How to prevent booth monitors from causing unreliable timecode signal?

[PeteWoods]

Last night i ran my first club night, and it was my first set playing with turntables. I was the only person using the technics, and i had set them up personally before the show. when i started to play i noticed that there was a small bit of skipping once in a while, usually on a heavy kick or bass note, and so i changed to relative mode, but kept getting it.

I increased the counter-weight. reversed it, basically put so much weight that i'm surprised the needle didnt burn through my record, but still my signal was bouncing all over the place, eventually i just switched to internal play as soon as i had the record ready for mixing.

How could i avoid this happening in future nights, i'd hate it to happen again!

[hipnopath]

That shouldn't be happening, but if all else fails...

http://www.planetdj.com/i--FREEFLOAT

[PeteWoods]

The table was absolutely crap though, and if i stamped on the stage it skipped, happened on me twice.

[mostapha]

Freefloats are life savers in places like that. You can pound on the table from the bottom and the needles won't skip.

Short of that, tennis balls cut in half make a difference.

Also…after a point, more weight makes skipping more likely.

[Flash101uk]

This kinda shit gets me all the time. In almost every club I play in (which isnt many admitedly) the subs are too close to the TT's, or theyre crapping out in some way.

Thank god for internal mode!

[3heads]

Thank god for internal mode!

I managed to make that one skip due to too much vibrations as well :>

(well, at least now I know how to deactivate the Sudden Motion Sensor of my MacBook)

[PeteWoods]

i'm going to start bringing tennis balls to gigs now, would adding extra weight to the table by using bricks to raise the TT's make any difference?

I didnt know that mostapha, is that generally if you reverse the counterweight? or is it just when you go over the reccomended amount for the stylus?

[mostapha]

(well, at least now I know how to deactivate the Sudden Motion Sensor of my MacBook)

That feature exists for a reason. Turn it back on and either put your laptop on a freefloat or don't play there.

i'm going to start bringing tennis balls to gigs now, would adding extra weight to the table by using bricks to raise the TT's make any difference?

I didnt know that mostapha, is that generally if you reverse the counterweight? or is it just when you go over the reccomended amount for the stylus?

Extra weight won't make anywhere near the difference that freefloats or tennisballs do.

And it depends on your stylus……but there's a range there for a reason. There's probably come CYA room at the top because DJs are–in general–pretty dumb. But eventually you'll have the cartridge body bouncing off the record. Before that…the needle is on the end of what's basically a spring…overcompressing that spring (by adding too much weight) causes it to jump higher when it receives a jolt than it would if it were less compressed………kinda like how springs jump higher in the air when you really squish them down.

I don't know where it happens because I've never had to add that much weight. I bought freefloats with my turntables, and if I hear feedback…I blow them up and use them without thinking.