if you ain't redlining, you ain't headlining haha

Definitely! This is one of the most common issue of DJs today, they think that volume is what makes people dance :/

Finally a Dj who knows that going to the red first decrease the quality of the songs like hell and just kill the listeners ears (in clubs)!!

This happens because DJs don't have an access to amplifiers in club and can't adjust levels there. Instead we go red on mixer so music is loud enough in club. It sounds stupid but that's the reality

You should be in the orange. 0db on Pioneer mixers is actually -4db so you should be 3/4 orange LEDs. Same on the master.

I've just recently (about a year ago) started playing out in clubs, and since I usually produce & record in studio, the levels are always the first thing I check. Most small bars/clubs/venues might not have a designated sound guy available, but all places I've been in has their own little mixer behind the bar or in a side room which can be adjusted before the gig starts. Constantly keeping track of the trim/gain knobs is essential, especially if you play on vinyl, since the gain can vary a lot between records with different RPM.

Excellant fundamentals. Clear explanation and to the point

It's amazing how many dj's you see with their levels in the red. Surely they should know it just distorts the sound. Think of the vu meters as traffic lights...red means stop people!

I'm a beginner dj, the reason why djs play in the red doesn't have anything to do with access to amplifiers. That is totally false. Most djs doesn't have a clue about normalizing, distortion, decibels, and recording and playing of a song on a source. I've been making cds for thirty years and the songs are balanced(i.e both channels are hitting the same decibels simultaneously and not in the red). It doesn't matter how loud the volume is turned up, my cds never distorts, both songs are reading in the green. I applied the same technique in setting up my mixer etc. Just my two cents. Thanks.

I've been focusing more on proper gain setting recently because my sound quality has been so bad recently. I did an event yesterday, and I kept everything in the green, no clipping. I was hovering around 100 dbs for the night. It was around 150 guests I would say. I still think the volume level was a bit low. When playing the track in Serato, it usually goes into a bit of yellow. I trimmed them down to stay in green, track by track at the loudest part of the track. Should I be going into a little bit of the yellow? Should I just get more speakers? I pushed only one sub by the way. Equipment: DDJ-SZ, 2 X SRX815SP tops, 1 X Mackie SRM1850 sub I connect my speakers to master out, but I connected my sub to the booth out to give me more control there. Speakers were set to Main. I didn't have any issues with the limits at the speakers.

When the red channel light is flashing when the channel-trim is on zero it means that the tracks is bad quality. Yellow is no clipping. It's good to tell people to be in the green but there is so much more behind that topic. I'm an electrical engineer and always when I watch such videos I get a little bit angry because of the wrong things which where told (not particullarly in this video). If you want to see what is going on in the mixer watch videos where guys meassure the levels with oscilloscopes. After that you now exactly what clipping mean and when it happens.

thank you....wish i watched this like 2 years ago lol

and just to add I would not set gains to 0db I would set it just below in order to compinsate for effects

Thank you bro

What's the name of the song playing?

When having ~0db output on on master, the audio interface which records (over XLR) seems to clip. Does that mean that my mixer output is loud, and that I should turn it down even further, or is something else going on?

really helpful video! tyty

If a dj is clipping that bad they should look into getting better music files.... mp3 are out dated...

Pioneer DJM900Nexus

Wrong. The dBVu scale on the side is to bounce around symetrically to gauge average volume or "loudness". The distance between the meter zero and the lit peaks is a rough gauge of the varying crest factor of the songs, which will all be slightly different. Don't forget to use your ears. Your most dynamic tracks will need to use that top yellow, while your most compressed or cluttered tracks will just barely go past the zero. If you do this, you will never go into the red. This is the intention of these meters. If you go up to the meter zero on every song, your tracks will not sound consistent volume and you will never get optimal S/N ratio.

amen!

what mixer do you use?

A lot of dj's make this mistake...

looks like a DJM-950 Nexus

Reason why DJs play in red is because we don't have as access to amplifiers in club and can't adjust levels there. Instead we go red on mixer so music is loud enough in club

okey :D

This happens because DJs don't have an access to amplifiers in club and can't adjust levels there. Instead we go red on mixer so music is loud enough in club. It sounds stupid but that's the reality