Configuration Windows, Preferences Dialogue Box

Configuration Windows / Preferences Dialogue Box

Overview :

DJ Mixer Professional offers extensive features, and therefore requires more system resources than simpler audio players or jukeboxes. The capability of playing lots of files at the same time, digital sound analyze, loop, scratch, effects, demands a well configured PC. Therefore make sure that background programs, like real time virus scanners, power-and print management, etc. should be deactivated. Beside this, you should also configure the DJ Mixer Professional software and the your hardware controller (if you have one).

To open the Configuration window press on the CFG labeled button in the center of the screen. The configuration window is divided into two different areas, which can be selected with the three different tabs: General Settings, Audio & MIDI and Video. click on the DJ Mixer Professional button will open the About window where you can find information about the release version, tech support email and website.

General Settings

On the "General" tab, you can find the following settings:

User interface – you can select the preferred user interface that suits your taste and screen resolution.
Reset Deck after Load – If enabled, after loading a new song in the deck, all the deck settings will be reset: pitch, volume, eqkills, and cutoff filter. Default: checked.
Beat Matching when Auto-DJ – beat match the two songs before crossfading between them in Auto-DJ mode. Default: checked.
Show Hints – shows a hint (tooltip) with the description and the keyboard shortcut for all the interface objects. Default: checked.
Slow speed/pitch reset – if enabled, after you press the pitch reset button on a deck, the pitch/speed will gradually (instead of immediately) reset to 0. Default: checked.
Perceptual Automatic Gain – enables DJ Mixer Professional to automatically alter the gain of the song so that all will match in volume. This uses a very advanced psycho-acoustically (perceptual) algorithm to determine the exact gain to be applied to each song. Default: checked.
Remember History – enable if you don't want the history to be cleared on every session. Default: checked.
Auto-Mix fade time – when the software automatically mix two songs, it moves the crossfader to actually do the mix. This parameter controls how long it takes for the crossfader to move from one deck to the other. Default: 10 seconds.
Pitch/Tempo range – the pitch slider allows 4, 8, 16, 24 or 32% pitch change for smooth manual mix (for checked option). Default: 16% pitch range.
Cutoff filter mode – the type of cut-off filter you prefer. You can select between Low Pass, High Pass and a combined Low Pass & High Pass filter mode. If the filter mode is changed, the two cutoff filters are set to Filter OFF. Default: Low Pass & High Pass.
Load songs in RAM – select when to load a song completely into system memory (RAM). Loading into RAM has multiple advantages, but it requires that the computer have enough of it. Default: Auto.

Audio & MIDI

This section gives you the possibility to select the audio inputs and outputs as well as the MIDI controller to be used.

Perhaps the most important setting is the latency. Should you encounter problems playing titles (eg. audio dropouts, glitches, stuttering, etc) try at first to change the latency parameter.

Latency:

Latency is the amount of time from the command to it’s actual execution. For example, if the latency is 100ms, after you press the PLAY button, it will take another 100ms until the sound is actually heard in the speakers/ headphones. In our case, the latency can be anywhere between 4ms and 100ms, depending on how the soundcard or hardware controller is configured. To avert audio dropouts, when DJ Mixer Professional is first installed, latency is set to about 60ms by default. A lower latency will increase the interactivity by making the program respond faster to the commands (eg. more natural sounding scratch, etc), but on slower systems this tend to produce sound dropouts.

The goal is to achieve the lowest latency without these artefacts. Since it depends on the existing hardware (the soundcard and processor mainly), it cannot be calculated and the best value is usually determined by trying out. To do so, set the latency to the lowest value and play one of the decks. If you experience sound dropouts had back to the Configuration window and increase the latency. Repeat this steps until you achieve a clean audio playback and also a stable behaviour (audio dropouts should never occur). In the event there are audio problems, always come back and tweak the latency settings. A latency between 15ms and 35ms is the best compromise between interactivity and stability. You will be able to achieve very small latencies with an ASIO compatible soundcard or on the Mac (with any soundcard).

Output mode:

DJ Mixer Professional is very flexible in using the soundcard(s) that you may have in your computer. You can use DJ Mixer Professional with:

1 simple soundcard (1 stereo output – Master out only)
1 simple soundcard (1 mono out Master, 1 mono out Monitor) – split mode
2 simple soundcards (1 stereo output for Master, 1 stereo output for Monitor)
1 multichannel soundcard (front stereo out for Master, rear stereo for Monitor)

Beside these modes, you can also revert Master and Monitor outputs so that they correspond with your particular physical outputs on the soundcard and you can also use an external mixer.

If you are using an external mixer, the software outputs audio signals for DeckA, DeckB, Preview and Monitor channels. You will need a soundcard with at least 2 stereo outputs for this. 4 stereo channels (8 mono) soundcards are highly recommended for external mixer mode.

DJ Mixer Professional works with DirectSound, ASIO and CoreAudio compatible soundcards (at least one mode is supported by every soundcard available in any computer). The audio signal is sent to soundcard in stereo or multichannel at 44100Hz and the maximum supported format of the soundcard (at least 16 bits and up to 24 or 32 bits for ASIO and CoreAudio).