Bought new needle tips, now my turntables are red lighting

Goosey_J

Goosey_J

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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.
 
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
 
Goosey_J said:
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.
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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.
 
J.M. said:
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.
Click to expand...

Ye true that,
They musta been sum pretty fucked up needles haha I've had some shitters in my time
 
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...
 
on my pionner the usual trim level before redline is just a smigen below 0 depending on the track playing.
 
Smickus said:
as long as you know that you're red lighting and know how to counter it...
Click to expand...

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.
 
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
 
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