Does SSL have a phase meter?
Quick question, as I cant be bothered searching through manuals or downloading SSL just to see.
Does SSL have a Traktor Style phase meter (or equivalent) which tells you how far in/out of sync your tracks are?
Cheers
If you just looked at the Serato screen at Google Images.. you could see that it uses huge waveforms and a smaller grid in the middle to match beats.
Using your analogy, I couldn’t be bothered to explain this further.. But hey, just keep putting in that little extra effort to achieve things! 
Yes. And, it’s based on detected transients, not beat grids, so once you get used to it (and combined with headphones), it’s just as accurate with zero effort.
Thanks guys!
I’m suposed to be playing tonight, on a mate’s SSL set-up. As I’m a Traktor fanboy, I have absolutly zero SSL experience, and a phase meter is a nice comfort blanket if things go wrong! (I’ve heard that the venue’s acoustics make it hard to beatmatch)
Haha, thanks Audeo!
You’ll have to do it by ear at first. I suggest practicing only in headphones for a bit…the S4 is perfectly capable of that.
The transient detection is a bit weird…it shows a lot of what’s going on, so if the drum hits aren’t perfectly clean (i.e., coinciding with bass notes or basically anything with a sharp attack) the transient looks wider than it should. But that just means you have to pay attention to what you’re doing and learn how it shows things. It’s not bad at all once you get used to it.
But, it is possible to beat match SSL without headphones if you’re used to the way it shows transients. And it’s at least as accurate as vinyl is, so……whatever.
Also, you’ll probably like one of the horizontal views better than the default if you’re coming from traktor. There are butons to change it…I think in the top left hand corner. IDK, I just set the one I liked and never bothered changing. If it’s distracting and you want to go back to doing everything by ear, there’s a setting that only shows overview waveforms…kinda like the Micro view on Traktor.
Cheers Mostapha
I agree with you on doing it by ear, but I’ve been told the venue has some bad acoustics around the booth, and I’m mixing funk, not the usual house. If it was House, I’d have no problems, but the beats don’t stand out as much in the funk I own.
Ahh well, I’ll let you know how it goes - worst comes to worst I can always mix in the breakdown.
Thanks!
Good luck.
Also, learn how to mix in IEMs. Then, even if you don’t prefer it, if you’ve got them with you, you don’t have to worry about monitors/acoustics as much.
Thanks for your help guys, it’s appreciated.
Gig went well, turns out I was playing on my mate’s NS6 running Itch. Not what I expected, as I was trying to get used to Itch and the NS6 whilst playing a set!
Oh, weird. At least it went well.
Am I the only one that uses cue combined to hear both tracks through the cans? It makes relying on venue acoustics not an issue I’ve mixed like this for so long I can’t even begin to tell ya how nice it is
It’s just my style/what I’m used to. I’ll bring the mix in with cans on, then knock them off and listen to the main mix as I finish bringing in the new track.
I still find split-cue wierd, and fiddling with a knob halfway through a mix whist keeping my cans on is just not what I’m used to.
Ahh well, something to learn right?
I do.
I hear ya on knobb twisting really wishing wasn’t in awkward spot on the ns6. I really wish itch wasn’t so closed would make me happy.
Yeah, that’s why I’m a Traktor fanboy. Unfortunatly the cue/mix knob is in the same spot on the S4, hence my habit of taking off my headphones halfway through the mix.
Sonically, it’s not that great of a mixer…it’s fine, just a little noisy. Also, mine is newer and it traded the ears for XLR outs…I’d prefer to have both. But the cuing system is why I bought it. I can mix in earbuds if I have to, and it takes basically no thought at this point.
I own one of these, and love it. But how dead is your crossfader? My new one died in like two weeks, and that is with virtually NO scratching to it. But the individual leds rock. And +1 for cuing/mixing in the headphones; I always use the cue/master knob as a sort of “pre-crossfader” to make sure my mix is correct before bringing it in live.
My crossfader came useless. There’s no way to close it on either side. It sounds like somebody did a scrape mod and screwed it up.
I’d care if I ever scratched, and I would have bought an innofader and made it work if I did.
same here. i take my cans off when i can fully hear the track that i brought in on the PA.
Something that I’ve gotten used to, and realize isn’t the norm, is having the fader for the split cueing. Most other mixers I’ve used have had the knob, but I’ve actually started to like having the fader. Yeah I have to switch it around all the time, but it’s a solid method.
Also having the button for the mix/master is really nice. Hit that quick (esp if I’m mixing late at night and am basically just using the headphones since I have to be quiet) and I can hear what’s coming out of the speakers without having to mess with the fader. Also was a life-saver when I was spinning at this last house-party and didn’t have a monitor setup, and needed to hear the main mix in the headphones to make sure things were coming out correctly.
I don’t really understand how you can’t get by without split cue. Maybe it’s just me.
Without split cue? It’s easy. Split cue always confused me for some reason…way harder than one ear on with monitors…there’s a little bleed from the monitors into the headphones that makes things easier…or you can do it if you have a blend knob.
I guess I just like hearing some measure of both in my headphones.