Digital DJ Tips reader Neil writes: “I’ve got a Mixtrack Pro and I use it with Virtual DJ. The problem I’ve got I’d that the headphone volume is just too low through the Mixtrack Pro. My headphone level is fine when I plug the same headphones into my laptop sound card. I was just wondering what I can do to alleviate this? The problem is that although I can use the unit at home, it’s not loud enough in the headphones for DJing in a public venue.”
Digital DJ Tips says:
Using headphones with big drivers, high sensitivity and good isolation is a must for DJing in public as you really notice the “bleed” from external sound in a way you don’t at home. But it sounds like this isn’t the issue, due to your headphones working fine through your laptop sound card.
The Mixtrack Pro is USB powered (ie it doesn’t use an external power supply). That single USB has to power everything, and as is common with most DJ controllers of this type, that means the headphones output level isn’t as loud as it could be. But we’ve used the Mixtrack Pro extensively here, not least for our Scratching For Controller DJs course where it was a core controller, and we found it no worse than any other such device.
And finally, while the Mixtrack Pro isn’t really meant for use in club environments, it is perfectly possible to get away with using this type of controller in public – and many, many people do. So again, I don’t think the issue is the fact that it’s a “consumer” controller.
Without having your exact set-up here to test it’s hard to be exact about what might be causing your issue. You should definitely check you have the correct ASIO drivers installed for your PC (I’m assuming you’re on a PC; you don’t need drivers if you’re on a Mac), and look for any configuration that’s possible with your driver (obviously, what we’re looking for is a volume control). Assuming you’ve also checked that you have the headphones level set as high as it’ll go in your software and on the unit (I am assuming you have), you could try using a different USB socket on your computer, but really I don’t think that’d help.
I’m pretty sure this can be solved, though: That’s why I’d like to throw it open to our readers.
So – have you struggled with headphone volume on a USB-powered DJ controller, or on the Mixtrack Pro in particular? How did you solve this issue? Care to add anything to my suggestions? Please leave your advice and experiences in the comments.
Phil Morse
