Warped Records are driving me crazy!

[mrkrabs]

Hi all,

I now had 14 (yep, 14!) Timecode Records and not a single one of them has been usable for me. Most of them got visibly warped during transport and those that looked fine at first were skipping nonetheless.

My needles are set up correctly, software calibrates properly, my table is sturdy and with any other record I can throw some really heavy scratch-techniques on the very first sample without skipping. But the MV-Records I have can't even handle some slight advanced scratches like slow chirps without losing track

I really don't want to blame Mixvibes here! I love it and the people behind it (and I still owe them a proper Software Review ).
Just wanted to ask if anyone else had the same bad luck with warped records like I have

[benny_blanco_cross]

Hi,
within the last 7 years, i never had one warped time code vynil. i used to buy them from thomann.de and they were always delivered extra flat. you could try to change the web shop where you're buying them, or try to find a real shop, where you can check the ''flatness'' (sory can't think of another word right now...) of the records before buying.
Or you can try to increase the weight on your tonearms (i keep my sl1200 with the weight inverted, it add something like another gram on the cartridge).
last tip i can come with is trying to fill the center hole of the record (i use cigarette paper & adhesive tape for this purpose) so you don't have little gaps between the shaft of the deck & the record. i found that custom records like this lend to less skiping when scratching.
Hope this help (if not maybe contact your nearset voodoo shop for some luck charm... )

[mrkrabs]

gonna take the voodoo shop then

I have / had (as I sent most of them back) Records from:
- Mixvibes directly
- Thomann
- Elevator
- 2nd Hand

Unfortunately I have no shop selling MV-Records within 200km.
Filling in the hole is always the first thing I do when I get new records.
Adding an additional g to my Qberts and increasing the tonearm height didn't cause any change at all.

[mrkrabs]

I spent some time doing some "research" and developed a theory:

My Issues are not completely caused by the minimal warped records, they also relate to Mixvibes' Tracking/Decoding Algorithm!

- as I use an Audio4 DJ with Mixvibes I downloaded the Traktor Demo and gave it a try with one of these Mixvibes Vinyls. Even if the speed and timecode didn't match the Traktor signal, scratching was possible.
I thereby discovered that Traktor handled Skips and jumps in relative mode with an unsupported timecode way better (soundwise) than Mixvibes does for me.

- when scratching in absolute Mode in Mixvibes, fast scratches sound really horrible and the Software is often losing Track for some ms even when the Needle is not skipping!

I have no Latency Issues whatsoever and playing with the TC Threshold didn't help at all.

So I'm guessing that this is not the Standard Mixvibes behaviour and is somehow related to my System?

[Hannes]

This is an issue for some time now for me too,
I have perfect scratch behaviour in absolute mode, but relative mode sukks balls somehow...

Doing backspins there's no issue in absolute mode, but relative mode will "skip".

By now I think it's maybe a issue with the algorythm that is used for relative mode.

[mrkrabs]

well, for me it even sucks in absolute mode

[Hannes]

hm, usually fixing the center hole does the trick for me, other than that the only thing i can think of is lowering the input gain in the prefs, maybe the signal distorts while scratching.

[Alexkidd]

The 2 timecodes vinyls I earnes with my karma from mixvibes where warped as well. The 2 that came with the Cross Pack where totally flat.
I have the same skipping problem with the relative mode as well. But, I prefer relative cause my timecodes skip a lot, so absolute mode is a "no-go" for me. (and turntable is a Vestax QFO, un-skip-able at worst)