MIXVIBES Dj Community old forum

Hi guys, I recently bought the U-Mix Control Pro for use on my iMac. Everythings up and running but I'm confused about the wiring configuration. If I connect the U-Mix Control Pro to the mac via USB, should I hear output on the mac speakers ? or indeed from the audio output from the mac ? At the moment I do not.

To get output I must connect my speakers to Output1/2 of the U-Mix Control Pro.


Now, here's the strange thing, If I use NiceCast to broadcast Cross out onto the internet for my friends to listen to, the first configuration works fine, but without Nicecast it does not.

Also, using the output1/2 to connect to my speakers I get terrible distortion for no apparent reason. If I play the same MP3's direct from iTunes they are crystal clear with no problems at all.
I'm starting to wonder if there's an issue with my controller.
Could some one please shed some light on this please.
Many thanks
B16MCC.

Hey,

how do you configured your Cross DJ? Could you post a screenshot of your config at Cross DJ? You can upload it at imageshark and post the link here at the forum.

And check your output volume when using Cross DJ with the U-Mix Control Pro maybe you are going to high out of the U-Mix Control Pro so that your signal is terrible distortion.

regards
Christian

Hi there, thanks for the rapid response. I've tried several configs in the Audio settings of Cross DJ, however I tend to stick to 'Dual Stereo'.

I tend to run the master volume on the U-Mix at about 80%.
The distortion issue is very hard to explain, its not distortion that you would normally associate with clipping, its almost like a lack or performance from the imac, but I find that hard to believe of a 2.8ghz intel core 2 extreme with 4gb ram and the fastest hard disk they offer.

Having said that, it does seem to get worse as I play.

Having given a little more detail on the distortion issue, I am however as much interested in the audio output wiring config. I've attached an image of my setup, its very simple.



Any ideas please ?
Cheers,

Hey,

ok the output should work. Is the sound sometimes like stopping for a a milisecond? have you tested to disable the wireless connection? Disabled all not used running background programs?

[EDIT] How is your CPU and RAM usage? you can check this with the activity monitor at utilities.

[EDIT2] You can also speed up your OS with programs like Onyx, Cocktail which cleans your memory. Also it is helpful to remove all unused programs or programs you don't know but are installed and never used. And check your HDD Space too you should have at least 10 to 15% free Space on every hdd (partition). OS X is often swaping things to the disk to get the memory clear.

regards
Christian

Hi , some interesting points to check out. I'll look through that info.
Any reason why you suggest to switch off wifi ? My imac is hardwired to my router but having checked, my wifi was switched on.

Have you tried enabling the Output Limiter. It may help with your audio distortion.

Also you could try and update your U-Mix Control Pro firmware.

You can download from here

downloads.php?cat=70

See if that helps

Thanks for the suggestions so far chaps, here's some stats...

Disk space on my single partition drive. Used = 373gb. Free = 626gb

Memory usage while Cross is playing 2 tracks. = 214mb. Free = 1.23gb From 4Gb system memory.

Whilst writing this, I just got a giant glitch where audio failed completely for half a second.

CPU Usage , User = 20% , System = 8% , Idle = 72%

User is moving around from about 15 to 22 %

To your wireless card. There is a trigger which is looking every x seconds or minutes for new connections. This can create timeouts like drop outs at your sound and so on. So sometimes it helps to switch of the wifi section.

regards
Christian

Right ok, thanks for clearing that up. My system does have a lot of software installed, and a few things that run in the background. Do you think it would be better if I setup a fresh OSX on another partition or disk and just ran iTunes and Cross ?

Just tried to install Onyx, it doesn't work with Lion !

Hey ok I don't checked if Onyx is working with the newest version. sorry for that.
It could maybe help you out to have a OS only for Audio work and one for working at the internet and so on. I also have a notebook for audio and one for working.
I'm not as familiar with OS X (Lion) as with Windows but I think you can also create a new partition at your system with a fresh installation of the OS with multiboot.
It could help to have only a OS with the minimum of programs you need to work with audio like only Cross, iTunes and your broadcast program.

Regards
Christian