record DJ set, but High quality recording

**bmo** · 05-17-2011, 02:39 PM

Hey everyone,

I've been recording sets from my external mixer through audiohijacker on my 13" Macbook Pro's line-in for a while now.

The problem I have is that it seems like my mix looses that ooomph from live mixing compared to when I play it back through the same speakers. It sounds flat and lifeless.

I liked being able to record straight into my laptop's line-in since it was easy and convenient, but I'm starting to really questiont he quality of the recording.

I have an audio 4 laying around that I could use, but I didn't think it would really make much of a noticeable difference.

Can anyone give me some suggestions on how to improve the quality?

fyi: my equipment is two cdj 850s, with a Korg Zero 4 mixer using traktor scratch pro.

thanks in advance!

**Paka Ono** · 05-17-2011, 02:44 PM

Audio 4 would not hurt. I would give that a try.

If the recording from the A4DJ is the same then I would guess that there's not a problem with the recording of your mixes. And that your problem lies elsewhere.

**bmo** · 05-17-2011, 02:49 PM

I'm gonna give it a try, but I guess I'll explain why I haven't taken the obvious step of using my audio 4 for recording already. Basically when I spin out at clubs I use my audio 4, so the fact that I can record with my line-in allows me to still record without the audio 4, since it doesn't have enough inputs. At home I have a firewire mixer that is scratch certified so I don't use the audio 4, but since I already use the line-in and i have it all setup, I just do that.

So basically i'm just trying to see if maybe there's something internally onthe computer that could help me out, or if it's just the soundcard quality.

Do you record your mixes with your Audio 4?

btw, thanks for the repsonse.

**mostapha** · 05-17-2011, 03:03 PM

There's nothing wrong with the macbook's audio interface. No, it's not a 192io, but it's not that much worse than any of the cards aimed at DJs.

The problem is how you're recording…probably something to do with setting levels wrong. You should be seeing nice, loud levels in a meter that never distort…then, all you should have to do is normalize the recording with just a bit of headroom to prevent ISM distortion, and you're done.

I've recorded DJ sets with everything from windows sound recorder to Pro Tools, and frankly they all sound about the same quality unless I screw up something like leveling.

**Paka Ono** · 05-17-2011, 03:07 PM

I kind of in a similar situation as yourself. I use my Audio 4 for timecode, so when I record mixes I use my S4.

But I did notice that my mixes sounded flat, but it ended up being a level issue. I had to mess around with that for a bit before I got my mixes sounding just as good.

Maybe someone with more info can chime in, but IIRC the line in on Mac Books use the CPU to handle all of the A/D-D/A? So I'm thinking that having a dedicated sound card to handle that might help in the sound quality.

As for when your playing out, yeah that's a tough one.

**bmo** · 05-17-2011, 03:22 PM

thanks for the replies guys. What do you use for recording. And I suspect it may be the levels now. What program do you use, and how do you adjust the levels?

I use audiohijacker because it allows me to input audio form a program or source and output it to another program or source such as soundflower (2) or another soundcard. This is useful for online streaming.