Feb 28, 2009 14:44:13
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hi - i come to djing over producing.
as far as i can see - most of the djs/producers first started to dj before they went to producing.
anyway. in the production-studio you always have to watch your levels for nonclipping. you even dont touch the headrooms. logic for example got a headroom of +6db on each channel.
so if you are making a mistake, your mixer has big tollerance of 6db for your mistakes before it starts to clip. but this does not mean to push the levels to + 6db but to not more than 0 db. so you can say this 6 db is the "idiot space" for your mixing mistakes.
when we talk about recording it even gets stricter with less clipping-tolerance.
anyway...
every stage of today got pioneer djm800.
each channel got a headroom of more than 10 db! and the masterchannel got a headroom of little bit more than 10 db too!
this is not only a lot headroom the difference is that in a production studio you got nonlimited elements which clip much easier. on a dj mixer you usually play mastered and therefore limited tracks which means that your absolutly do not need any headroom, because its all limited - there is no risk of clipping if you do not overgain the signal.
so having 10 db of "idiot space" on each level AND on the masterchannel of a pioneer what kind of thing a lot of djs do?
they overdrive it. every channel shows the levels are allready in the headroom (red led blinking everywhere channels and master)
its not that they are all stupid. they do it because the party organizer / club pa is usually balanced to nearly clipping levels.
so everyone is forced to play with a lot risk of around 2-3 db or even less under the clipping range. just one mistake and the sound would start to squeeze.
you all know there are some experts thinking louder = better and even clip the mixer totally into mud.
this all is a bit strange isnt it?
couldnt we all just used 0 db as a reference? every pa ballanced for 0 db too?
imagine how much better it would be to keep levels straight and monitoring the leds.
yes i know it wouldnt be possible - people are like people are.
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x-rayz
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
11
Posts :
576
Posted : Feb 28, 2009 19:50
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~d2~
Inactive User
Started Topics :
7
Posts :
751
Posted : Mar 3, 2009 13:51
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Quote:
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On 2009-02-28 14:44:13, Kitnam wrote:
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anyway. in the production-studio you always have to watch your levels for nonclipping. you even dont touch the headrooms. logic for example got a headroom of +6db on each channel.
so if you are making a mistake, your mixer has big tollerance of 6db for your mistakes before it starts to clip. but this does not mean to push the levels to + 6db but to not more than 0 db. so you can say this 6 db is the "idiot space" for your mixing mistakes.
when we talk about recording it even gets stricter with less clipping-tolerance.
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It may have +6dB space but that is no good for tracking. |
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~d2~
Inactive User
Started Topics :
7
Posts :
751
Posted : Mar 3, 2009 13:58
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Another thing to consider is how do you know how much headroom the mixer has?
The DJM-600 doesn't say anything about it under the specification section in the manual. Pioneer technical department couldn't even tell me. |
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