having trouble using the pinky vynil and binky toy! ! !

[samwould]

i'm using the binkytoy with my g4 powerbook.

when i record audio from my turntables and then try and play it back through my pinky vynil.

the track plays much fatser than the original speed and a few minutes into the tune and the track stops playing,sometimes to star again near the end.

also wheb i try to use pitch lock at different speeds i get a doublebeat effect.

what could this be due to???

is it because i am using a maya 44 soundcard with usb which is to slow?even though i'm running my mac on panther

is it becaus i am recoeding the audio with th binkytoy on non instead of absolute or ............

[dlpinkstah]

First of all, I would highly recommend that you upgrade your PowerBook to Tiger OSX 10.4.2. Second, get rid of your Maya 44 USB. Sell it on eBay or whatever. Buy a U46DJ soundcard because it accepts direct turntable connections and is much better in terms of quality. If you do both of these things you'll get much better results with Ms Pinky in general.

[samwould]

hi,i'm looking to buy the new soundcard as mentioned but i don't see why on the mspinky web site it recomended the maya 44 up to a week ago and now it doesn't work....

is there something i'm doing wrong???

why is the U46DJ so much beter than the maya 44,apart from not having to buy the pre amps thing that i have allready done.

could you please help me get my set up working until i upgrade my system.cheers

[dlpinkstah]

Yes, the Maya 44 will work with BinkyToy under OSX 10.3.9. I've tested it many times. The reason I've removed it from the list of recommended audio converters to use with Ms Pinky is because fortunately there is now something much better on the market. And by the way-- I also don't recommend to anyone that they go back to using OS 9 on a MacIntosh. When there is progress in the market we try to follow it. The Maya 44 USB is actually going to be discontinued by Audiotrak. So I'm no longer recommending it to anyone. End of story.



Now-- since you already have it, I can tell you that I have one myself and I know how to make it work and if you'll ask me very nicely I just might help you. But first I need a more complete and accurate description of your total system than the few words you've written here. As I've said many times before to many users-- I am not a psychic. You have to spell it out to me exactly the characteristics of your system. So you must say which model computer, how much RAM, how fast CPU, which audio converter you're using, which DJ mixer, and most importantly exactly how each component is connected to the others. If you can't do that then there's no way I can help you to get it working.



Here are a few helpful hints for getting it to work with the Maya 44:



The first thing to do when using the Maya 44 USB with Ms Pinky is to MUTE the Monitor channels 1-4. To do this open up the "Maya 44 Control Panel" application and check the "Mute" boxes under Monitor -- In 1+2, and In 3+4. Muting these monitor channels prevents the Ms Pinky vinyl control signal from bleeding through to your outputs.



The next thing to check in your setup is the input levels of the Maya 44, which by default are set way too hot, thus causing the input signal from the vinyl to be distorted and unrecognizable to the vinyl tracking algorithms. To set the input levels appropriately, open the "Maya44 Control Panel" application and put a normal music record on your turntable and play it through your system (using, for example, the "audio thru" option in the Maxi-Patch audio file players, or by turning Vinyl Demod Off in BinkyToy). Adjust the input levels in the Maya 44 Control Panel until the music from the vinyl record playing through your system sounds "normal", i.e. not too loud, not distorted, and not too soft. If you're unable to achieve settings which will make the music playing through the system sound "right", then there's some other signal quality problem with your setup (a dirty or worn-out needle, a bad connection somewhere, an ungrounded turntable, etc. etc...)



BinkyToy definitely does do very accurate absolute position cueing. Probably the reason in wouldn't work for you when you tried is because of your input levels on the Maya being set too hot. Just bring those levels down some to get rid of the overdrive distortion and the absolute position cueing should work great.



Another thing to check is: Which application did you use to un-zip the software archive that you downloaded? If you used Stuffit Expander, that could be causing the component files of the app to be getting horribly screwed up. PLEASE NEVER USE STUFFIT EXPANDER on anything you download from MsPinky. Please always use the built-in OSX unzip utility instead.

[samwould]

ello pinksta,

thanx for the tips and sorry for lack of info on my part,

i tried doing what you suggested but still hade some problems.



so i am using a



Machine Model: PowerBook G4 12"

CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.1)

CPU Speed: 1.33 GHz

L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB

Memory: 256 MB

Bus Speed: 167 MHz

Boot ROM Version: 4.8.3f1



Maya 44

Rolls vp29 preamp

numark dmx 100 mixer



Ok and the set up goes a little bit like this: the phono jacks of the record deck go in the input of a rolls vp29.the output of which is connected to input 1-2 of my maya 44,then connected to my powerbook via usb.

The output 1-2 of the maya 44 then is connected to line 1 on the mixer.



