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11 replies

VMS4 I have a low level hum

FM Former Member
First of all let me start out by telling you I love the idea behind the VMS4 and I appreciate the fact that AA took a chance and decided to R&D this product instead of just doing the typical Chinese import thing.

I'm not here to flame this product in any way, I am just here to share my problems with AA in an effort to help AA resolve them so that the next gen VMS4 will be even better.

I am a very experienced Virtual DJ Pro user, I was able to map it the way I like without a problem.

There are however a few problems I am experiencing.
The 1st problem is with the on-board sound card.....whenever I load a new song, the sound will drop off a bit on the song that is still playing, I have tried changing the latency settings but it still does it. I tested the VMS4 sound card against my native instruments audio 2 sound card and I can't duplicate the problem on the audio 2.

sooooo...I figured since I can't really use the VMS4 on-board sound card without experiencing sound dropouts, I would just use my native instruments audio 2 plugged into 2 analog channels, but when I switch the channels to analog I hear the low level hum.

I don't seem to be experiencing the mic distortion problem like everybody else.

I live in the L.A. area, would it be a possibility to take my unit down to AA's technical people so they can see 1st hand what I'm talking about? I would hate to have to return the unit to the store, I think it has lots of potential.
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FM Former Member
@Magagar: regarding the sound issues:

1) Are you using the original ADJ ASIO driver or another driver for the audio. Also are you setting the audio for external or internal mixing? It should be set for external mixing and use the ADJ ASIO driver.

2) Are you using the 4 out or 8 out setting? If you use the 8 out setting, it's possible something in the computer USB audio gets overloaded, and this can be resolved by switching to the 4 out mode.

3) There also might be something unusual with the MIDI settings, such as the MIDI stream might have lots of activity during song loading due to MIDI assigns. The audio 2 sound card doesn't have MIDI so this might explain the difference.

4) If you switch to analog channels, it's possible if you set them to phono level and don't have them plugged in they'll create hum. Please be more specific about the issue.
FM Former Member
quote:
emarx

@emarx thanks for your reply

I have been Using ADJ asio and sound card has been set at 4

You were able to guide me in the right direction with the MIDI suggestion, I changed back to the default mapper and no more sound drop out when loading my songs.

Can you please explain to me why my additional mapping of EQs on chan 2 and 3 and channel faders caused this to happen? Is all this data to much for the USB to handle?

But now I am experiencing random cracks and pops.

As far as the hum goes, I just tried it again to make sure I am not crazy. here are the steps I have taken.
1 - Power up VMS in external mixer mode, I don't have any audio sources connected to the unit. Every channel is set to USB at the moment, everything is nice and quiet. Channels are set to line, if I set them to phono I still hear the hum with an added static type of noise.
2 - moved CH1 switch to analog, hear a very low hum VU meter peaks every once in a while @ -40
3 - moved CH2 switch to analog, hum gets a bit louder, VU meter going crazy peaks @ -40
4 - moved CH3 switch to analog, hum gets louder, VU meter peaks @ -30
5 - moved CH4 to analog, no difference in hum.

Same results when plugged to PC or not plugged to PC. Also tried it in internal mixer mode and I get the same results.
Last edited by Former Member
FM Former Member
@Magagar: I'm not exactly how you changed the MIDI mapper to create this problem, but the reality is many computers, especially Windows computers, will start acting strange if you try to stuff more than 1 command every msec from the computer. Windows Vista is even worse.

There are many possible causes of random cracks and pops. You might have some background process going on in the computer that causes the audio to freeze up. Sometimes going to a higher latency will fix the problem. At the extreme, you may need to recover your computer from scratch to get rid of viruses or background processes that are overloading the computer and difficult to remove.

A very small amount of hum is normal, especially if you are testing with all of the knobs maxed out. I don't believe this is anything unusual. The hum will be greater if you set disconnected sources to phono.
FM Former Member
What software are you using?

Cracksa nd pops can be caused where the software is overworkign the CPU.

In VDJ you can adjust these settings on the Performances tab of the config.

Try not to adjust the settings bit move the slider only. This will adjust the settings for you. Start all the way to the left on "Fastest" and move across to "Best Quality".

If you start to get the clicks/pops again, just move the slider back.

For example, my slider is set to the 1st from left and I get good sound quality and no issues. "Best Quality" does not imply that anything else is bad...

Cheers,

Roy
FM Former Member
quote:
emarx

@emarx, thanks for your reply.

as far as the hum goes...
I am not maxing out anything, gains and EQs are all in the middle. I understand that setting the levels higher can introduce some unwanted noises but I just have them set at the middle, I figured the middle is pretty safe.
FM Former Member
Leo,

The noisiest channel by far is Channel 2, phono being the loudest, although (I didn't check before) the line can also be heard at about 2/3rds of the phono.

All channels exhibit some noise, and if the laptop has it's power in, i can even heard a small "pulsing" when all channels are open and not with signal. Seems that the shielding or ground route needs revising. Ferrite rings on all cables don't help and running through a power filter doesn't help either.

It's not a showstopper, but it's detectable ... if i didn't have a bigger problem with mine, i'd be complaining about this ... but as i still can get even one channel to run well on internal sound I have bigger issues to contend with.

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