Ever be part of an event and have the crowd lose their energy inbetween DJs while you switch out controllers and thus have no music for a bit?
Here is a diagram of the set-up I use to seamlessly go from a CDJ(or TT)& Mixer set-up to a laptop&controller set-up with minimal down time.
I hope its self-explanitory but basically the master mixer allows you to make the switch with almost no downtime. Obviously it should have all the volume faders up and everything set to 0db.
yeah it would just make more sense to either have a 4 channel mixer or just plug into the channel that’s not playing on the “master mixer” than to have 2 djmixers and a controller mixer in the booth.
Most booths are cramped as it is and can barely fit a controller next to the CDJs.
Get a mixer that has a switch so you can double your input. That’s what I do with friends. Usually, we all want to mix on our setup, I’m using a CDJ/Mixer setup, my friend an s4 and the other one an s2. So we have the S4 on one side, coming into ch1 on my mixer, then the S2 coming into ch4, and I use the switch on my DJM-2000 to go from USB (I use the internal sound card) to CD on both sides when it’s their turn.
Yep! The Pioneer DJM 707 pictured in the diagram actually can have way more inputs plugged into it than you’re using.
“Session In” is an RCA input with a volume knob on the front of the mixer
Each channel has a Phono/Line input as well. This means two more inputs (make sure the switches on the back are set to line if you’re plugging in a controller!). You could have three S4s and a pair of CDJs all hooked into this mixer and be able to switch between all of them fairly easily.
Pretty much all 2 channel mixers have multiple inputs per channel as some have said, and many also have an Aux input which is perfect for connecting a controller.
ive ran clubs of a fairly large capacity and i’m sorry … nut if any dy’s had a noticeable gap with no music between sets i would royally kick off! i recently held an event wit 19 dj’s.. there was not a gap/silence all night!
man you’re lucky. I’ve seen DJs up there for 10 minutes after their set has started and they’re rebooting their POS computer still. Needless to say these djs don’t get booked again. Of course my town is full of “DJs” with mixtracks and $300 laptops though lol
man I swap out with guys all the time and we switch soundcards and it’s the same way every time including guys I’ve never played with. If the club has a 4 Channel mixer and most do (DJM 800/900) one guy is on chan 1 and 2. The next guy on 3 and 4. Then swap the RCA for the deck on playing and transition from his song to yours, then switch the RCA of the other deck to your table and keep playing. No break in music.
When using a two channel mixer one extra step in pluging your RCA into the channel mixer. You lose a few seconds of time but if you have a song already cued it should take no more than 30-45 seconds to do and start playing.
What you can also do, although it might be cheating a bit, is make a pre-mixed CD and stick that in a CDJ during the last song of the DJ before you. Mix into that CD and while it’s playing, set up your gear.
we use 2 4 channel mixers for collab jams. first mixer (mine) is the master mixer for the cdj’s and my traktor setup. master out from the second mixer goes into the second line in on channel 1 on my mixer.
