Denon MC6000 + VDJ Issues Experienced

[ian8limelight]

I've just had a nightmare of a few days with my Denon MC6000 and VDJ :mad:

Apologies for the non-technical descriptions below but would appreciate any feedback on what I can do to improve my playout system and to make it less troublesome :rolleyes:

Firstly, VDJ kept crashing with my external hard drive (Samsung, unpowered but running through a powered USB). So much so that the VDJ 'Recovery' window kept appearing on my laptop and, even when I shut down VDJ, the MC6000 had all the lights on so it was expecting that VDJ was still present.

The following day I re-installed VDJ and things seemed to be better but, the next time I plugged in the Samsung, it played for about 5-10 minutes and then crashed again. My laptop then said that that external drive needed formatting.

I then tried to download the latest version of the firmware for the MC6000 (v1007) but found that I couldn't unzip the download due to extraction problems :mad:

By a process of elimination, I used my back-up powered external hard drive last night and everything seemed fine BUT, about half way through the evening, I found that I needed to turn up the 'gain' levels on the MC6000 for the two channels that played VDJ. I've never had to do this before as the volume of the VDJ tracks is always a lot louder than than of my CD player tracks.

Finially, on playing the CD tracks, I have noticed that the 'latency' level on VDJ increases the 'green' levels into the 'red area'.

Any feedback would be much appreciated :D

[Excalibur]

would appreciate any feedback on what I can do to improve my playout system and to make it less troublesome :rolleyes:


Since this is the season of goodwill, and also since I'd expect my fellow Forum Members to start organising a lynch mob, I'll refrain from advising you to buy a Cortex. ;) :D

Ian, as I know very little about setting up a 6000, I'm not going to be a lot of use. Fortunately for you, there are some noted users on here who will have help to offer.

Only possible bit of advice I can offer, and it may already be a non-starter, ( cos I sort of remember you asking something about it ) would be to plug your portable drive into the laptop direct. Perhaps your hub is faulty? :confused:

Also, I have heard of laptop ports having a sort of "memory effect", and sometimes it can help to always use the same sockets every time.

[ian8limelight]

Since this is the season of goodwill, and also since I'd expect my fellow Forum Members to start organising a lynch mob, I'll refrain from advising you to buy a Cortex. ;) :D

Ian, as I know very little about setting up a 6000, I'm not going to be a lot of use. Fortunately for you, there are some noted users on here who will have help to offer.

Only possible bit of advice I can offer, and it may already be a non-starter, ( cos I sort of remember you asking something about it ) would be to plug your portable drive into the laptop direct. Perhaps your hub is faulty? :confused:

Also, I have heard of laptop ports having a sort of "memory effect", and sometimes it can help to always use the same sockets every time.

Thanks for your input Peter, much appreciated.

I hope that others may also comment on the 'gain' levels, other issues, etc.

[Corabar Entertainment]

Ian - I know nothing about this, so I could be totally off-base here, but have a search through previous threads, because I think Simon Pridmore (simonp) has posted something which may be in a similar vein.

Then again, I could be imagining things. :daft:

[WWDJ]

Ian - I know nothing about this, so I could be totally off-base here, but have a search through previous threads, because I think Simon Pridmore (simonp) has posted something which may be in a similar vein.

Then again, I could be imagining things. :daft:

Pretty sure simonp uses a Traktor S4, but I think Solitaire (Darren) and Mark
Wild are avid MC6000 users.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Sounds to me like its your HD thats causing the issues not your MC6000.

The gain levels do seem all over the place and when I boot up VDJ I have to adjust the master but this is a minor issue and nothing like the issues you are experiencing.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Ian, are you sure your external drive doesn't have some kind of sleep mode on it?

[Gary]

Firstly, well done for actually having a backup drive...some people...

Hmmm ok, your swapping of the external hard drive didn't give you a perfect solution - but it caused a change in the symptoms, suggesting that the * unpowered * (where did I put my holy water, garlic and wooden cross?) hard drive was the catalyst for the larger problems. In the words of Yoda...powered external hard drive good, unpowered external hard drive bad (it was only in the Directors cut special edition - honest)

Have you done anything to alot of tracks on that hard drive recently, like mass normalisation of tracks, mass topping'n'tailing, BPM analysis etc? anything that could have caused fragmentation of the tracks - or indeed has the drive recently received an influx of a lot of new tracks in a short space of time? or nearing its capacity? Has the drive been even glanced at by a PC that is set to save restore points on external drives?

You've not mentioned the model of the samsung, but if any of its actions requires more than 500ma current, then even the powered usb hub wont be helping fully as each port of the powered USB hub only gives 500ma. Does the samsung have a power supply connector socket (usually a small coaxial barrel connector)? If so, it would be worth getting it powered from mains - alternatively see if samsung offer a USB Y adaptor, which allows current from 2 x usb ports to power the drive, but only passes data through one of the ports as usual.

Does the entire system do the same thing with the samsung drive in place - without the MC6000 connected - this is a simple test to rule out certain bits of kit by elimination.

Gain wise...check VDJ for any autogain and on-screen levels that its got - you may have set these "just the way you like em" a while back, but the chances are the full re-install of VDJ which you did, probably took those fav settings back to factory standards within VDJ

[Excalibur]

Hmmm ok, your swapping of the external hard drive didn't give you a perfect solution - but it caused a change in the symptoms, suggesting that the * unpowered * (where did I put my holy water, garlic and wooden cross?) hard drive was the catalyst for the larger problems. In the words of Yoda...powered external hard drive good, unpowered external hard drive bad (it was only in the Directors cut special edition - honest)



I take it that you're not familiar with my Three Golden Rules? :whistle:


Follow in the footsteps of the Master, and enlightenment in the ways of the Cortex will be yours, Glasshopper. ;) You need only remember the three Golden Rules:
1) Power everything.

2) Power everything.

3) Power everything.

[Gary]

They're not golden rules...

They're platynu... platernam...plattenham...plat:beer1:

They're DOUBLE golden rules - extra shiny... :)