mspinky.com

hello all,
just finished doing a sound check at a large (larger than usual) venue, and I experienced some unusual problems with my set-up.

when at home, or playing-out in a typical situation, I have the sig. thresh and cutoff set to specific numbers (since i always use my decks), and they always seem to work fine: smooth playback, and video sync etc.

today, I was experiencing the audio skipping during playback (the file not the needle) and even when the needle was off the record, the tracking numbers were flicking all over the place, causing the audio to blip in and out etc. I tried adjusting the thresh. and cutoff, but couldn't solve the issue. . .

I just read over chad carrier's article you posted. is this a case of what he calls bad audio isolation? i am i right in assuming that the problem with the tracking is being caused by external noise making its way into my computer? this is a large stage, and with a louder soundsystem than i'm used to . . . if this is the case, how can i solve this problem?

any and all suggestions would be appreciated . . .

This is a problem due to low-frequency vibrations from the soundsystem (probably the bass bins) vibrating the turntable, and entering the system as interference through the phono cartridge pickup. The best way to solve this issue is to isolate the turntables from the bass frequency vibration as much as possible.

There are several products on the market to help isolate turntables from bass frequency vibrations. Here's one:

http://www.djdeals.com/sefourISOLATIONPLATFORM.htm

and another

http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=GINIPC10

Also worth checking out is this inflatable turntable platform:

http://www.storedj.com.au/products/product.php?id=647

Or you may be able to jerry-rig something of your own....

yes, thanks. . .
this is what i assumed was happening.

before my set, I put my decks back into their flight cases (which have some padding) and continued to adjust the thresh/ cut off . . . this seemed to solve the problem.

thanks for the suggestions.