Xone k2 low volume in club pa setup problem!!!
Xone k2 low volume in club pa setup problem!!! Posted on: 10.08.2012 by Jerrell Rienecker Hi has anyone had problems with the k2 being very quiet on a club pa setupI've tried it on several rigs etc and it's always quiet I run a MacBook pro with traktor 2.5 and everything is as it should be I've bought some new better quality cables that might help but I'm not sure what else to do Ive asked a n h tech support but they say it's basically my problem as no one else has bought this up as an issue I've seen a few post here and there with the same problem but no conclusive answers Thanks anyone for any help | |
| Doreen Schurle 14.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by Deksel
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| Rolanda Clodfelder 14.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
30+ LED buttons on a single K2, so guess thats 60-90 LED's powered depending on the color ... Then Factor in the DaisyChaining and thats alot of lighting from half an amp, never mind the Soundcards. On the Twitch I count 62 Lit Buttons, some with various multicolor states as well, plus the VU meters Plus the Strip Search (which looks alone to number 140 LED's which "could" all be turned on at once) It is a real shame that at least an option was not given to externally power the Twitch or K2 which in turn would have probably allowed for much hotter outputs.
or putting a small line level mixer between the device and house mixer
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| Verlene Geevarghese 14.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
Even when I had a DDJ-T1, if you weren't plugged into the mains you lost 3/4 of the lighting on the controller to preserve the output of the audio interface and bus power wasn't guaranteed if the ports of your machine weren't up to the task. |
| Verlene Geevarghese 13.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by deevey
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| Meridith Betsinger 18.08.2013 | MrPopinjay loves to get agressive and quite snotty with people regarding this controller. There is another thread about the Xone:K2 (which is much more active btw) where he's voiced similar opinions/pseudo-attacks on users regarding this volume issue ... Allen & Heath are clearly intent on doing nothing about the problem, they ignore official community complaints or come across with a very unpleasant "oh there's no problem, could you check again? we've not heard about this happening before" types of statements. Perhaps this should get escalated and be dealt with directly with A&H through customer support/official channels. now now ... yeah this all sounds excessively blown out of proportion. Now a FIX,, MAYBE? In my personal case when mixing externally (as I do most of the time), I simply put the master at 0, deactivate the "auto gain when track loaded" feature, then I roughly adjusted the channel gains according to the types of tracks (some genres are louder than others...) say anywhere from 2-3 to 7 db. It's all a matter of finding the finite balance that provides a sufficiently powerful output versus not saturating. Throughout a dj set, the channel gains get seldom touched, I do all my gain controls through my external mixer. Have done probably 30 gigs since I got this controller, and the volume has never been a problem! (even when there were gear changes throughout; heck I often play vinyl along side of it and the output is good enough to not have gain fluctuation problems between the different sources) (I won't fail to mention that at first I had a very hard time with the output volume until I found this ridiculously "duh" solution) |
| Alphonso Deitchman 15.08.2013 | Once you approach the maximum gain you may lose some quality, since the gain stage actually amplifies rather than just acting as a variable attenuator. |
| Rolanda Clodfelder 15.08.2013 | So long as the mixer itself does not have any problems with noisy channels (e.g. Hiss when gain is turned right up) it shouldn't make any difference whatsoever. |
| Wilhelmina Notermann 15.08.2013 | There's one thing I've been wondering about, maybe you tech guru's can help me out. Assuming one has a very low output signal: is there any reason why turning the gain and master volume on the mixer all the way open would result in lower audio quality, when Traktor out signal and both the channel and the master output on the mixer stay in the green? |
| Mariko Oppenhuizen 13.08.2013 | The K2 just has a low out put volume over all. At least that's what I have notice. Ever mixer I connect it to, I have to crap up the trip to about 3/4ths. On my D2 i only have to go about center. |
| Alphonso Deitchman 14.08.2013 | It's because you're using a disgusting Macbook. They provide additional current to the USB ports so you can charge phones and tablets. |
| Doreen Schurle 14.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by Deksel
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| Rolanda Clodfelder 14.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
30+ LED buttons on a single K2, so guess thats 60-90 LED's powered depending on the color ... Then Factor in the DaisyChaining and thats alot of lighting from half an amp, never mind the Soundcards. On the Twitch I count 62 Lit Buttons, some with various multicolor states as well, plus the VU meters Plus the Strip Search (which looks alone to number 140 LED's which "could" all be turned on at once) It is a real shame that at least an option was not given to externally power the Twitch or K2 which in turn would have probably allowed for much hotter outputs.
or putting a small line level mixer between the device and house mixer
|
| Verlene Geevarghese 14.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
Even when I had a DDJ-T1, if you weren't plugged into the mains you lost 3/4 of the lighting on the controller to preserve the output of the audio interface and bus power wasn't guaranteed if the ports of your machine weren't up to the task. |
| Alphonso Deitchman 13.08.2013 | I had no issues with volume whatsoever when I had my S4, which I'd imagine has several more things to power than the Twitch or K2. |
| Verlene Geevarghese 13.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by deevey
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| Wilhelmina Notermann 13.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by deevey
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| Rolanda Clodfelder 13.08.2013 |
I'm surprised they put a consumer-level sound card there in the 1st place.
