Xone: DB4- the official unofficial thread

[JDFS]

Well, thanks mate! It's very good to hear that. I'm following the Cambridge ESOL Examinations at my school to get a degree in English. Still my knowledge of the English language is very basic, but I intend to broaden my horizon .

Back on-topic, it's just shameful that we must figure out there's new firmware for the DB4 via MixArchitekt. I'm glad we're having him on this forum - and he's always helpful!

I'm 99% sure that the Xone:K2 is releasing quietly and reviews will follow end 2012. Unfortunately .

[mostapha]

I mean, the Xone mixers are just like the iLive mixers their cash cows, right? Why not take advantage of that and just bring a proper marketing campaign or something like that. When more people will hear of it, more people will buy it, more chance to become Traktor Scratch Certified (just like Andy Rigby-Jones says in one of the early DB4 videos: "Traktor Scratch Certification coming soon").

The thing is that they make a lot more on iLive mixers than DJ mixers. DJ mixers are something that A&H do because they'll sell enough units to make it worth while. They're not a cash cow, and they can't compete with Pioneer. They just don't have the budget to give away as much gear as Pioneer does. And while some think A&H mixers are better than Pioneer mixers, it just doesn't matter compared with club installs.

They're competing with one of the biggest marketing and promotion teams in the world.

Their iLive mixers are competing with the likes of Midas, Soundcraft, Yamaha, Mackie, Avid, and a few others.

That's not a small task, but it's easier than tackling Pioneer.

Also, you speak English infinitely better than I speak Dutch.

[Xonetacular]

I would be interested to know how many ilive mixers a&h actually sells a year.

I'm sure A&H makes plenty of money from DJ mixers and other gear.

[DJ Bob]

Well, thanks mate! It's very good to hear that. I'm following the Cambridge ESOL Examinations at my school to get a degree in English. Still my knowledge of the English language is very basic, but I intend to broaden my horizon .

Back on-topic, it's just shameful that we must figure out there's new firmware for the DB4 via MixArchitekt. I'm glad we're having him on this forum - and he's always helpful!

I'm 99% sure that the Xone:K2 is releasing quietly and reviews will follow end 2012. Unfortunately .

It's just a public beta of the firmware, not a final release. Mix Architekt obviously has the blessing of A&h to seed this to this board which we should be grateful for, I really can't see a problem here. There is certainly no shame on A&H, quite the opposite, they are clearly listening to their users as shown by the new additions. I'm staggered that someone on here suggested the rotary concept and within a few months it has been delivered. I've never seen anything like this before. Maybe this is why 'we' got the beta?
Anyway, it's a great update and I'm very happy with it.

[Rors]

Hi can anyone help please;

Just tried to update to mix architekt’s beta firmware but got the message "error file corrupt" on the screen.

I downloaded the file from here, dropped it onto a 16g memory card then loaded it up on the db4, is this the correct procedure?

I have a mac does this make any difference?

Thanks Rory

[dafe]

what filesystem is the usb formatted in? and what filesystems can the db4 read?

[Xonetacular]

Hi can anyone help please;

Just tried to update to mix architekt’s beta firmware but got the message "error file corrupt" on the screen.

I downloaded the file from here, dropped it onto a 16g memory card then loaded it up on the db4, is this the correct procedure?

I have a mac does this make any difference?

Thanks Rory

most 16gb flash drives won't work.

Use a quality brand name (i.e. Crucial) 4gb or less flash drive and format it fat32 then just place the firmware and nothing else on it and you will be good to go.

[elisabettacanalis]

From my Native Instruments Traktor Pro forum posting in DJ controllers topic concerning the Xone DB4 and the discussion that may have solved the timecode issue through a very complex way:

"If you look at his set-up he's got two NI soundcards (one for Abelton/Maschine going out of the NI soundcard on the left into the Aux Line input pair.

The one on the right is actually further Abelton/Maschine full channel break-outs but what about the one on the left.
I'm thoroughly confused."

Ignore my confusion on the innerclocks thing...on another note, I had a longer 'think' about the Dubfire set-up last night and realized that if I'm right, you can use the two extra soundcards to sync the two laptops, run 10 channels of Abelton/Maschine as analog audio + get four decks of control over the DB4 analog/DB4 USB....plus you might even get timecode since you are using NI soundcards anyway.

OK, please read carefully and figure this out with me. If you look at Dubfire's set-up and roughly figure it out, he (or his roadcrew/set-up experts) may have made a model we could use to solve a few problems with synching two programs and the audio routing required to have the DB4 successfully use it's input matrix wizardry to come up with a complex but very comprehensive set-up....

OK, you'd need two additional soundcards and a total of two laptops: one for Abelton/Maschine ("Performance") and one for Traktor Pro ("DJ").

On the "Performance" laptop running Abelton and Maschine (on the left),
-Use a 10 output channel soundcard and only send the Master "1/2 out" pair directly into the DB4's Aux Line-in pair.
-On channels 3-10, send out all of the audio pairs to another soundcard on another computer's soundcard capable of running all 8 channels in "through" mode (like a Traktor 10 DJ because it has four "through" pairs).

You'll need to slave the "Performance" laptop by conventional midi cable connection at the midi-in port receiving midi from the other soundcard on the other "DJ" computer, adjust clock ticks, etc. to get it in time.