My settings are:



2. Audio I/O Settings:

- Core Audio ON

- Input device group 1: Maya44 USB

- input source: In 1-2

- output destination: Out 1-2

- Input device group 2: Maya44 USB

- input source: in 1-2

- output destination: Out 1-2

- Buffer size 64



Vinyl Demod settings:

- Group 1: Relative

- cutoff 121

- cut -60

- thresh -44.94

- sharpness 1.085

- Group 2: Relative

- cutoff 121

- cut -60

- thresh -44.94

- sharpness 1.085



3. Maya44 Control Panel settings:

-Monitor:

- In 1-2 MUTE

- In 3-4 MUTE

-Input:

- ~6% (Gang)

-Output:

- ~5% (Gang)



I know i should set the input devise group 2 to none but doing so nothing comes through he first input device either.



so here are a few of my problems:



-when the track in the group 1 files is played back just by playing play the tune playes at normal pitch,when pinky vinyl is used,the pitch changes considerably.



-When i use pitch lock the tune playes with a doble beat as with a bad mix



-when i play a track through pinky vinyl,the tune interupts and sometimes restarts further on in the tune,this doesn't seem to happen without the pinky vinyl



-when playing a normal record with binky toy with the vinyl demod groupn 1 off and turn off the off the group 2 off too,no sound comes out .is that natural ??



-Even playing with the maya 44 control panel, with the laptop volume at max level,global volume on the pinky toy at 100%,the sound coming out to the mixer is considerably lower than that of the other deck going sraight in to the mixer. ??????????



so i've talked to a couple of friends whom tend to think that the base to my problems is due to lack of RAM.....??????

so if you can chuck us a few tips i'd really appreciate it.



thanx again sam

[dlpinkstah]

Thanks for fleshing out your system description. That's a good start. The next thing I would recommend that you do is to download and study the BinkyToy HTML User's Guide. You can access it from the downloads page. Once you've downloaded it open "index.html" in your browser.



I've gone to the trouble of writing that little document so that you can understand the internal mixing going on in BinkyToy. Please read it first before doing anything else. It will shed a lot of light on the problems you're having.

Ok and the set up goes a little bit like this: the phono jacks of the record deck go in the input of a rolls vp29.the output of which is connected to input 1-2 of my maya 44,then connected to my powerbook via usb.

The output 1-2 of the maya 44 then is connected to line 1 on the mixer.



My settings are:



2. Audio I/O Settings:

- Core Audio ON

- Input device group 1: Maya44 USB

- input source: In 1-2

- output destination: Out 1-2

- Input device group 2: Maya44 USB

- input source: in 1-2

- output destination: Out 1-2

- Buffer size 64



Vinyl Demod settings:

- Group 1: Relative

- cutoff 121

- cut -60

- thresh -44.94

- sharpness 1.085

- Group 2: Relative

- cutoff 121

- cut -60

- thresh -44.94

- sharpness 1.085



3. Maya44 Control Panel settings:

-Monitor:

- In 1-2 MUTE

- In 3-4 MUTE

-Input:

- ~6% (Gang)

-Output:

- ~5% (Gang)



I know i should set the input devise group 2 to none but doing so nothing comes through he first input device either.



so here are a few of my problems:



-when the track in the group 1 files is played back just by playing play the tune playes at normal pitch,when pinky vinyl is used,the pitch changes considerably.

OK, which side of the Ms Pinky vinyl are you using? I ask because actually the "A" side of both Gen3 and Gen2 vinyl is cut at 33-1/3 while the "B" side is cut at 45. So to get the proper pitch you'll need to adjust your decks to play at 33 and 45 respectively depending on which side of the vinyl you're using.



Secondly- you've only told me above that you've set "Vinyl Demod" for Groups 1&2 to "relative". If you had read the User's Guide (hint hint...) you'd know that that is only part of the equation. The choices available in the "Vinyl Demod" menus for Groups1 & 2 correspond to the different generations (versions) of Ms Pinky vinyl currently in circulation. I'm assuming you have 3rd generation vinyl. In that case, you must choose "MP-3: Relative" to get proper relative-mode tracking in BinkyToy. You will also want to try "MP-3: Absolute" when you're ready to get going with absolute mode tracking (the really fun stuff...).

-When i use pitch lock the tune playes with a doble beat as with a bad mix

Well that's an artifact of the current pitch-lock algorithm... admittedly not the best.. but we're working on it... If you really find it objectionable then don't use it for now.

-when i play a track through pinky vinyl,the tune interupts and sometimes restarts further on in the tune,this doesn't seem to happen without the pinky vinyl

This I believe is again caused by you're having the input level settings too high in the Maya 44 Control Panel. Lower them considerably and I think this will stop happening.

-when playing a normal record with binky toy with the vinyl demod groupn 1 off and turn off the off the group 2 off too,no sound comes out .is that natural ??

Again you obviously have not studied the Users Guide. The answer as to why this is so will be left as an excercise to the reader. A hint-- you have to set levels appropriately under "Group1,2 In" and also on the global mix settings (upper right corner of main window).

-Even playing with the maya 44 control panel, with the laptop volume at max level,global volume on the pinky toy at 100%,the sound coming out to the mixer is considerably lower than that of the other deck going sraight in to the mixer. ??????????

See answer to previous question.

so i've talked to a couple of friends whom tend to think that the base to my problems is due to lack of RAM.....??????

256 MBytes of RAM is a little too low to make OSX really happy. But the real cause of your problems is that you need to do your homework, Sam, and Ms Pinky will be much easier for you to get along with.... capiche?



peace, out-



DLP