Hi All,

I recently went more or less fully digital (just can't bring myself to leave the CD collection at home), I use VDJ with a Denon DN HC-4500, and the BU-4000 CD drawer for CD backup, delighted with it so far. Two small problems, VDJ won't analyse some of my MP3's, it reads the time remaining at about 20 mins even though the song may be only 5 minutes, so i don't know when the song is ending. This is a small problem and it is only a handful of tracks but i'd still like to sort it if possible, I have tried deleting the offending tracks and ripping them again to no avail, changed the format. still no good. Anybody any ideas?

Secondly I seem to be suffering a big drop in volume when i use VDJ as against CD. I only realised this when a client gave me a CD to play at a gig, so I changed over to CD player and hit play, nearly deafening everybody in the pub it jumped so much. I tried a few of my own CD's at home after and got the same result. There is a massive difference in volume when I switch from MP3 to CD source, is this normal? Is there any way to correct this (i know I can adjust the gain). My worry is that I have some gigs coming up in rather large venues over the summer so just wondering will my system be loud enough, given that it loses at least 20-30% volume once I use VDJ. It isn't an issue in small pubs when volume is only up halfway anyway. Sorry if I've gone on a bit, I'm pretty new to digital DJing and would like to Iron out these teething problems.

Hi Mickey,

I've not used that particular system and don't use cds anymore (hercules rmx + ADj Sdj2) but here's a few ideas.

There' a setting on vdj called autogain and if you select 'autogain + remember' it will remember the level of the track when you last played it. On the vdj skin it shows the pre fader level of each track loaded so it will give you an idea what level dB you need to use to match the cds. Obviously the cds may have different
levels also. Was the cd from the client a cd-r as that may account for the higher level if he chose a a particular option when burning it? Also, there is a program called mp3gain which is free and analyses all your mp3s and sets them all to the same level of you choosing.

I use the autogain+remember and as long as you cue a track first it will set the gain.
I have my gain controls on my mixer set about the same for cd and playback from vdj, with only a few particular cds where i need to set the gain manually.

I do use the pre fader levels on my mixer a lot (every track) and you should get into the habit of doing the same, that way you can avoid sudden bursts.

dave

Same here, I set the gain to 0dB on the PFL/cue meter. I find that the gain is turned fairly high on the soundcard input, and have to turn it down for CDs. This is because CD players generally have a much higher Line-Out level (something like 1 to 2V), Normal Line level ("0dB") is supposedly 0.775V.


David

Thanks lads, will play around with it tomorrow and try to sort it out, busy weekend coming up so wanted to have it perfect. Thanks again