On the "DJ" computer (on the right), run Traktor Pro and use the DB4's USB Audio soundcard for routing Traktor's deck audio which are still matrix selectable by the channels' "USB" source inputs.
- Attach another soundcard (Traktor 10 DJ best candidate - because it has four throughs which will receive the four pairs of analogue audio coming from of "Performance" laptop's audio soundcard outs)
- Connect the four "through" analogue audio out pairs into the DB4's four channel input pairs. (You can switch to them by selecting "ANA" on channel input sources)
- Connect this Traktor 10 DJ's Midi out to the "Performance" laptop soundcard's midi-in by conventional midi cable.
- Adjust ticks between systems to keep it sync'd in time.
- Within Traktor, set-up a generic Midi device for the Traktor 10 DJ connected this "DJ" computer, which should show up as a selectable Midi device recognized in Traktor. (? - You shouldn't have to "gain" the 2nd Traktor 10 DJ, it should show up as a midi device, right ?) Not sure if you'd have to also set-up a basic JackOS type audio routing or another internal sync'd program like an instance of Abelton running parallel on the "DJ" computer but to get the "DJ" laptop's connected Traktor 10 DJ t to run the audio "through" should be reasonably accomplished by the configuration tool (if it comes with one like the Audio 8DJ did - running outside of Traktor). The midi send should reasonably be accomplished within Traktor preferences because aggregated soundcards isn't currently an option for Traktor.

Notes: If this works, I'd use the Aux-in for the Cue channel of Abelton on DB4 and use the four mix channels on the DB4 as Maschine group break-out routing.

I don't have the Traktor 10 DJ yet so don't know if you can configure "through" with the basic tool outside of Traktor plus I'm not sure if Traktor would pick-up the 2nd soundcard connected by USB on the "DJ" system as a midi device and allow you to send the sync throught it without complication (should work)

If it does work, you should be good to go by doing this and essentially sync two laptops, run ten channels of analogue audio + 4 decks of controlled audio, ultimately all mixed through the DB4 and two additional soundcards.

It all seemed crazy to see his set-up at first but I think that if this works, I now know to go about connecting my set-up in a similar workflow. It's more stable to work on two laptops and I wasn't keen on the idea of having another two soundcards at first (just getting over the extra one added for Abelton/Maschine) but I think I might be onto something else as well....

-------timecode?---------

Concerning the unused inputs on the "Performance" laptop's soundcard, you might get away with either setting up a standalone (unsync'd) instance of Traktor on this computer or you might be able to do something crazy and achieve timecode control by connecting your turntables/CDJ analog outs to the "performance" laptop's soundcard inputs and send the signal on through the analog pipeline to second soundcard on the "DJ" laptop. I'm not absolutely sure about this because you may still have the software preventing such since the DB4 would be the soundcard but an NI soundcard would be attached to that laptop and you might trick the software? If that doesn't work because you'd need the Line switchover you could try to figure out how to further route the audio internally through Abelton, and get control. **Not sure if you'd be able to e pick-up/switch over yet but pick-up of the signal as analog hitting the Traktor should allow control and shoot the audio out over the DB4's mix channels.

I may be onto something here but the trolls may come out and address the obvious which is the fact that you could partition the "Performance" laptop's card (in terms of audio) and share the channels between Abelton and another instance of Traktor running on that laptop (meaning two laptops with Traktor) You might even figure out a way to flip the sync portion on at a certain point and play with it very precisely.

If my analysis of the original subject Dubfire set-up has solved the laptop sync/audio routing/control issues by going about things this way while also leading the DB4 Users interested in having timecode towards achieving the capability. (it would be expensive if you start at the beginning but I'm only in need of a Traktor 10DJ card to test it with my existing Xone DB4/Xone 2D/two 1Ds and two Technics SL-1210 MK5Gs).

[mix architekt]

i'm sorry, but all that's written above is totally off from what was actually happening at the dubfire gig at timewarp mannhiem last year. i was at the sound check providing a new db4 for the show with the rest of the xone crew, and at that point in time he was using the db4 as a direct replacement for a 92 minus one channel.

4 decks of traktor into the db4 via ni audio interface.
stereo out of maschine into the db4 line/mic in for the 2nd laptop.
midi cable for sync between the 2 laptops.
2 cdj's as back up in case the laptops fail.
he was not using the db4's usb audio interface.

that's it.

if you want timecode and a db4, you can use the native interface and all is well.

[djproben]

if you want timecode and a db4, you can use the native interface and all is well.

All isn't that well, at least with the current firmware - it's possible this is fixed in the beta, I haven't installed it. But the output levels are radically divergent if you use vinyl through Traktor's "Live Input" vs. the regular Traktor signal if you're playing timecode. At least the way I'm doing it, and it's possible I am doing something stupid. But I've got the multicores running from an Audio 8 with the "phono" leads on B+C on the mixer (so the inner channels are playing decks A+B from Traktor) and the other two CD/Line leads are on decks A+D. The problem is if I use live input to play vinyl, the volume is extremely low, and even with the trim set to the highest gain, there's no way for it to compare to the signal coming from Traktor's decks.

Like I said I may be doing something stupid; I really haven't messed with timecode or even traktor that much since the DB4 is so much fun with regular vinyl. Normally I have it hooked up without the Audio 8 so that I have turntables in B+C on the mixer and then the input matrix set so that inner channels are Traktor A+B and outer channels are the vinyls if the Analog signal is set or Traktor C+D if USB is set. This makes it easy to mix with Traktor and scratch on a turntable without losing a main deck for example (something you can't normally do with timecode unless you have a third deck), or just to mix between vinyl and traktor. And switching to Traktor for decks C+D when you want them is a breeze though of course you have to remember to adjust the gain when you switch between ANA and USB. I went back to that setup after frustratingly trying to play through the Audio 8 for a few weeks.

This all comes back to why this mixer needs to be certified In the meantime, timecode seems too much trouble. Which is unfortunate.