Quirks with DDJ-SX2 and DJay on iOS

Greetings:
Last night, I attempted to record a mix with DJay Pro, the latest version, on my iPad Pro 12.9" 3rd gen.

During my recording, I’ve ran into some quirks. For one thing, I did not see the meters on each of the two channels I was using. The only meters that were active was the master.

Another quirk was the cueing of tracks. What is supposed to happen is that if I were to press cue on each channel and move the mix knob to cue, then I should hear from the cued channel. Instead, I would have the master cue engaged, then engage, say, cue on Ch. 1 without any output through my headphones, switch off the master cue, turn on Ch. 2 on and off, try Ch. 1 and finally hear the correct channel through the headphones. This is just one example, but channel cueing is inconsistent.

Finally, the last quirk is that when I do have the track playing become the master after mixing the other song out, I sometimes the volume is not quite where it needs to be, but a slight turn of the Trim knob to the right causes a volume jump instead of smoothly easing as the knob is turned.

Have any others of you ran into this issue, and have solutions to these? Thanks.

I’ve got the SX2 arriving this week….I’ll report back when I’ve hooked it up!

:grin:

Sweet! I’ll be waiting. Thank you!
V.

The volume jumping might be because your Gain knobs are not aligned with the software. It might help for you to turn off the option „Reset EQ, Effects, Controls“ (see screenshot)

Word of caution: I don’t have the SX2 so I might be off here.

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Sweet! I’ll be waiting. Thank you!
V.

Hi There!
Thanks for the suggestion regarding the volume jump.

The “Reset EQ, Effects” option was never engaged. However, I did turn off both the auto-gain and auto-limiter, and that seems to have cured the volume jump. I just had to be conscious and watchful of the mix throughout and use my ears to avoid distortion and the like.

I’m still dealing with the flaky cue buttons issue, but at least they work, albeit not quite the way it should.
V.

Velanche
Founder, Soul Dust Productions
Instagram: @velanchedj & @souldustpro
Facebook Pages: Soul Dust Productions & Velanche
Mixcloud: mixcloud.com/souldustpro
Web: souldustpro.com & velanche.com

Hey @Velanche_Stewart,

We’re glad to hear you actually figured out the issue with the trim. Auto-gain changes the trim of the tracks for you. It sets it relative to the volume of the other deck so both songs play at a similar level. But when you move the trim-knob yourself, this jump may occur because auto-gain is suddenly deactivated.

Your issue when Pre-Cueing is weird. You do not move the HEADPHONES MIX knob at all, right? You have it all the way to the left, correct?
You should then be able to pre-cue as expected when pressing the CUE buttons of each deck. Is this not the case?
If I understand correctly, you need to have MASTER CUE active, then activate CUE on Ch. 1 (nothing plays then?), then turn off the MASTER CUE, turn CUE of Ch. 2 on and off, and then you finally get to pre-cue Ch. 1?

I’ll leave this screenshot here for reference:

My SX2 has arrived and apart from some mapping issues (see a different thread) I have none of the problems mentioned above especially with cueing, mine works as expected.

I do think the volume jump is to do with auto-gain being disengaged when you turn the trim knob, you might be able to remedy this by turning off auto-gain (as you have mentioned) or going to the midi-map and turning off ‘pick-up mode’ on the trim knobs.

That way the trim will turn the knob regardless of the on-screen position which will alleviate the sudden increase / decrease in volume.

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers

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Hey Gents:
Steve, good that you gotten your controller and thanks for checking.
Indeed, once I switched off the auto-gain, I was able to bypass the volume
jump with the trim altogether.

For both of you: regarding the volume. I think I understand now, based on
what Gulliermo replied that the MASTER CUE button has to be engaged before
the other CUE buttons worked. I’ve used mixers and controllers before, so
having to turn on the MASTER CUE before the others work is a bit counter
intuitive to me, which is probably why I was confused. But if that’s how
Pioneer has designed it, then who am I to argue! Still, I appreciate
your making it clear.

With all that said, I thank you both. I actually used the software last
night to record a new mix, and things worked fine.

Again, I appreciate your guidance and replies.
V.

@Velanche_Stewart
I don’t do any of the messing about with the master cue button in mine.

I have the buttons on the front of the mixer set as below l, note, I don’t use channels 3 & 4 as I use their EQ knobs for decks 1 &2 Neural Mix control.

I have the crossfader controls set as this.

And the cue buttons work as they should, I leave the Master button off permanently, never touch it, if I press Cue on channel 1 I hear that channel through the headphones, if I press Cue on channel 2, if I turn them both on I can hear both channels through my cans and everything works as I thought it would and in line with every other mixing desk I’ve ever used.

So not sure as to why you need to activate Master cue first as it’s not something I need to do with the same deck.

On your other point, the volume jump, two things you could look at whilst still leaving the auto-gain setting enabled. First is the pick-up mode in the midi mapping. Turn it on for the two trim knobs as below.

This will prevent a massive jump in volume if you turn the trim knob and the on screen knob has to jump to catch up. With this enable, you have to turn the physical trim knob to align it with the on screen knob (and ‘pick it up’) before the on screen knob will move and therefore stop any large jumps.

Also, check your Crossfader Curve knob on the front of the deck and make sure it isn’t set all the way to the right if you want the default or linear behaviour.

If you have the knob set all the way right it puts the crossfader into Cut mode and the ‘other’ deck will come on at full pelt as soon as you move the fader even a small bit towards the other side.

Cheers
Steve

Hey Gents:
Steve, good that you gotten your controller and thanks for checking.
Indeed, once I switched off the auto-gain, I was able to bypass the volume
jump with the trim altogether.

For both of you: regarding the volume. I think I understand now, based on
what Gulliermo replied that the MASTER CUE button has to be engaged before
the other CUE buttons worked. I’ve used mixers and controllers before, so
having to turn on the MASTER CUE before the others work is a bit counter
intuitive to me, which is probably why I was confused. But if that’s how
Pioneer has designed it, then who am I to argue! Still, I appreciate
your making it clear.

With all that said, I thank you both. I actually used the software last
night to record a new mix, and things worked fine.

Again, I appreciate your guidance and replies.
V.

Hey guys,

I had a closer look at how the Pre-Cueing on this controller works and found the following.

First, you need to activate the CUE or MASTER CUE button. Depending on what you want to listen to.

The HEADPHONE MIX knob has the following curve:

I hope this will help you better understand your controller @Velanche_Stewart.

@sooteee, What other thread did you refer to when you said?

@Guillermo This one, where we discussed the issues with midi mapping and the library, and now a few other missing things I’ve added to it. :+1:t3:

ah alright thanks:) I’ll check the new stuff out too.

Thanks! I’ll give it a try soon. My iPad Pro has been sent in for repairs, so will try it once I get it back.
V.

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