Hopefully this is not the wrong section to post this question.
I am taking a serious look at this mixer and had a few questions for anyone that has spent a good amount of time with the mixer and it’s features.
I am hoping to use it for DJing as well as integrating it into my home studio so here we go…
How is the quality of the soundcard? I have read a few reviews on the mixer and although the overall sound quality of the mixer is ranked high not much is stated about the soundcard. Right now I am using an RME Multiface I and am hoping I can sell it to offset the cost of the DB4.
When recording in a DAW program, can the mixer be routed so you can play back your recorded material in one channel, play the signal you want to record in another channel but record without getting the previously recorded material. Maybe route the original recording material to output to the booth section and have the new material set to the master. I then could route both outputs to my Mackie Big Knob to hear them combined.
I have a lot of vinyl I want to start archiving to replace digital copies I have been using. Would the DB4 be a high quality converter into my DAW?
Has anyone tried it with Scratchlive? Is there a quality drop incorporating one of their boxes like the SL-3 or SL-4?
Taking the effects out of the equation, how would the mixer compare to the DJM-900 as far as sound quality? A friend of mine said the sound quality is equal but he is a diehard Pio fan.
Taking the effects out of the equation, , how would the mixer compare to the Rane Sixty Eight as far as sound quality?
Will the mixer fit in a standard 12inch mixer roadcase? Most of them accomodate up to 12.5inchesI have a bunch of cases already and really don’t want to have to spring for another one.
Thoughts on the durability of the mixer and components? Skratchworx spoke highly of the mixer but was iffy on the line faders. How do the effects buttons feel? The chrome look screams cheap to me but again it is just a design choice they made.
Is the crossfader user replaceable? Can you install an aftermarket crossfader in it?
Thanks for the help and sorry if any of this has been asked before.
The faders are very nice – I think what kev is referring to is the fact that they are smooth and light; they do not feel heavy at all, which may feel less durable, but I think these are high quality faders. They don’t lend themselves to scratching type tricks because the cut in is not extremely sharp at all, and you can’t adjust the length of the cut-in. But they will withstand rigorous use just fine.
But even scratch DJs shouldn’t be “slamming the faders” so hard they break off anyway; the goal is quick, precise cuts, not whacking it as hard as you can. But if you want precise cuts for scratching you’ll want an innofader (which A+H says the replacement is “plug and play”) or a pro-x fade. I don’t know about replacing the channel faders though.
Also I think this will sound a little better than the Rane but the Rane sounds amazing too so it’s probably only marginal difference. I noticed the difference from an Ecler (the “Rane of Spain”) but not such a huge difference that I dirtied my pants or anything.
I have a question … does anyone understand why the BPM ranges are not inclusive? Shouldn’t 90-150 be 90-180 for example? What if something is 83 or 175? The range doesn’t seem to have any effect on how well the mixer detects BPM but still, that’s kind of strange.
No, it detects fine; I’m just not sure what’s the point of setting the range is at all under the circumstances since it doesn’t seem to change how it detects.
This is very similar to the beat detection in Scratchlive. I think it may the way to deal with songs in higher or lower BPMs. Say you are doing a set where songs are in the 180BPM range (there is a lot of rock music in this area), you wouldn’t want it detecting at 90BPM. Also say you have a song in the 65 BPM range. You may not want it to show as 130BPM.
I did have another question that hopefully someone can answer. Can you route the output of the DB4 to a program (Ableton for example) to use a VST and then have it routed back in. There doesn’t seem to be a dedicated send and return in the hardware but is it possible to do through USB?
Maybe I’m not exactly getting my head around it but it seems that only works if you have one of the numbers in the range. But if you detect 90-150 and the song is 83 (166) it’s out of range on both ends. What you’re saying is a good reason to go 90-179 if you want the song to show up as 166, and 70-139 if you’d rather it show up as 83. But with 90-150 neither of those numbers shows up.
you might try aggregating with Jack or something; maybe eventually I’ll figure out how to do this myself. It actually is kind of a drawback to me that there are only 8 channels on the soundcard; it’s nice to have some extra channels to do stuff like this. And no send/return is another complaint I have, but of course why would you need to send/return with such amazing effects on board. Still, with VSTs you could add a lot of effects that aren’t covered on the hardware. I find myself still wanting to use the beatmasher and gater from Traktor for example; it would be amazing to have access to those effects with vinyl (it’s possible using audio through in traktor but I havent even turned my computer on most of the time I’ve used the mixer so far). It would be great if they add similar effects in future firmware (is there a feature requests page?) but I don’t know if those things fit easily into the six categories they’ve committed to.
Beatmasher would go under dmg I presume, loop roll on the db4 is pretty much a beatmasher in chained mode completely wet which is how I used to use the beatmasher in traktor.
S/R would be nice but like you said isn’t much you need it for.
He was saying he wanted to route the output out of the db4, into ableton, then back to the db4 creating a send/return loop. Not sure if you can do this.
If you just want a 5th channel you can hook up a soundcard and run it to the mic in, this is how Dubfire routes Maschine with Traktor (not sure if he uses two laptops or aggregates). This will be real easy when the K2 comes out since you will have your extra sound card right there, and if you own a DB4 you would be crazy not to buy a K2 if you use a laptop.
Maybe, I haven’t really messed with the soundcard inputs yet or have any idea how they work but that sounds possible. Maybe something with the record out, this is a little beyond me.
posting this here from the other thread- I just sent off this request to A&H for a firmware update that would make the DB4 a rotary mixer using the D/W knobs:
[quote]I just got my DB4 and love it and sitting here I realize there is potential to easily turn the DB4 into a rotary mixer with a firmware update. All you would have to do is swap the D/W knob and the volume fader on each channel so the linear fader becomes D/W and the big chunky knob becomes volume. This is absolutely perfect since it is the same knob as the 92R and S2 and is in the correct location, everything would stay the same except D/W would now be on the linear fader and volume would be on the rotary knob.
Seems pretty simple and it is laid out perfectly so that you could actually have a rotary mixer with a firmware update, that is absolutely huge and looking at it now seems like you almost planned it that way. You could switch between rotary mixer and linear mixer with a press of a button! The DB4 is revolutionary as it is, it would take it to the next level if you made it the only mixer ever to be able to toggle between rotary mixer and linear mixer mode.[/quote]
