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Follow the same process above aiming to hit the first or second orange light on the bass notes. If you are looking for some solid speakers you can check out our guide to the best 10-inch powered speakers. The last step is to alter the gain on your sound system or speakers. Once again pay attention to the level meter to ensure you don’t hit the red.
#How good is platinum notes full
Next, raise your channel faders to full or close to full if you want to leave yourself some space for creative volume changes mid-set. Don’t push this too far as you don’t want to get into the red. Do this until you’re hitting all green bars and on the bass notes going into the orange. Start playing a track and begin raising that specific channel’s gain knob. Generally represented by an infinity sign. The first step is to set all the Gain stages to their lowest setting. This is the area where clipping can occur.
Your main goal is to ensure you’re not hitting the red. The orange is usually peaked by more aggressive elements like big bass. The peak of the green section usually represents the base level. These are usually found on your DJ equipment or in your software. The most important component of setting up your Gain structure is to pay attention to the level meters.
The last gain stage is the volume control on your actual sound system. There is also a main gain knob for the entire mixer.
These also alter the volume of that channel.
Underneath the EQ there will be channel faders. This knob alters the sound for that particular channel. Each channel on your DJ gear will have a gain knob usually located above the Low/Mid/High EQ. These are the elements that you’ll use to set up your Gain Structure. There are four main Gain Stages on any DJ setup. This process will ensure you don’t experience clipping and also leave yourself some headroom for your mixes. Setting all the levels in the right way is known as Gain Structure. It will also make sure your DJ speaker system will last you for years to come. It’s important to make sure all sound inputs are metered to prevent clipping and keep your mixes sounding great. This can also impact headphones as well and will quickly turn good DJ headphones into useless garbage. The last thing you want is for your brand new speakers to be blown buy excessive redline distortion. Cheap studio monitors will quickly blow as will even the best studio monitors. This can cause damage to your sound system. When your sound is getting clipped it is placing too much pressure on your sound system. There is another negative to having your sound clipped. This will ensure that the natural analog hum or hiss is washed out by appropriately loud enough sound. It’s best to run the analog signal as close to the line as possible without clipping to minimize the impact of natural analog distortion. All analog circuits will build up some form of natural distortion. The most common type of distortion you will encounter will be a hiss or hum. As a result, these frequencies are ‘clipped’ out. Anything beyond those limits is signal that the sound system cannot handle. If the sound is over-amplified the sine wave exceeds these limits. This range is the capacity of your sound system. In the image below you can see the lowest and highest points. When it comes to sound signals its best to visualize it. It allows you to maximize volume while not introducing distortion or clipping. The problem is that even the best gear in the world has a limit to how much it can handle.īy setting up your gain staging you ensure that you are getting the most out of your gear. They amplify the signal to make it louder. These signals have a limit to how loud they can go. The corresponding volume of these signals is determined by the AC voltage of the signal. All sound coming from your equipment is converted into electronic signals. Sound theory is a deep subject so I’ll try to keep this as straightforward as possible. In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know about setting up your gain staging and why it’s important. This can often lead to clipping or redlining as it’s called. One common pitfall of new DJs is the sound level of their sets. In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know about setting up your gain staging and why it’s important.Įffectively setting up your gain staging will give you the best results from your gear. Effectively setting up your gain staging, also commonly referred to as gain structure, will give you the best results from your gear. While these skills are important there is one issue that every beginner DJ needs to be aware of. You may think that the most important part of becoming a DJ is the technical skills involved in mixing one track into the next.