Humey Posted April 21, 2010 Share Posted April 21, 2010 Our school is having a live DJ set next week and I will be doing the live sound. For the little events like this I just use a little Mackie Desk and some powered speakers but I have never set up for a DJ before. Do I just take a feed out of the back of the DJ mixer and into a channel on the desk or into an Aux channel? any help would be appreciatted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanHerbert Posted April 21, 2010 Share Posted April 21, 2010 Certainly wouldn't be an aux as that's an output channel on your desk! You just need to take the output of their channels and if XLR put them into two channels (left and right feed) or if jack into a stereo channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkPAman Posted April 21, 2010 Share Posted April 21, 2010 I'd use two normal desk channels. Think of it as a stereo keyboard if that helps. Depending on the DJ mixer & how long cable runs are, you may need phono (RCA) to jack cables &/or DI boxes. There may be a separate output from the DJ mixer for monitors, so you may end up with four channels being used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenW2 Posted April 21, 2010 Share Posted April 21, 2010 Our school is having a live DJ set next week and I will be doing the live sound. For the little events like this I just use a little Mackie Desk and some powered speakers but I have never set up for a DJ before. Do I just take a feed out of the back of the DJ mixer and into a channel on the desk or into an Aux channel? any help would be appreciatted! We do a lot of live DJ sets. The first problem you will encounter is that no matter how many times you tell the DJs they will push the mixer. In order to get the signal into your (control) mixer at an acceptable level you will have to pad it down a bit, and the easiest way is to use a DI box. I always take DJ L&R main into a pair of DI boxs, then into L&R on my control desk. I can then pad the DJ down -20db and get an acceptable input signal. On larger systems I like to insert a compressor accross the DJ channels just to prove to them that even if they turn it up, it's not going to get any louder! I then usually take a L&R booth output into another pair of DI boxes and feed these back to the DJ monitors (on an Aux send). I can then turn these up and the DJ thinks it's loud out at FOH. In general the bigger the DJ monitors - the better! Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humey Posted April 21, 2010 Author Share Posted April 21, 2010 Thanks for all the help chaps, The mixer at the school isnt a brilliant one, a Numark DM950. Ive just been to have a look at it and basically the connections on the back are OUT L&R, CH1 Phono Inputs L&R, CH1 Line Inputs L&R, CH2 Phono Input L&R and CH2 Line Inputs L&R. Going by what you said Steven I need to go from the L&R Out>2 DI boxes>into 2 channels on my desk? Correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrummerJonny Posted April 21, 2010 Share Posted April 21, 2010 Correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humey Posted April 21, 2010 Author Share Posted April 21, 2010 Well...after all that I just spoke to the head of music and he has just told me that the school doesn't have any DI boxes. Cant say Im suprised, they had 2 mic stands when I first started 6 months ago... so...just skip the DI box part of the chain?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timtheenchanteruk Posted April 21, 2010 Share Posted April 21, 2010 depends on your luck, and distance from the DJ mixer to the proper mixer, if its short, you should be ok, if not??? is there no budget to buy/hire a couple, the little behringer stereo one isnt much, and hire would be a couple of quid?If you can set/up test with everything as it would be on the night, including lights etc you may find its ok, if theres no chance of testing I would beg/steal/borrow/hire/buy dis for the occasion, always good to have in the toolkit anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueacid Posted May 9, 2010 Share Posted May 9, 2010 Be sure and listen out for any clipping; if DJ-Clueless cranks the gain a load in a bid to get it louder, they might well drive parts of their mixer to clip. This'd still be as punishing to your speakers, so be sure and mind out for that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelgrian Posted May 9, 2010 Share Posted May 9, 2010 Be sure and listen out for any clipping; if DJ-Clueless cranks the gain a load in a bid to get it louder, they might well drive parts of their mixer to clip. This'd still be as punishing to your speakers, so be sure and mind out for that! Doesn't help the OP but the Pioneer DJM mixers have a wonderful feature which is that there is a tiny black knob on the back which governs the level of the main outputs which (thank the lord) are on balanced XLRs. The mixers also won't clip even when driven ruinously into the red. So basically the DJ can have the nice red lights flashing on the mixer while the engineer has arranged a reasonable level going into their FOH system and the DJ is none the wiser assuming you've properly racked up the mixer and the back plate is not accessible to the DJ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleah Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 Numarks unfortunately don't have much head room, so when the mixer's VU goes in to red, it will start sounding %$*£ very quickly! Setting the gain structure correctly is a must, as there isn't a huge margin for error. This also includes hovering over the DJ's fingers with something that will hurt :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolley1466 Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 Numarks unfortunately don't have much head room, so when the mixer's VU goes in to red, it will start sounding %$*£ very quickly! I had this the other day. He drove it right into the red, hello horrible crackling. If something needs to go down their end, make sure you speak up... Hiring a couple of DI boxes in London (according to your profile) shouldn't be a problem. It won't cost much at all and having a pad is a useful tool with DJs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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