Some questions about the Yamaha MG166CXUSB

Today I tried to do a live perfomance on ustream the first time ... But I couldn't
I wanted to combine digital and analog technique ... I got not everything on vinyl and also many tracks on my computer.
So I choose the Line In of my X-Fi as Input on Ustream, on Traktor I choose the "Yamaha USB Audio Codec" as Output
I thought that the sound of my MPC, the SP and digital audio data from computer can flow together.
I set the Output for the Monitors to Stereo and 2TR/USB also to Stereo So I could listen to everything from my computer on the mixing console.

First problem: The sound which was streamed (I tried it before also to record with different audio recorders on computer) was always cracking
Second problem: The SP303 was unusuable ... I wanted to control all of the sound that comes out of the channels and from USB with the SP as an effector ... Do I need maybe an interface for: Computer(USB)/16channels -> Stereo Out -> SP -> Interface -> Computer ?

I'm going to get 2 turntables (mixer is already there) and I know that I want to flip it And there is thenext problem (Maybe it'S caused in the turntable now .. It's a Stanton T62):

I must turn up the gain all the way so the sound is not the best from the turntable ... It's also a problem when I sample (Not a problem but it's **** up to set the gain at nearly maximum at the mixer and mixing console ... It is normal to use an amplifier for the mixer ? It's a Stanton SMX311 and much too quiet ...

That's what I think about at the moment ^^ I hate it when the machines can't do what I want ... Yesterday I tried it hours and hours to get the sound working from computer to Yamaha and back with other sound from other sources ...

Ok, you just asked a lot of things at once.

To do this properly, do one thing at a time.

First obvious problem, your turntables.

You know that most turntables need a 'pre-amp'? The sound coming out of most turntables is, very quiet, and effected in a particular way (no bass).....sound familiar?

You have to plug the turntables into a preamp...any decent dj mixer will have pre-amps built in so long as you plug your turntables into the 'PHONO' input. If something says 'PHONO' input on it, it probably has a preamp built into that input.

Get the turntables working, then move on to something else. Maybe first get turntables working, then try to get turntable mixes streaming. Then you can try to get the fx working....which by the way you probably want hooked up to a 'send' from the mixer. Not all mixers have 'sends'.

Yeah I knew this but it is set up: Turntable -> Mixer -> Mixing Console ... The mixer has a pre amp I thought =/

My mixing console has Send/Return but it doesn't get all of the sound .. Only a little part so I can't use the crazy effects of the sp like I want ... I also tried to send all channels to Group 1-2, then back to another channel which I routed to Stereo but than I haven't any sound ...

Yeah I know ... much questions

Hmm yeah so I should not use the normal Ins of the mixer, but the phono ins ?

http://www.stanton-dj.de/fileadmin/_sta ... nual_E.pdf

Sounds like there isn't a pre amp right ... hmhm ...

Hmm yeah so I should not use the normal Ins of the mixer, but the phono ins ?

Yes. The phono ins are connected to a preamp, the line is are not. The preamp turns a phono-signal into a line-signal. Unless your turntables output a line signal (most dj turntabels DO NOT, or if they do they have a switch to choose it), you must connect them to a phono input.

This is why sampling from your turntable directly to MPC does not sound right...because you need the preamp.

You can plug your turntables into your PHONO ins on your dj-mixer, then plug the dj-mixer outputs into the mpc. It will be line level at that point.

As for your sends, you need to check are they PRE or POST fader? If they are POST fader, then they will work only using the level of signal that is coming out of the channel...so what that means is, if your fader is very low, then the signal being sent to the send will ALSO be very low.
If you set the send to POST fader, then it will send whatever level you have the send knob set, regardless of where the channel fader is at.

