Sunday, January 27, 2013

How To Use A Rotary DJ Mixer

 photo LarryLevan_zps45145b94.jpg Words from the late great legendary Larry Levan. First you should never max-out your input level pots. Never try to get more overall volume by cranking the individual input level, which will only limit your headroom for blend volume matching. Always use the master level to achieve overall volume levels. Remember the mixer is a pre-amp and it's driving the amplifiers, so the master level pot is the most reliable source for signal to the amps since it stays constant. This will allow you more flexibility when cross mixing between turntables. To get the best sound and to make the mixer work efficiently Larry always used the input level pots between 6 & 8, 8 to10 give’s you the gain on the channel. This gives you a constant blend volume reference for mixing without compromising your overall master volume. Also it maintains a consistent record out level. The master gain pot does not affect the record out signal. Larry’s rule of thumb was to set the master level to the overall desired listening volume. Usually between 3 & 6 for low to moderate listening levels and between 6 and 9 for hi-volume listening levels. You never want to run at 10 on the master level pot for fear of overdriving the amplifiers.  photo larry_zps5adb0784.jpg Larry was a real perfectionist when it came to sound quality. He was very careful with his monitor levels. He never played his monitors all night long, mostly using monitoring when blend mixing. Once the blend was done he would lower his monitor volume to pay attention to the house volume and sound. Spot monitoring will save your ear fatigue as the night goes on. Taken from interview with Kevin Hedge.

1 comment:

VIN said...

catching up on the blog old timer. some killer content (as expected)!@#$%!!!