recording w/Audacity from DJM-900Nexus .. troubleshooting w/screenshots.. plz help!

hey everybody! i'm finally about ready to record my official club promotional mix, and was having a little difficulty getting the recording to work in Audacity..

I went ahead and took screenshots of the 5 "critical" settings screens that I think may be of most importance (at least the screens that any online tutorials directed me towards)

these were the only 2 tutorials i was able to come across online that were related to recording from a DJM-900nexus to Audacity.. one of them directed towards the DJM-900nexus.. found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKm-N2XG13k

and the other one was basically a Pioneer guide to recording on the DJM-2000nexus (they said the steps were the same, but still not working..) found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnq7M6g4hlA



I went ahead and attached screenshots from my DJM-900Nexus Setting Utility and preferences windows of Audacity..

NOTE: I am using all digital outputs, so I have all my DJM-900 knobs set on "DIGITAL" (vs. CD/LINE, PHONO, USB).. ALSO, I am currently only using Channel's 2 & 3.. I have a USB cable going from my DJM-900Nexus into my MacBook Pro..

Are there any certain settings that I have set wrong on my computer end? And also, is there any further configuration that I have to physically do on the mixer end? Please let me know, thanks for all your help guys!! I'll be sure to post my promo mix as soon as I can get this working :)

It's been several months since I recorded with this setup and I'm half-asleep, so bear with me and keep in mind this might not be 100% accurate.

When I was using just the Nexus soundcard for recording I just routed RCAs from the rec out into the line input of one of the channels (channel 1 in my case) and then set the Nexus as the soundcard in my recording program and inputs 1 and 2 as the inputs in said program (Ableton in my case, Audacity in yours). For the channel you have the rec out plugged into - you must select USB as your input with the selector knob, NOT digital (make sure to route your rec out into these as well, not into the phono inputs). If this doesn't work or isn't clear, assuming Audacity has a meter telling you whether or not it's receiving sound, mess around with your settings in the nexus setting utility/Audacity and connections until you find a setup that gives you signal on the meter. I just used the noise color FX on one of the channels with the channel fader open to have a constant signal coming from the rec out while I was troubleshooting.

The Nexus soundcard is a 4 stereo in/4 stereo out card, with each input and output being matched to a channel. Thus there is no "master input" or "record input" so to speak. You might have some luck messing around with the Rec Out option in the setting utility, but I just ended up using the RCA option since it worked and I couldn't be bothered to mess around with it more just to remove an RCA cable from my DJ setup. As I sort of understand it, you should be able to set one of your "mixer audio output" channel settings to rec out and do the same steps as above without the RCA cable, but I haven't tried it.

I have never had problems recording with the 900, even without having to do silly things like routing an output into an input. You might be better off using CH1 as your REC IN as Audacity looks for the 1st two inputs by default.

You have only posted tiny thumbnails rather than proper screenshots though.

Edit: Here is my setup, recording in Audacity. Properly.
http://i.imgur.com/HpNDfSf.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by makar1

I have never had problems recording with the 900, even without having to do silly things like routing an output into an input. You might be better off using CH1 as your REC IN as Audacity looks for the 1st two inputs by default.

You have only posted tiny thumbnails rather than proper screenshots though.

Edit: Here is my setup, recording in Audacity. Properly.
http://i.imgur.com/HpNDfSf.png

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I blame Pio's lack of any kind of reasonable documentation for the nexus setting utility; the soundcard in the Mackie d.4 Pro I used before the nexus was far more intuitive despite being several years older. And say what you will, but the setup I had was effectively the same as routing a rec out into an external soundcard. No need to be snarky, sir.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keeb

I blame Pio's lack of any kind of reasonable documentation for the nexus setting utility; the soundcard in the Mackie d.4 Pro I used before the nexus was far more intuitive despite being several years older. And say what you will, but the setup I had was effectively the same as routing a rec out into an external soundcard. No need to be snarky, sir.

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It's a series of dropdown menus IIRC. Hardly worth a manual.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shishdisma

It's a series of dropdown menus IIRC. Hardly worth a manual.

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The distinction between "input" vs. "output" of the soundcard vs. the mixer is not very straightforward in the software or the documentation. It's been improved a bit for clarity since the driver came out, I'll admit, but I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keeb

The distinction between "input" vs. "output" of the soundcard vs. the mixer is not very straightforward in the software or the documentation. It's been improved a bit for clarity since the driver came out, I'll admit, but I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one.

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Are you serious? There's two tabs with "MIXER INPUT" and "MIXER OUTPUT" labeled, with two flowcharts showing a path from mixer to laptop and vice versa.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shishdisma

Are you serious? There's two tabs with "MIXER INPUT" and "MIXER OUTPUT" labeled, with two flowcharts showing a path from mixer to laptop and vice versa.

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From what I recall, the interface has been slightly changed to make things more clear since I'd first gotten the mixer. For example, I don't recall the arrow being in the output tab showing signal flow from the mixer to the computer, thus clarifying what I'm about to get into. I could be wrong, but looking at it now it seems much clearer than it was before.

So what's mixer output? Output to the mixer or output from the mixer to the soundcard? That's what's not clear in the documentation. Yeah, I understood it after thinking about it for a bit (and now that the arrows are there it makes much more sense), but the mixer audio output is the input for the soundcard. It makes sense when you think of the soundcard and the mixer being distinct from one another, but since they're physically the same unit it can be confusing at first to think of one connection as both an input and an output, especially when it's internal.

And those dropdowns are self-explanatory if you have the necessary background. I've read the entirety of the manual for the mixer. It goes into signal flow down to whether things are post/pre-fader, post/pre color FX, etc. The amount of detail in there for everything is pretty damn good - EXCEPT for with the software, which has virtually no documentation at all, even online (this may have changed at this point - as I said it's been several months since I actively looked into it). If I can't understand the software for the mixer after reading the manual for it, either I'm an idiot (which you seem to agree with) or the documentation isn't great. Take your pick either way, but since you seem to just want to take jabs at me I've said what I needed to say here - in a constructive manner relevant to the OP at that. SMH.

I agree that the wording is a little confusing, but the extremely clear diagram makes up for it. I've never really read the manual for any DJing products except for looking up technical specs like noise margins.

If you don't know the correct solution to the problem outlined in a thread, it's probably best not to post awkward workarounds that will get yet another person into bad habits with their gear.

Lip, if you have any more questions on the mixer routing you're welcome to post/PM. The main issue you had was that Audacity was looking at inputs 1+2, whereas you were sending REC to 3+4/5+6.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by makar1

If you don't know the correct solution to the problem outlined in a thread, it's probably best not to post awkward workarounds that will get yet another person into bad habits with their gear.

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The "correct" solution is doing the exact same thing in software, sans 1 cable. There's no practical difference between the two solutions - you save yourself one DA/AD conversion step and an RCA cable. You act like I was telling the guy to grab a y-cable and plug into his line-in on his laptop or record his sets with his iPhone mic. I was also quite clear that it had been a while since I'd used that setup and didn't speak authoritatively about my solution, even stating at the beginning of my post that it might not be 100% accurate; nevermind that I even alluded to the "correct" solution in the very post you're giving me crap about, saying that it should work but I hadn't tried it. In short, I did just about everything I could to be helpful and not misleading to the OP short of hooking everything up and testing my proposed solution...

It's entirely possible to correct someone without being a dick about it, by the way, though apparently that's completely lost on you.


-------> Back on topic


Have you got this sorted now, Lip?