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| Alphonso Deitchman 13.08.2013 | You can use this calculator to convert between the different scales without having to worry about what they mean. I'm surprised they put a consumer-level sound card there in the 1st place. |
| Wilhelmina Notermann 13.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
Not to sure the support employee is aware there is a difference between dBu and dBV (or was it dBv?) |
| Alphonso Deitchman 13.08.2013 | -10dBV is "consumer level" so the K2 is even lower than that (-10dBu = -12.2 dBV) |
| Wilhelmina Notermann 13.08.2013 | Here's a quote from the first e-mail, which seems quite certain. "The K2 implements unbalanced RCA and 3.5mm connections for audio. Output is at -10dBu (this equates to nominal 'consumer' level signal outputs). If you connect the outputs to an analogue mixer, using the LINE level inputs should also enable you to adjust the input GAIN on the mixer to achieve suitable level for mixing with other DJ type inputs (CDJs, PHONO, etc), but ensure that gain settings in software are also configured to use the full range of the application's output (before clipping)." |
| Alphonso Deitchman 13.08.2013 | Specs on the website are +9.6 dBu. |
| Kiyoko Wellisch 13.08.2013 | What does the Audio2 output? |
| Alphonso Deitchman 13.08.2013 | That's a pretty awful output if true, and less than 10% of the Traktor Audio 2's maximum. |
| Wilhelmina Notermann 13.08.2013 | Oh wow, you're right, the brochure says it's maximum +6dBu. That surprises me. The first A&H support dude I e-mailed told me it's -12 dBU, which confirmed what my local dealer told me. The second A&H support contact said it was -10 dBu. Maybe they changed the audio cards on later models to play louder? |
| Alphonso Deitchman 13.08.2013 | -12 dBu sounds about right if you're struggling to get enough gain through a mixer, but it is a long way off the quoted +6 dBu spec in the manual? |
| Wilhelmina Notermann 13.08.2013 | My laptop does n't give me much battery life --> I always keep it plugged in when playing. The 500 mA from the USB 3.0 port doesn't seem to be enough for the Contour, so I always keep that plugged in also. Have tried the sound quality with one or both unplugged, but no difference. Oh, & @Jester, all Xone:K2's have an output volume of approximately -10 to -12 dBu. I don't know if mine is even more guiet (will be testing that next), but I have to crank the gains all the way open and then still the volume is very low. |
| Jonathan Chiuchiolo 13.08.2013 | you might be draining too much power from you laptop using two soundcards and midi controllers... plug it in to the wall and see if you get the same problem. Then if that doesn't work try and plug in the contour with an AC adapter it accepts 6V 1.5Amp |
| Latoria Kavulich 13.08.2013 | if you have to tweak the trims on the mixer over 12 o'clock to get a decent volume, something along the line is set up wrong, regardless of soundcard. with my audio 6, maybe 1 o'clock maximum on the trims is loud as hades. |
| Wilhelmina Notermann 13.08.2013 | Yeah, the NI volume is fine. The K2's volume isn't my biggest problem, tho, it's the fact that when I connect it sound issues occur on my Reloop Contour. I prefer the Reloop Contours audio interface over the A2 (5 out channels, good sound, volume and latency). But well, the topic of the thread is the K2 volume and for that the A2 is a perfect replacement. |
| Latoria Kavulich 13.08.2013 | some soundcards are naturally quieter than others. all the NI cards, including the A2, are more than loud enough for clubs. |
| Wilhelmina Notermann 13.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by Jester
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| Latoria Kavulich 13.08.2013 | Deksel, you have an audio 2. Use that. |
| Kiyoko Wellisch 12.08.2013 | I'm still waiting to hear how it's quieter than a silent channel. |
| Wilhelmina Notermann 12.08.2013 |
Originally Posted by Kwal
I just keep on ignoring personal attacks as they tend to say more about the one who makes them. I am still working on the issue together with the good people from the A&H support (no complaints there), but so far all we've only established that the setup is correctly configured. Toevening we're back at analysis, so aa soon as we figure out more I'll report back. |
| Hellen Mindrup 12.08.2013 | This has certainly escalated |
| Kiyoko Wellisch 12.08.2013 | Well he's already flat out lied about the situation once and he's ignored it when I call him on it so I find it very hard to believe what he's saying. A low volume is not a problem. That's what the gain knob on a mixer is for. Low volume hasn't been a problem for decades of DJs, why is it suddenly a problem now? I worry that people don't understand the basics of managing their levels if they can't figure this one out. Glitching is a problem, for sure, but there's no reason to believe the problem is a hardware fault common to all K2s. More likely this is an unfortunate anomaly. And no, I cannot magically point out what is wrong with a setup I don't know anything about. In order to narrow it down we need to do some tests, remove/replace/reinstall elements of the system while seeing if the problem persists, the same way you would do when you're trying to debug any system. Key things to try would be different laptops, different software, different drivers, different USB ports, with and without other processes running, etc. |
| Alphonso Deitchman 12.08.2013 | If it's certainly a software problem you should be able to point out exactly what's causing it then? Repeatedly attacking the wording of a post and saying the problem is non-existant doesn't contribute much to the thread. If the volume was still usable he wouldn't be here asking for help. |
| Kiyoko Wellisch 12.08.2013 | I believe that anyone who believes that a low volume is a problem has never mixed with vinyl. It's not a problem. Up until recently it was just another part of DJing that you used your head and one turn of a knob to resolve. The hardware is perfectly capable of operating without glitching, it is almost certainly a software issue in this case. |
| Alphonso Deitchman 12.08.2013 | I'm pretty sure he's not the only one with output volume unusably low (otherwise there would be no complaints) and he certainly cannot be the only one experiencing glitches. |
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