DJ Booth Input Question

[zaabes]

Hi All,

I booked my first decent-sized gig recently and am excited to get in the booth. I visited the venue during a down time and checked out the various inputs they have available to visiting DJ's. I will be relying on a very basic set-up - Traktor S4, Midi Fighter 3D, Macbook. The main input looked to be two 3-pin XLR cables, which vanished into the abyss of cords in the back of the booth (picture of the input below). They also had a standard 3.5MM component cable that could be used to hook-up an ipod when no DJ is playing.

Here's my question: is my best bet picking up a RCA to 3.5MM female adapter, connecting Traktor - 3.5MM component and calling it a day (adapter pictured below)? Will that allow me to mix on Traktor's sound card, use headphones, etc.? Or, do I need to look into some way to adapt to the XLR's? I've been DJing for about 2 years in the bedroom and at parties so never have had to deal with anything that didn't just receive RCA directly.

Thanks everyone! Here are pictures, my apologies if I'm using the wrong terminology for these cables:

IMG_0300.JPGimage1.JPGimage2.JPG

[deevey]

Worthwhile buying a couple of these ...

http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-1047...ywords=trs+xlr

Theres is no Harm in getting the rca-minijack option as well just to be sure.

[zaabes]

Thank you, really appreciate the reply. So if I'm forced to use an RCA - XLR adapter or RCA - mini, will I be ok as far as sound/signal quality?

[ImNoDJ]

if you normalize your audio files to the RMS averages, if you are just using a cheap cable, the more strands of copper they have the more bass they can handle hence the AWG and seperate sub woofer tv cables

pro cables are always the chunky ones

None of this is true.

[ImNoDJ]

Thank you, really appreciate the reply. So if I'm forced to use an RCA - XLR adapter or RCA - mini, will I be ok as far as sound/signal quality?

Always use the XLRs in a pro setup. They are designed for balanced cables which reject noise over longer runs.

[deevey]

Just use Jack > XLR cables - problem sorted.

Thank you, really appreciate the reply. So if I'm forced to use an RCA - XLR adapter or RCA - mini, will I be ok as far as sound/signal quality?

It depends how long the cable run from S4 > Engineers desk, it "might" be ok or it might be shite. ALWAYS use the balanced jack outputs as master whenever possible, only then you can to be sure of a clean signal.

On the S4, you would use the booth output (jacks) as your master volume and RCA as the booth - there is a switch for this.

If you are planning on gigging regularly, I would highly recommend buying:

Jack > RCA
Jack > Jack
Jack > Male XLR
RCA > RCA

That will cover you for just about any booth you are planning to play in.

Please read this as it explains pretty much all the inputs outputs on the s2 / s4 and when/how to use them along with the cables required.

http://www.native-instruments.com/fo...phones.185491/

it all is like everything i say, when you mix tunes together, the peak level LEDS will go into the red and start to clip, when you turn the bass up to much, cheap cables are made for RMS levels which are the green LEDs and what all pro hardware and domestic tv`s use since the end of the 90s when everything started to have RCA jacks on

cheap cables cannot handle the watts/frequencies and will clip too

if you have a 400 watt amp, you need speaker cable with the right amount of AWG to handle the watts so the audio does`nt clip

etc etc

at the end of the 90s, tv adverts and programs were all random volumes, so tv`s had limiters built into them which most do not have any more

Bloody hell mate, he's talking about signal NOT speakers - You're talking out you're arse again like most of the rest of your posts.