dB Monitor

[bartboy]

I am currently playing around with a Numark Total Control and have been having a hard time keeping an eye on the dB meters inside traktor. Anyone have any suggestions for a compact dB meter I plan on picking up an external mixer when I save more money for some Pioneer CDJs but until then I would really love to be able to have something I can get a better visual cue from if my levels are way too high. Also I currently have traktor set as up for a master limiter as to not blow my speaker setup I have seen external rack mounted ones. What are your experience with these are they needed if so whats a good model? Thanks again for all the great advice everyone.

[mostapha]

They're expensive…like a few hundred dollars expensive for peak program meters like I think Traktors are. You can get cheap VU meters by searching google, but IMHO it's not worth it. Just learn to glance at the screen.

[nem0nic]

If you have an iPhone/Touch/Pad, there are some sweet RTA and dB meter apps that are super useful. Not as accurate as an expensive goldline, but MUCH cheaper, and easy to carry.

[bartboy]

thanks for the replys I was thinking of a cheaper solution than that I found this on ebay not sure if anyone has used one in there booth. This would not be for me to take along with me anywhere but the time I'm ready to play out of my house I'll have some better equipment but as for right now has any tried this
thanks again guys for all the great info

[mostapha]

I've seen those american audio things…as long as you calibrate it, I'd assume it would work fine if your only goal is trying to see if you're clipping. But, if you have a limiter, you won't clip the master…and if you're worried about clipping each channel, then you're going to be running audio from traktor to the level meter, back into traktor, then through traktor's mixer, and back out to hear it…so you're probably going to need a better audio interface.

I'm actually not sure if you can set up traktor to do that simply.

I still don't think it's worth it compared to just learning to glance at the screen and/or hear distortion.

Oh yeah, and answering your other question…Traktor's peak limiter is probably just fine.

The hardware ones–assuming they're analog–might have a characteristic sound when they're pushed into light distortion/clipping…which some people like for some reason. The one in Traktor should be pretty transparent unless it's made to emulate using one of the analog ones wrong. So, I say just use that.

[bartboy]

Thanks alot for all the info saved me 50$ :P

[mostapha]

You should keep an eye on your levels, though…even if you're not clipping the master, you could clip something in a channel or the input to your limiter (even in the digital world, though math makes it weirder than just clipping), and all limiters can cause a slight decrease in quality.

For the most part, based on limited experience, though…it seems like Traktor's auto-gain is okay. Well, kinda…Ableton Live's timestretching (as well as the loudness war) kinda exacerbate problems if you're not careful…but the quality losses are small compared to running a normal DJ mixer at +20 like a lot of DJs are perfectly content to do.