Bought new needle tips, now my turntables are red lighting

[Goosey_J]

Easy peeps.

So I just got back on the mixing after a 2 month hiatus, bought some new tips for my Ortofon Nightclub Mk2's and a bunch of new tracks.

However now my turntables are red lighting even when the gain is set at neutral (the 12 o'clock position). I actually have to turn the gain down into the negative in order to avoid this. Any idea why this might be happening? Is it just cause the tips are fresh? Or is it because of how the weight is set on my tone arms or anything like that?

As you can see I know very little about these things.

 

[muzzadj]

what do you need to have it at for it to be normal? nothing wrong with 10 o clock or so

 

[miszt]

the less gain u have to add to any audio signal, the better, dont worry about! adding gain adds noise. cant help on why your new needles have increase the volume tho

 

[kieran t]

Only thing I cn think of is either ur leads are somehow fucked or ur mixers fucked. May b the wrong line or channel

 

[J.M.]

Easy peeps.

So I just got back on the mixing after a 2 month hiatus, bought some new tips for my Ortofon Nightclub Mk2's and a bunch of new tracks.

However now my turntables are red lighting even when the gain is set at neutral (the 12 o'clock position). I actually have to turn the gain down into the negative in order to avoid this. Any idea why this might be happening? Is it just cause the tips are fresh? Or is it because of how the weight is set on my tone arms or anything like that?

As you can see I know very little about these things.

Dude, gain/trim doesn't work like the EQ's, it works as a boost to your channel volume. 12 o'clock on a gain is actually quite high, so getting down is a good thing and shows how bad your old needles actually were.

 

[kieran t]

Dude, gain/trim doesn't work like the EQ's, it works as a boost to your channel volume. 12 o'clock on a gain is actually quite high, so getting down is a good thing and shows how bad your old needles actually were.

Ye true that,
They musta been sum pretty fucked up needles haha I've had some shitters in my time

 

[Deleted member 65198]

Yeah I usually have the gain at about 8-10 o clock... Sometimes on really quiet vinyl I have to turn it up to 2... but that's not a big issue - as long as you know that you're red lighting and know how to counter it...

 

[Teddy]

on my pionner the usual trim level before redline is just a smigen below 0 depending on the track playing.

 

[DTR]

as long as you know that you're red lighting and know how to counter it...

This. There's nothing wrong ith the carts, needles, leads or anything else. Just set the gain so that it peaks just below the red. The actual position of the knob doesn't matter. Remember that records are pressed at different levels too.

 

[Deleted member 65198]

The actual position of the knob doesn't matter.

teehee

 

[simon_schoon]

Whats said above is correct, the position of the gain doesn't matter, what matters is that it is low enough to stop you redlighting. However if your using new carts then you should check whether your needles are set up properly. The packaging or a quick search online will tell you the correct weights, important to get that right to look after your records