Soundcard settings for DJ performance
Bit of a noob type question here im afraid, just want to fully understand my gear just incase…
got a gig tonight and its the first time i’ll be playing out on a digital set up, question is what is the recommended settings in terms of latency etc to avoid audio drop outs and grainy/distorted sound.
Im running windows 7, Traktor pro, ESI maya44 and mixing externally through club mixer controlling TP with a Kontrol X1
basically, plug in your soundcard and route it as close as possible to the way you’ll be using it tonight then play tracks on as many decks as you’re likely to use simultaneously and maybe activate keylock, shift the pitch a bit, use some effects etc so that you’re testing your soundcard and your CPU.
Start with the latency as low as it will go and see if you have any glitches or dropouts. If not then great, you can probably use a super low latency like 5ms.
If (more likely) not, slowly increase the latency in small increments until the dropouts stop, and then maybe give yourself a small buffer of 2 or 3 ms above the point where they occur. Ideally you don’t want to go much over 10ms.
In terms of sample rate, 44,100 is plenty and many would argue that even that is excessive, but that’s what I use.
excellent cheers, i’ll give that a bash then… based on what i’ve been doing lately i should be able to get away with around 6>8ms but just wanted to make sure this is normal