Out of nowhere, there will be no master output. You can see the track signal in each channel’s respective meter on the mixer, but nothing on the L/R master meters when volume is up and crossfader is in the correct position.
This has happened in the past a few times, I’d be playing for a few minutes, and then suddenly just not have master output. But I’ll still have pre-cue output. Usually gets resolved by a full shut down and restart of the mixer and Djay. I couldn’t reproduce or pin down exactly why. Haven’t experienced it in a while.
But this latest time was a bad one. I was setting up for a gig and from first try I had no master nor pre-cue output. I tried all kinds of things to resolve. Shut down and restart everything. Changed USB cables. Checked all fader / knob / switch positions. Reseated cables. Nothing worked. I was freaking out as start time was approaching. I had given up and was just going to use audio out from iPad via split cue. But I was missing an adapter and couldn’t do it. Suddenly remembered I had brought a backup iPad that had Djay on it. Plugged the backup iPad in the original one’s place and BOOM, right away everything worked right. I didn’t have my controller’s midi settings and USB drive wasn’t able to be used, but at least I had my Apple Music playlists ready to use which was a lifesaver.
Then the weirdest thing: After the gig, hooked everything up at home with the original iPad that didn’t work earlier. I was prepared to troubleshoot to see what the problem is but it just worked! Played with it for a bit and all is well.
So I’m assuming its not hardware related. I thought in the past I must have unknowingly triggered an effect that prevented master output because it worked for a bit then stopped. But this time, it didn’t work at all so it seems like some sort of bug.
Any idea on how I can try different things to reproduce? Or pull some sort of logs?
Hi @zrevs1, thanks for the detailed write-up, and good to hear the backup iPad saved the gig.
What you’re describing, with signal on the channel meters and nothing on master, sounds a lot like what you saw in your earlier thread when the Scratch was set to External mixer mode. The Scratch only works in Internal mixer mode. Next time, the first thing to check is Settings > Audio Devices. Mixer Mode should be Internal, and Main output and Pre-cueing should both be set to the Numark Scratch. If the mixer mode changes, pre-cueing can stop working too, which would explain losing both outputs at once.
To catch it in the act, don’t restart anything the next time it drops out. Do this first:
Screenshot Settings > Audio Devices.
Open Control Center and check which audio output the iPad is using.
Unplug only the SC6000M and see if master comes back.
For logs you’ll need a Mac:
Connect the iPad to the Mac with a cable and open Console (Applications > Utilities).
Select your iPad under Devices and click Start.
Type “djay” in the search field, then play until it drops out, and note the time.
Click Pause, copy the entries into a .txt file, and share a link to it here.
Because it’s intermittent, the best chance of catching it is to leave Console running through a long practice session.
Thank you for the response, @Slak_Jaw . I do remember mentioning this sometime back but wasn’t sure where or in what context. Hmm. I really wish I could remember or took a screenshot of what the Settings > Audio Devices > Mixer Mode looked like at the gig yesterday because I could have sworn it looked like what it always looked like which was Internal mode. Unfortunately, I’m not 100% certain. And the strangest thing is that I had just double-checked all was working well right before the gig. Packed it all up, and then soon as I re-assembled my gear at the location, it supposedly went to “External Mode”? When it hasn’t done that in recent memory? And even when it did in the past, it may have even been my fault of setting that myself in error. But this was done all on it’s own. Does that even sound right that it would do that out of the blue? Very strange. And even stranger yet, why would it then revert back soon as I re-assemble it back at home to test it out?? Why is it flip flopping back and forth? Maybe I accidentally did something? I usually stick to the same setup habits to lessen the chance of these weird things:
After hooking everything up to the same powered USB hub I always use, I turn on SC6000. Then I turn on the Numark Scratch. Then I set the SC6000 to Computer Mode. After it gets there, then I start Djay. Hmm, you know, thinking about it now, I do remember doing one thing weirdly: I accidentally didn’t plug in the SC6000 USB cable to the hub. I thought I did. So when I started Djay and I didn’t see my USB flash drive which is hooked up to the front of the SC6000, I knew something was off and I noticed I forgot to plug it in. I shut down the SC6000. Closed Djay. Plugged the SC6000 to the hub, set to Computer Mode, then started Djay again. Maybe Djay only saw the Scratch and got stuck on External mode? Does that make sense in your experience? And why would it right itself when I assembled back at home? Wouldn’t it have stayed what it last saw, similar to why I couldn’t restart everything to get it to go back to normal?
Hi @zrevs1, that detail about the SC6000 cable is a really useful clue, thanks for thinking back on it.
Here’s what I can tell you for sure: when supported hardware is connected, djay sets the mixer mode automatically, and both the Scratch and the SC6000M are supported on iOS. So it’s possible that connecting them in a different order led to a different setup. But I can’t confirm that’s what happened yesterday, or why it came right again at home, without seeing it happen. And you didn’t do anything wrong. Plugging a cable in late is an easy slip.
You can try to recreate it at home on purpose by repeating your gig steps:
Connect everything except the SC6000M’s USB cable, then open djay.
Screenshot Settings > Audio Devices.
Close djay, power off the SC6000M, plug it into the hub, power it on and set Computer Mode.
Open djay, screenshot Settings > Audio Devices again, and check master and pre-cue.
If it does get stuck, scroll to the bottom of Settings > Audio Devices and tap Reset to Defaults with everything connected. Then leave the audio settings as they are.
Post your screenshots here whether it reproduces or not. Either way they’ll help narrow this down. I hope that helps!
