Autogain feature - it sorta works (?)

Hi All,

I'm a new DJ.

I have the autogain feature on in Traktor and most of the time it seems to do a great job. From what I understand it analyzes the music ahead of time and then makes a decision on how much more volume/gain to give a track... is that correct.

As I say - most of the time it works great - but there are a few times when I crossfade between two tracks and it seems to fall flat. Often it's from something like a modern day hip hop / pop track and something from another era - like an 80s pop song or something from the 70s.

Is this mainly because of mastering levels at these respective times in history?

It's a downer when I have a really great modern day set going and then I drop a gem from another era - and its PERFECT musically, but in terms of gain, it's lower.

Why not control it manually? Well - because of how loud the club and music are, I am wearing headphones that I do not take off and I also have earplugs in! - I am trying to conserve my hearing in a 3 hour set. Taking the phones and plugs in and out every couple of songs is something I want to avoid.

That being said.

If the autogain works on transients - what I tend to see in the waveforms is that the transients might be at max on the older songs, but it's everything in between the transients that is not so loud. This is a result of compression?

Are there any solutions / plugins / effects in Traktor or other settings I can tweak to improve this?

Thanks!!!
Fores

Music has gotten significantly more bass heavy in the last few decades, so when put up against something from the 70's or 80's then it probably would sound flat. This is my opinion, not too sure if it holds true.

There's also a LOT more dynamic variation in older music. So a snare drum for example used to snap out of the track a lot more, that's just how things were mastered. These days every producer is trying to make their song sound loudest, so though the loudest peaks of the track will be the same volume, the general volume will seem lower.

This video sums it up better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

So autogain reads the loudest parts of your tracks and matches them, but older songs come out sounding quieter.

Setting perceived equal loudness is an integral part of DJing. Even when you use all the "bells & whistles" of modern technology, you still should cue your incoming track to sonically match the one playing as best you can.

What does the "replace gain" feature do then?

Thanks!!!
Fores

if you use a mixer turn autogain off

Getting the levels right is an important part of DJing. I have autogain set but I check the levels for every song because perceived loudness != dB and different songs can be loud in different areas of the frequency spectrum. Not checking this is about a 3 on the 'doomed to FAIL' scale, where a 10 constitutes deciding that you don't need headphones or monitors to mix at all.

Ah yeah, loved that Loudness Wars. It truly uncovers some nasty things... :(

But I agree with lethal_pizzle here. The differences in gain/loudness/intensiveness/vibe make for a prime track selection or not.

This is what makes people a great DJ or not.