Sign In:     

Forum: Old versions

Topic: Needles

This topic is old and might contain outdated or incorrect information.

Just got a pair of new turntables on me, some numark ttx1s and the seller also included some shure white label needles. from what i understand, its more a sound quality/mix needle but he siad some scratching could be performed. i tried doing some but it was difficult to keep it still just holding the record and going back at forth as a reasonable speed. it would skip the track everywhere and wouldnt hold. i put weight at almost 3.5 grams and still wouldnt do much scratching wise. if this JUST the needle? would you guys suggest m447s?

i was just going to sell these because sound quality aint a biggie with timecodes lol. any other tips for starting with vinyls? VERY different that tccds im finding out lol
 
Posted Sat 30 May 09 @ 8:08 pm
It's not the needle, it's your tonearm. I assume you're currently using the S-shaped tone arms. What you need to do is swap them out for the straight tonearms. That will solve most of your problems right there but you also need to balance the tone arm correctly. Here's a video by DJ Qbert which shows you how to do it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIpRQ29PQS8 . By the way, 3.5 grams of weight on the headshell is too much weight, you're going to kill your needles and timecode vinyls pretty quick that way.
 
3.5 is on the back of the tone arm, not the headshell? think im saying that right. and the guy who sold me the turntables did not have the straight tone arms.. any way i can find some?

thanks...

and should i stick with these shure white labels? i do quite amount of scratching while mixing
 
i use shure m44-7, theeee best needles i HAVE EVER BOUGHT!! Hands down!! I have NUMARK TT-200's andMK2'S. The numarks are great cause of the straight arm, but my techs have a S arm. it took some adjusting but now i can scratch all DAY ON THE S-arms. Also if they were used, the stylus might not be as stiff as it was when new. i bought a used pair they did just as you had said, bounced all over, wouldnt track, just plain sucked. also like he said make sure your setup is balanced!! this is a must. Heres how i have mine (SHURE M44-7's) setup. mounted the CARTRIDGE ALL THE WAY AT THE FRONT OF THE HEADSHELL, SET THE TONEARM HEIGHT TO 2.5-3, and SET THE TRACKING FORCE TO 3.5 GRAMS then SET THE ANTI-SKATE CONTROL to 0.
My advice is, if you scratch alot then buy the SHURE M44-7's and set it up how i told you and you should have no problems with an S-ARM!!
Hope this helps you out.
STAY FRESH & KEEO IT FUNKY!!
 
thanks man, too late i ordered some straight tone arms. lol

but the needles are fine scratching wise, i was surprised. the only part that its not good at is backtracking/backspins.

when i beatjuggle and have to quickly backspin,it gets to the point i want it and when i start to bring the record forward, it kinda looses track and jumps back ever further. other than it it works perfectly.
 
cool,cool, glad you get it all straight. But if your a scratch dj i would really go with the m44-7.
STAY FRESH & KEEP IT FUNKY!!
 
im about to buy them really... really close. lol but from what i hear, they're amazing. switching from tccd to vinyl is a little more time consuming that i though, i keep hitting the damn tonearm when going for the pitch lmao
 
just installed the m44-7s. unfortunately the problem is still there with damn backspins, the program just dosnt keep up. used to when i used hybrid turntables.

i tried it both on 5.2.1 and on 6.0.1 and no different; on heavy back spins, even just touching the record back and forth sometimes will jump to some part in the song. perhaps its my vinyls? they're numark virtual vinyl discs, perhaps some of the first made....
 
Scratching is best when in "relative" mode and you have the "anti-skip" feature activated in the config menu. That will prevent audio skipping to another part of the song.
 
antiskip is activated, i was in smart relative, seems to be no difference.

thinking it might be the record... but really they're never used, just 4 years old. possible?
 
yeah i found no difference in scratching in any mode i choose. i hav 5.2 pro n 6.0.1 pro. both hav issues which i am trying to pan out. but gonna try the windows versions today.
 
I was just about to order myself some Ortofon cartridges...

Should I continue wit the order or get these Shure cartridges you speak of
 
wow! i am having the same issue as the guy above. i have 2 brand new numark ttx vinyl turntables. the problem im having is that when i stop the turntables manually or even pause it to prepare for a blend the timecode goes haywire and scrambles everywhere. it goes nuts everywhere. it to the point to where i dont like using my turntables and have been forced to be only a laptop dj. it sucks. i cant figure out why this happens. it only scrambles when i stop the record. any info would be appreciated! thanks for looking! add me on ... look me up by email xxxx

[mod] sorry no contact is permitted by no license user. thanks for the understanding - spinna
 


(Old topics and forums are automatically closed)