Audio 6 and Serato box with 2 turntables and 1 mixer??

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Audio 6 and Serato box with 2 turntables and 1 mixer??

Right now a buddie and myself Dj together at a club usually switching out every hour or so. He runs serato and I run TSP2 and we use 2 technic 1200’s and a pioneer djm 800 mixer. Right now what we do is run my audio 6 outputs to channels 1 & 2 on the djm 800 and his serato box outputs to channels 3 & 4. So when we want to switch I dissconnect the rca’s on the turntable that is not being used into my audio 6 load my control vinyl and mix in then once the music is going I do the same for the other turntable. This works fine it is just a hassle to unplug and re plug the turntable rca’s to each sound card. My question is what if I but some rca y adapters and split the signal from the turtable to both soundcards will that work? In theory all we would have to do is switch timecode vinyl and mix in the appropiate channel. Has anyone done this? Will there be any interference or noise?

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Cant buy a switchbox?

3

You know I had seriously not thought about that. Thx

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Will the Y adapter still work tho??

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You don’t need to do any of that. I forget which order to do it in, but do one setup as normal. Instead of running the soundcard into the mixer though, run the RCA outputs into the other soundcard. Then run those outputs from the second soundcard into the mixer as you normally would. I believe the SL1 has to be first in the chain, but I could be wrong. Then, all you have to do is switch control vinyls/CD’s, and you can both play off the same channels with no re-wiring.

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FYI, I’ve played out like this before. A friend was using serato, and I used TSP. Everything went perfectly.

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Not sure what Serato box you have, but I currently have my setup as Tech 1200 → SL3 (with power adapter so Thru works even without a comp plugged into it) → DJM 900 Line inputs (since the SL3 already boosts the phono signal to line level). It doesn’t matter which soundcard you have first as long as it has a thru option (which the Audio 6 does at least with the power adapter). Just make sure you’re careful about not sending a line-level output (post-soundcard number 1) into a phono input.

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Actually, it DOES matter. As stated earlier, I’ve done this, and one setup didn’t work due to Rane’s requirement to use the specific sound card to run Serato. Due to that, the order plays a role… at least it did in MY experience, and there was no way around it.

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Well I can’t say I’ve tried it in reverse order since the only Traktor soundcards I’ve had thus far are integrated into the mixers I’ve had. That said, if you run the TT into the A6 and all the A6 does is push the audio through to the SL box, there is no reason the order should matter unless Serato’s vinyl timecode is different from their CD timecode (i.e. if Serato couldn’t handle the vinyl timecode signal coming in at line-level). I know Traktor will work with the vinyl timecode signal coming in at line-level, so while I haven’t tried the exact same thing with Serato I don’t see why it shouldn’t work. The computer running Serato would still be hooked up to the SL box, the only difference would be that the timecode signal would pass through the A6 first, which shouldn’t be an issue. I suppose you might lose some volume running it through the A6, but as I said I don’t have one to test this out and prove myself wrong or right. Then again, who cares because he could always set up the soundcards in the other order anyway…?

Are you sure you didn’t have an issue when you tried this before because of signal level issues?

Also, no - do NOT use a Y-adapter because it will lower your signal output. You could potentially use maybe an amplifier in the signal chain before the Y-adapter, but that’s not the ideal solution in this situation at all. Hook up the soundcards in series.

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Thanks for the input guys. I think a friend of mine had mentioned this method sobi and keeb are talking about and called it piggy backing. I’m going to try it out tonight hopefully and let you guys know how it goes.

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A little tip.

DJ A use chan 1 & 3 and DJ B use chan 2 & 4.

Use to run that same set-up and it was just easier to switch off.

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Do you mean the channels on the DJM? I f so that’s what we do right now but we have to disconnect the turntable rca from one box and plug them into the other when switching. We do it fine it is just a pain especially in a cramped dj booth. I am just looking for an option where I don’t have dissconnect any rca’s just change timecode and mix in appropiate channel.

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oops, yes ment the channels on the DJM. Like mentioned run one box into the other. We did the Serato (SL1) box first into the Audio 6. It would be wise to get a power supply for the Serato box if you run that box first.

So turntables into the SL1 inputs then the line outs to the DJM. The SL1 thru’s into the Audio 6’s phone inputs then the line output to DJM.

Hope that helps as we used the SL1 and I’m not sure what box the Serato user has in your case.

14

Get an SL4, switch to Serato for both of you, and never have to think about anything except plugging in a USB :stuck_out_tongue:

But a switchbox, as stated above, would probably be the simplest solution for what you’re doing now.

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I see. I honestly don’t know what serato box he has but I will find out. It seems logical and like it will work. Going to try and give it a shot tomorrow. Is there any switching he will have to do on the serato box to activate the “thru” function. Sorry I’m not familiar with serato at all.

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At least with the SL3 the most you’ll have to do is activate the thru (above the platter in Serato) and it should be active by default until you tell it otherwise with the newest Serato update. I haven’t tested this without the power adapter, but I have the setup I mentioned earlier running whenever I spin at my house and never have to adjust anything except if I want to use timecode in Serato; at which point I tell Serato to look for timecode instead of just running the signal through.

You won’t have to switch anything on the Serato box for thru, but you need to make sure your levels are right - if you’re running into the A6 first then it should boost the phono signal to a line-level signal so you want your SL3 inputs set to line. If you’re running the TTs directly into the SL box first, you want your inputs set to phono. I’m not sure how this differs on the SL2/1, but you can figure it out with the manuals for those anyway. Or ask - there’s just no point in going through the manuals myself until we know what box you actually are going to be using.

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Common need… The way I do it is with the Serato SL 1 box… Plug TT’s into the Serato box. Use the ‘Thru’ outputs on the Serato Box into inputs on Audio 6/8… In T2 you will need to calibrate the decks since the signal tends to be a tad weaker than normal… I do this quite often and never have issues.