Quick rule of thumb....learn to love 'unity gain'. What that means is, in a nutshell, 'full level without distortion'. I'm sure one could find fault with that description, but i'm trying to simplify for you.
With unity gain, forget about your speakers for a second...because what you hear coming out of the speakers is not what you want to record, always (see my post in your other thread). Unity gain helps because you know, ok, everything is at THE SAME LEVEL (unity), so you know that the signal flowing around that you can't see or necessarily hear, are being treated in the same way because they are the same levels. This way, you can turn the send knob on one track and have it feed into the fx just as much as if you turn that send knob to the same level on another track. If you have not taken unity gain into consideration, you might need to turn the knob way more for any quieter track.
You can use your GAINS to set things to close to unity gain. Also, you can start with your faders ALL AT 0...and by 0 I don't mean off, I mean the level marked '0' on the fader, which is, (drumroll please)...considered unity gain.
Basically, you want things sounding MOSTLY good with the faders at 0, then you can adjust each channel accordingly, and finally your speakers as well.

I hope that's not too much in one go, but ask more questions as you go along. Still, take it one step at a time. Get the turntables working first since that is an obvious error.

Yeah but there aren't phono ins, only line-ins ... So I need a pre-amp

Something I should tell ya ... I plugged my SP into the Rec-Out ... The Outs of the Sp into the 2TR-IN ... Then I muted the Stereo Out and change the 2TR-IN Signal to Monitor ... Now I'm hearing everything on the monitors ... Hope that it's also recorded as I hear it

JazzyFunkaHolic wrote:Yeah but there aren't phono ins, only line-ins ... So I need a pre-amp

The manual you linked to has phono inputs on every channel.

You also said, 'so i should use the phono ins', which to me indicates that they are there, you just hadn't tried them.

Now, if you are talking about one thing, and linking to something different, then yea, I'm afraid you're on your own cause I can't help if you say you have one thing then say you have another thing ;].

Also:

Something I should tell ya ... I plugged my SP into the Rec-Out ... The Outs of the Sp into the 2TR-IN ... Then I muted the Stereo Out and change the 2TR-IN Signal to Monitor ... Now I'm hearing everything on the monitors ... Hope that it's also recorded as I hear it

You might be jumping ahead of yourself. I really mean it when I say the best thing to do is to take this one thing at a time.

Sorry man ... I only tried it and wanted to tell ya that the other problem is solved

Ok back to the problem: Hmm I read something about Line-Ins ?
Now I must turn the gain on my SMX311 up to maximum and on my Yamaha also nearly at maximum ...
Is that normal ? Cause I connected the tt with the line-in 1 ... And I see that this was wrong ... One moment I try ...

Edit: Yeah I know what you mean I just tried it and it worked ^^ Sorry for off-problem

Edit: phono problem solved

Now only problem 3 is there Oh I just installed Asio 4 All ... But not tried it yet ...

Ok great. So your turntables are working with your dj mixer. Now just glue them together and never take them apart ;].

Joking, but also somewhat serious as your turntables are not going to work without the preamps in the djmixer (unless you have other preamps).

So, now that your turntable/djmixer setup is working...consider that whole thing one instrument, and run the output of your dj mixer into a stereo channel, or two mono channels (panned hard left and hard right) on your big mixer.

Set your djmixer faders at 0 (or full up...it's a minor detail), set the big mixer channel fader at 0, and try to get the same sound out of your big mixer as you did from the dj mixer. Basically set it up so that the dj-mixer is working properly into the big mixer.

After that, maybe we can move on to the sp for fx.
And by the way, unplug your SP from the mixer like that. You want to set it up as a send. If you don't you are not going to be able to do what you want.
ONE THING AT A TIME!

Already done ... I just never thought about the pre-amps ..
I just gained it both at ~0 ... I hear one of my loops since one hour and just scratched a little bit .. much more better than the last months ^^

Hm when I set it up for Send/Return it doesn't work .. The whole sound is broken and overdriven.
I turn the gain control of AUX 1 and 2 up on every channel and at the "main gain controls" for Send & Return ... Not at maximum but at the half ... The sound isn't completely absorbed then and it sounds not good ... Can't I really do it like this .. ? Cause now it sounds perfect .. I can turn up the SP at full volume and got no broken sound or something like that ...

JazzyFunkaHolic wrote:I turn the gain control of AUX 1 and 2 up on every channel ...

I'm starting to sound like a broken record here, but I will say it again, ONE THING AT A TIME. You don't need to adjust EVERY channels send up...you only need to adjust the channel you are working with. Also, let's just work with AUX1 right now, since AUX2 is totally separate.

The whole sound is broken and overdriven.

