X1800 mixer connected with digital outputs. Playing a track out through the master with trim set to just be ticking in the 1st white. When I go to bring another track in the VU meter on the track playing out is riding to nearly the 1st Blue (redlining)
is there a setting I’m missing somewhere or is something wrong with my mixer?
Go into the Utility settings and bring the master and booth unities down by 10dB from max. Put the master volume knob at max. Otherwise, you have to put their knobs at “0”, and you risk DJs cranking that up later.
Trim your channels so that they bounce over the 0dBVu mark on peaks and troughs below about evenly. Stay out of the blue. The first blue is the emergency, unintentional headroom. The second blue is potentially clipping or limiting… depending on your limiter setting… I recommend having limiter off except in the studio if you really want it. Keep limiter off for live use.
One channel put all the way up on the fader with crossfader disabled should produce the same level on the master out this way.
Two tracks will sum to obviously be louder than one if both faders are all the way up to their unities (max on their faders).
Only for when visiting DJs are in. This is the bad thing normally.
No point in ever going over unity.
Why? I never go over unity (my mixer requires my to take it apart to set a jumper to get more than 0dB)
I never run over unity… issue is when I mix in a new track and cut the highs on the playing track the VU meter on the track that was already playing out seems to climb. pretty sure the limiter is off… will double check everything as you stated above, but it just seems like when bringing in a new track for whatever reason the existing track that’s already playing’s gain is increasing.
I’m able to work around it, but I have to play with the trims excessively it seems. I only use these units at home in my studio and for streaming . so never run them hard… my peak channel is normally 1 white.
Huh? You mean the master meter goes up with two tracks playing out too loud or the channel meter of the first track? Because if it’s the latter, there’s something wrong with your unit.
The individual Channel level VU meter will increase… This mixer (at least mine) is very sensitive and hard to balance trim levels. I can perform an instant double with both trim pots at 12 o’clock and it yields 2 different results. and I can cut the highs out of the playing track while bringing the new track in and that channels VU meter increases. very strange
I can confirm similar behaviour as well.
When i cut the Low EQ on a channel, that channel LED starts tapping into the BLUE, if i’m gain staged on the white LEDs.
Using @Reticuli method of averaging on the 0 level on the channel led meter, with a dynamic track High +6 Trough -4 (Though it dips below this sometimes).
Is the ISO EQ introducing some resonance into the channel?
DuBoi seems to be saying one channel’s trim-gain knobs and tone controls seems to be affecting the other channel’s metering. That sounds like either a hardware defect or a firmware bug. I’ll have to see if that happens at all on mine.
In your case, Mufasa, if iso is on and the tone knobs for that channel are tweaked at all, then the iso is in the process path and you get a fixed amount of phase distortion or ‘group delay’ that can produce a difference in level beyond the EQ. X1800 bypasses the iso for a channel when its tone knobs are all centered, though. On the DB4 they seem to have went all in for coloration and might not have even tried to get the delays aligned at the corner frequencies… like with Butterworth or Bessel instead so they get less overall distortion, but more pleasing coloration and does even weirder things… especially at the joins. I think everything’s more aligned at the corner frequencies on the X1800 but less lush than DB4 in iso.
Anyway, the DB4 does a significant boost that shows in metering when in iso mode… way more than you’re going to see from the X1800 isos that I’ve noticed. I suspect you’re just seeing probably the sensitivity around the 12 o’clock on the X1800. Mine seem pretty close on both X1800s, but I think I’ve noticed a little touch of difference in the pot alignment. Nothing big. Don’t forget to use your eyes and ears and don’t just stick the trim-gains at some spot and never touch them.
I’m very fond of the trim-gain range and sensitivity on the Denon mixers, old and new. I find the Xone, Mackie, and Rane trim-gains way more problematic. Probably the only thing some of you might like on them is the unity detents on the trim-gains of the Xones and Mackies, but I think those detents largely useless. The MP2015 trim-gains are currently way out of whack in their latest firmware.