Hardware/controllers used: SL1200MK2 & MK5, Denon X1850 Prime
Summary of the issue:
Using Serato timecode vinyl, when making small pitch adjustments on either of my turntables, the display does not register and update the BPM until the pitch is adjusted more significantly. For example, if 138.0 BPM is shown on the screen and I adjust pitch up, then nothing changes until I make a larger pitch adjustment and then it will jump to about 138.5. It is impossible to get the display to adjust in .1 increments.
I have tried the same timecode vinyl in VirtualDJ which has 2 decimal place BPM display and even the smallest pitch adjustment registers correctly.
I also tested in Traktor using Traktor timecode vinyl and it also registers small pitch adjustments which removes the possibility of the issue being my hardware.
This issue was mentioned almost 2 years go but no resolution was given:
How to reproduce the issue:
Use DJay in DVS mode and make small pitch adjustments.
Hi @dex, I have a few thoughts on this. However, please note that I’m not a DVS user so I could be missing something specific to your situation:
In the djay Settings>General>TEMPO, do you have the Range set too high? The higher the setting the lower the pitch accuracy and control. 8% will give you the best accuracy.
Are your pitch faders in the center position when you notice this? Depending on your setup, there can be an intentional dead zone around the center position.
If you are using Sync then there are possible situations where the on screen pitch fader position does not match your physical pitch fader position. djay uses “Soft Takeover” in this situation, where you need to move the physical pitch faders to match the onscreen positions to prevent a sudden changes in tempo. I talk about this in detail here: Pitch Fader Delay - Soft Takeover
Thanks for the reply but I don’t think those will solve this issue.
My tempo is at 8%.
I’ve tried the pitch faders at various positions. I also tested on my MK5 which does not have a dead zone.
I’m familiar with soft takeover and use it for EQ and volume level adjustments with my attached midi controllers but this is not a takeover issue. It’s simply that DJay does not register small pitch adjustments.
After the initial 0.5 BPM jump, do this pitch faders return to 0.1 BPM range?
Does this same 0.5 BPM jump happen when the pitch faders are already off center and you move them?
Can you please try to capture a video of this, upload it to your Google Drive/Dropbox, enable sharing permissions, and share a link to the video here? I’d like to confirm that I understand the full picture and this will likely be required to communicate things to the engineering team to see if they can replicate things.
Thanks!
The BPM starts at 124.0 and then I move the pitch slider up in small increments. After 11 seconds it finally registers and you will see it jump to 124.4.
I move the slider up more and at 24 seconds it jumps to 124.7.
I move the slider up more and at 36 seconds it jumps to 125.1.
I then move the slider down very slowly and at 58 seconds it jumps down to 124.6
As I mentioned in my first post, in Traktor and VirtualDJ the small increments are registered and the BPM increases in .1 increments
Thanks for the video and additional information @dex. I’ve sent it to the engineering team to see if they can replicate things and offer any suggestions. I’ll report back when I have news.
I’m not sure what turntables they were testing on, but the DJ industry standard SL1200’s, have wow and flutter specifications of 0.01% - 0.025%.
Can you confirm, is it just the display that is being intentionally stabilised? If the actual pitch is being stabilised then this makes it almost impossible to use DVS and keep beats in sync.
I believe this behaviour is not what DVS users would expect or prefer. When we use turntables we know we are introducing analog into the mix and I would want every fine analog adjustment that happens to show in the software.
Lastly, when I tested using Traktor and VirtualDJ, they were able to show smaller increments and were stable so I do think there is room for improvement.
The engineering team confirmed that it’s just the number being stabilized. Playback speed and position are always locked to the timecode. The team is looking into improving this and I’ll share any news here when I have it. Thanks!