This is probably related to an earlier topic, preamps. The SP has a preamp built into the MIC input, which if turned up, and if your send is turned up, will be way too loud. Your send is outputting a line level signal (very loud compared to a mic), and your SP, with the gain turned all the way up, is expecting a much quieter signal. So, turn your gain on the SP input WAY DOWN, and the distortion should go away.

Can't I really do it like this .. ? Cause now it sounds perfect .

Well, I am confused as to what 'like this' means, but, a very very important fact to not forget, just as important as one thing at a time, is that there are no rules. I am trying to explain to you the most standard way of working with this stuff, but if you have another way of doing it that you prefer, then do it...forget what anybody tells you. I am only telling you what I tell you because I see what end result you are trying to get, and it will be much easier and more flexible if you do things the standard way, in this case.

But most important, do it how you want. My personal experience though tells me that if you set it up wrong again, you are just going to be back tomorrow with a new problem and you're going to have to deconstruct the whole thing to figure it out. If you do it right at the beginning, and adapt your workflow to the way it's supposed to work, you will make a lot more sense in the end. Still though, never forget there are no rules and you just go ahead and do it however you want.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record here, but I will say it again, ONE THING AT A TIME. You don't need to adjust EVERY channels send up...you only need to adjust the channel you are working with. Also, let's just work with AUX1 right now, since AUX2 is totally separate.

Hmm yeah ok step by step .. I now connected it all to Send/Return and gained the aux 1 on the channels which I want to fxd.

This is probably related to an earlier topic, preamps. The SP has a preamp built into the MIC input, which if turned up, and if your send is turned up, will be way too loud. Your send is outputting a line level signal (very loud compared to a mic), and your SP, with the gain turned all the way up, is expecting a much quieter signal. So, turn your gain on the SP input WAY DOWN, and the distortion should go away.

I turned it down to 50 of 127 .... Is that ok ?

Well, I am confused as to what 'like this' means, but, a very very important fact to not forget, just as important as one thing at a time, is that there are no rules. I am trying to explain to you the most standard way of working with this stuff, but if you have another way of doing it that you prefer, then do it...forget what anybody tells you. I am only telling you what I tell you because I see what end result you are trying to get, and it will be much easier and more flexible if you do things the standard way, in this case.

But most important, do it how you want. My personal experience though tells me that if you set it up wrong again, you are just going to be back tomorrow with a new problem and you're going to have to deconstruct the whole thing to figure it out. If you do it right at the beginning, and adapt your workflow to the way it's supposed to work, you will make a lot more sense in the end. Still though, never forget there are no rules and you just go ahead and do it however you want.

Hm yeah I think you're right ... I want to fx not every time every channel ... So let's go with the Send/Return Routine ^^


I just made these steps: Turn up Send and Return of AUX 1 on the main knobs at the right to 3/4 each and on a channel which I want fxd also with 3/4 ... The Input volume is now at 40 but when I (at example) want to filter it, it doesn't get fully filtered or the sp gives a strange noise when I turn up the drive ...

I'm not sure the exact value for the gain setting going into the SP...I thought there was a knob on the front? I suppose it matters if you are using the RCA or MIC in....you should just play with it until it sounds good. You should be able to have your channel fader at 0, put the send somewhere in the middle (does it have a '0' as well? use that then for calibration), then you can check how the SP sounds. It should be getting a good, clean, undistorted signal from the mixer send.
The next step then, is to just take the SP output (which is now your fx bus) back into the mixer. You should be able to troubleshoot all this now.

It has been good helping you get it working, but I have to go, and I think you can get it now that you understand the preamp / send issue.

The next step is to get the sound into your computer. You can probably use the USB-OUT for this, which will be the same signal that is sent to the REC OUT. You just need to confiugre your software to capture the sound from the yamaha usb.

Then, set your monitor to monitor the 2tr out (the same thing going to to the usb), and now you can monitor it without affecting the level going into the recording/broadcast.

Good luck homey.

Ok it works ... Thx homey ... Now the new beat era is just at beginning
Bye and thx man ... Helped me a lot ....

Yeah I think the USB/Rec-Out is the same at stereo but with a lower volume right ?
I try ...