Recording from turntable...

I'm trying to record from my turntable (DJ Tech Vinyl 5C) directly into my MPC 500. The turntable has an built-in RIAA with a Line Out signal. Trouble is that even if I max the Rec Gain on the MPC, the signal is not strong enough - it peaks at about 70%.

Do I need a mixer of something to boost the signal further?

Thanks!

Yes.

I'm not familiar with your turntable, but here is what I think you may want to do before spending any money. Go into "Trim" mode on those samples, and normalize them. It's amazing how much of a difference it will make. Adjust the volume in Program mode, and play with them from there. You can max out the MPC and whatever receiver/speaker you have, but it still might not matter. At that point, you will probably need some sort of pre-amp mixer. If you are good with the MPC and/or have some decent editing software, just grab a cheap mixer for now, in my opinion. What I have done was to put the Rec Gain on Max, while adjusting the mixer levels. I have found that the best results are when the mixer (depends on brand I guess) is into the yellow, just below the red, and the rec levels on the MPC are about 2 or 3 bars below the max when recording. Worked for me. Hope that helps.

Beware (when normalizing) of your noise floor. I've found samples to get VERY noisy if raising the volume too much, post-recording.

Check if there's a switch on the bottom of the turntable. If there is a switch flip it to line out, its possible that it was set to phono when shipped out the factory. You should hear a signal if its on line out, phono out is when you need a mixer or a mini amp.

Downloading from turntable IMO.

i would highly recommend getting a mixer...a dJ mixer for that matter.
No only will it boost the hell outta your volume going into your laptop/mpc.it will have many other uses for mpc beat production that i wont go into right now.


But seriously,get one.
And buy the best you can afford,im using a pioneer DJM 400 and its beast.
ll you will need is a good,solid 2 Channel dj mixer.

Go for Pioneer or vestax.
quality japanese products,that wont let you down.

vestax is popular with scratch dj's,im not a scratch dj,but it might be recommended to you if yoiu like hip hop maybe...

you dont need but you do want a mixer...it helps considerably with adjustments before the sample reaches your mpc..
now ask yourself some questions in terms of what you want..theres a vast variety of mixers and you wont need anything to expensive if this is all your using it for.
if your going to be dj'ing or like the aboved mentioned"scratching" then you want something with good faders.
or something you can put a good fader in..

i have an american audio qd5 with an innofader..probably not what you'll need but i only have about 3 hundred into it and thats cause the fader was 120..find out what u want then do some shopping around for it...

trust me e-bay is your friend,you just have to use it wisely!!!

EDIT: as a matter of fact i just sold a vestax pcv-175 3channel mixer on there for 50bux...so there out there!!!!!

Thanks! It has become clear to me that I need a mixer for my inputs to the MPC (turntable, CD player, synth, microphone etc) - but do I need a DJ mixer or a studio/traditional mixer?

I've been looking at cheap Behringer mixers, but have also heard some negative things about them.

How much should I be spending on a DJ/studio mixer for my little setup? Any suggestions and tips are more than welcome!

Thanks!

"DJ Tech Vinyl 5C"


My new DJ name!