lol…that’s a really funny phrase.
Yeah, I wasn’t quite sure how to parse it properly 
Squash your balls in half.
How’s that? 
About to purchase a set of Technic 1200 MK2’s and I have a few more questions. I have a Denon Mc6000 which can also be used as an external mixer. I’m also going to have a Traktor Audio 4 soundcard. Is there a way to set up the timecode so that i can still scroll through my songs, trigger cue points, and basically send midi like normal, but use the controller as a mixer for the Turntables? What kind of cable setup would i be looking at if that’s possible?
What purpose does the LED on the turntable serve? Just looks or is it to notice which table is moving faster more easily when side by side?
No extra cables at all. Plug the 1200s into your audio 4 inputs. Set Traktor’s mixing mode to “Internal”. Set the deck modes to “Vinyl Control” and away you go. In this setup, your cueing and master outputs would come from the Audio 4, and you would only use the MC-6000 for a USB midi controller. I do this with a VCI-100 instead of an MC-6000 and it works splendidly. I always say my VCI is really a mixer with an X1 built in.
There are 2 lights.
The one next to the power knob flashes at a specific speed that makes the dots on the side of the plater appear to be still at specific speeds…which you can use to calibrate the pitch fader. That’s also what that 0, +3, -3, +6 thing is on the side…it tells you which dots should be still at which speeds. (or whatever they actually say…they’re there so people don’t have to remember)
The more important one is the popup light, which shines a hard cross light at the grooves on the record and lets you read the grooves in the dark.
Yeah…those awesome waveforms that Traktor has………vinyl gives almost as much information just based on the nature of the medium. An LED target light is brighter, more directional, and prettier than then normal, crappy tungsten bulbs that came in the originals.
Oh, well 3. The pitch reset light doesn’t count. It’s mostly used to tell whether not a DJ is cheating.
So I don’t plug anything into my MC6000? I thought i would’ve had to plug the turntables into the controller, and the audio 4 into the controller with the denon then plugged into my comp. Also, I only have 2 usb 2.0 ports…am I gunna need a usb hub of any sort?
It all depends on how you want to wire your output matrix, and whether or not you want to mix internally; forgive me, as I forgot your MC-6000 can also be an actual audio mixer, so there is two potential scenarios:
OPTION ONE:
Set Traktor to INTERNAL mode, your audio 4 as follows:
Channel A Input:Turntable one
Channel B Input: Turntable two
Channel A output: Master output
Channel B output: Headphone (Cuing) output
OPTION TWO
Set Traktor to EXTERNAL mode, and wire your audio 4 as follows:
Channel A Input:Turntable one
Channel B Input: Turntable two
Channel A Output: Turntable one
Channel B Output: Turntable two
Set your MC6000 to audio input mode (or mixer mode, or whatever it’s called).
Run Channel A into line one, channel B into line two.
That should do it.
Seems like option one would be the most logical way to do things, yeah? Is there any advantage to mixing externally with my controller?
An easier way to play real vinyl if you have the right cables and the MC has line/phono switches and a way to incorporate 2 more channels of audio sources from something other than traktor. Plus any features the mc6k has that traktor’s internal mixer doesn’t.
Keep in mind that you’ll be going down To 2 channels wit this setup. Traktor can’t use 2 sound cards and vinyl control only works with an NI interface or scratch certified mixer. So if you want to run more than 2 decks from the software (including sample decks) you can’t do it with an audio 4 unless it’s in internal mode.
Well, you eliminate Traktor’s crappy internal mixer from the signal chain, and because you aren’t running the internal mixer, I think you’d free up some CPU power.
@Mostapha:
How do you make an Audio 4 work with more than 2 channels? Isn’t that why they invented the Audio 8? (Please keep in mind that I’m on Traktor Pro; I think I remember something about Pro 2 being able to “stack” audio channels (combining more than one deck onto the same sound output.)
Sure, it’ll only input and output two discrete channel pairs and your concern is valid for external mixing (tp2 “stacking” aside) - if you want to output 4 channel pairs to an external mixer, you do need an A8 (and TS Pro, not Duo).
However with internal mixing, as you’ve pointed out, you only need one output pair for Traktor’s master out, and then control individual EQs and channel faders with mouse/keyboard/controllers.
The catch is that it doesn’t matter how many actual outputs you have vs. the number of internal decks - if you’re on pro, you’ll have all 4 channels and/or sample decks going through that master channel whether you have an Audio2 or or Audio10.
Since we’re talking about an A4, you can still use the two inputs for timecode and assign them to whichever decks you fancy. This applies to Traktor Scratch Pro too (I’m quite sure I messed about with this last year in combination with the midi mode on my then DDM 4000)
Traktor’s internal mixer is not crappy. It sounds damn good to my ears, beter than almost any DJ mixer I’ve actually laid my hands on.
I have my issues with it, most notably the fact that the vast majority of controllers still feel like toys to me and that it’s metering is essentially useless.
But sound quality is not a complaint.
And switching to external just bypasses the summing bus, which is about the least complicated and most transparent thing Traktor does. It’s still going through the f’d up gain stages, the EQs, the filters, and whatever else they’ve got going on under the hood.
Sound quality and CPU are about the last reasons to go external, since it’s essentially irrelevant.
I’ve gotta admit Mostapha, I too have never had a problem with the internal mixer in Traktor, but I have heard alot of people on here hating on it.
They probably haven’t figured out that 0dB on the master volume leads to clipping or relying on the limiter.
I’ll agree that the limiter sounds like garbage…but it’s only there so idiots sound marginally better than they would without it. If you have a clue what you’re doing, there’s no reason to use it.
I still prefer external mixers (very much so). But it’s an ergonomic and workflow decision…not sound quality.
I still prefer external mixers (very much so). But it’s an ergonomic and workflow decision…not sound quality.[/QUOTE]
It’s funny that exact statement is what keeps me using my VCI-100 as a mixer; I just don’t think I could integrate the controls I need into one controller any better…
Horses for courses. The VCI-100 is completely incapable of doing anything I want.
Price I paid for my 1200mkII’s was $500 for the pair both in emaculate condition.
Congrats on those. Enjoy them! 