The DJ Groove

Troubleshooting M-Audio Firewire Distortion Issues

If you ever pick up an M-Audio Firewire Sound card, you might become one of the no-so-lucky customers that experience distortion when playing music through iTunes or WinAmp. There are numerous recommendations on the internet that may not work for everyone.

Here were my symptoms and what was happening to me:

While playing an mp3 in iTunes, any large data transfers like syncing your iPod at the same time may cause distortion. Shutting down iTunes and iTunesHelper.exe sometimes helped but required a reboot most of the time.
While copying large amounts of data from an external hard drive, my M-Audio Sound card would disappear from the Device Manager completely. Re-scanning for hardware didnt work so rebooting was required.
If at anytime any of the above occurred, the same problem existed within WinAmp.

Various Recommendations from the internet:

Adjust Quicktime settings
Rollback Quicktime and/or iTunes
Turn off the EQ within iTunes
Turn off the Sound Enhancer within iTunes
Update drivers for M-Audio Firewire series
reinstall firewire card drivers.
etc, etc

After days of troubleshooting, I determined that it was basically a problem with either the M-Audio Firewire sound card or the Firewire bus itself. Since my Dynex firewire expansion card was brand new from Best Buy...I figured it were the sound card drivers. Nope. Even the latest sound card drivers didnt fix it.

My Solution/Fix:

Return that P.O.S. Dynex Firewire expansion card
Replace it with a card that had the Texas Instruments (TI) Chipset.

Voila. Problem fixed. Yea it costs a little more when it has a TI chipset but you get what you pay for and when you need stability for DJing, Studio Recording, Mixing, or Video editing via Firewire, using a name brand card with a reputable chipset manufacturer will be beneficial. Why would you put yourself through the stress of trying to perform live with a possibility of distortion?

Scratch on your Nintendo DS using ProteinDS App

The Nintendo DS has been used as a music player but the Protein DS application (currently in beta) impressively allows you to scratch audio files.

40 DJ Business Cards Ready-To-Order

We now have a total of 40 DJ Business Card designs available in our catalog!

See the new DJ Business Cards

Business Cards and Stationary are NOW ON SALE! Create your customized *DJ* business card or stationary ONLINE in less than 5 minutes! If you need *DJ* Business cards, Night Club Business Cards, or any other profession, this online business card builder can provide you with over 10,000 business card designs. Customize your business card design online and have high-quality prints in about 2 weeks.

To check out the online Business Card Designer and view more Sale prices, click below:
Online Business Card Builder

View the DJ Business Card Selection

American Audio Introduces the SDJ-1: DJ From an SD Card

American Audio has introduced two new pro audio units that let you carry your music around on an SD card: the SDJ-1 dual SD player; and the Q-SD, a 19" 4-channel mixer combined with an SD player. Both units have built-in SD slots that allow them to read MP3 files directly from SD cards without any external drives, additional software, computers or separate MP3 players required.

Read More about the American Audio SDJ-1

Amazon.com Black Friday Deals

Amazon.com will be offering hourly deals from 6am to 6pm PST along with thousands of products on sale for a limited time. Also, customers will get gift wrapping for $.99 per item.

These deals that we've seen are awesome and we wanted to pass it along. Click here to see Amazon.com Black Friday Deals

DaVinciAudio Labs Releases Luxury Edition Turntable

Got money burning a hole in your pocket? Win the lottery and get yourself one of the finest yet most expensive turntables. DaVinciAudio Labs released a work of art with their DaVinciAudio Labs Luxury Edition Turntable. This beauty features Highly stable drive chassis an sound dampened base to ensure no acoustics affect sound quality as well as silent bearings. The tone arm is separated from the main turntable chassis to eliminate any motor resonance.

Price as shown?: $41,250

Also available in black/silver for $35,400 for you cheap skates!

Cortex Digital Music Controllers

The Cortex USB-compatible digital music controller was named "Best Product Line 2007" at the NAME Conference. The HDC-1000 is a rack mountable interface while the HDTT-5000 is the turntable-style controller. The first of it's kind, gives DJs the power to cue, play, manipulate, and even scratch digital files. Our "intelligent music database management" system allows users to find any track lightning fast by artist, title, genre, words or phrases; play them with ultra-precise pitch resolution.

The controllers also allows you to search digital music files from a wide array of storage devices (up to 4 with an external USB hub) including the iPod, external USB hard-drives and flash drives, CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives.

You can display a track's waveform for visual cues using the large screen which also shows detailed track information and detailed file explorer and search options.

The HDTT-5000 has a retail price of $1,499.95. More info at www.cortex-pro.com.

Amazon Friday Sale on Ion USB Turntable $106.95 Free Shipping!

Today only! Get the Ion USB Turntable for only $106.95 (Free Shipping) from Amazon.com.

Features:

USB 1.1 turntable that makes it a snap to convert vinyl collection to CD or MP3 formats
Includes Audacity PC/Mac recording software and trial version of Bias Soundsoap 2
Adjustable anti-skating control for increased stereo balancing
Support for high-speed vinyl recording; works with both 33-1/3 and 45 rpm speeds

Excellent Deal on Aluminum CD Case

Meritline.com has an amazing deal on a 510 CD/DVD Hard Plastic/Aluminum MEGA Case with 255 Self Cleaning 255 Sleeves at only $33.99 shipped free. Use Code: AC1800626OFF (Exp: 08/22)

Best and Worst 10 Headphones

After doing some research, we have found various sites with different ratings for products. Expert and End user opinions seem to differ greatly based on endorsement. Here is our picks for Best and Worst 10 headphones for consumers. This includes headphones of ALL types and not just DJ headphones.

Best 10 Overall Headphones

Shure SE420
Shure SE310
Shure SE210
Shure E500PTH
Etymotic ety8
Sennheiser CX 300
Logitech FreePulse Wireless Headphones
Bose QuietComfort 3
Audio Technica ATH-ANC7 Quietpoint headphones
Ultimate Ears triple.fi 10 Pro

Worst 10 Overall Headphones

Koss KSC22
Sony MDR-101LP
Sony MDR-G52LP Consumer Headphones
Koss TD 80
Sony MDR-NC5
Sony MDR-NC20
Sennheiser RS85 Wireless Hi-Fi Stereo Headphone Sy
Plantronics M 130
Koss R-80 Consumer Headphones
Grado RS1