Hi all,

I'm running into an annoying problem with echoes/reverberations when DJing in *small rooms*, which I'm trying to find a healthy solution to.

I understand that acoustics is a non-trivial topic that takes a very long time to learn, but I thought I'd ask for anyone's best tips anyways in case there could be an easy quick fix to this (probably typical) problem.


The problem is as follows. I'm used to doing all my mixing by directing all channels in my headphones through PFLs to avoid mixing to echos. (Of course, I'm also well able to use monitors to mix with just one ear, but I prefer to avoid these just to avoid some exposure to excessive sound volume as much as possible). When I'm DJing in small rooms (like home parties, or a small lounge at my day job workplace), I can always hear the PA's speaker output "bouncing off the walls" and coming back to me -- *through my headphones* while I'm mixing. When this happens I can clearly notice a delay between what I'm trying to mix and that reverb sound. It never stops. I keep hearing fast reverb effects coming back through the headphones, and this gets my beatmatching confused. The only way I've found to work this around is to raise the headphones's volume level loud enough so I don't hear the room's sound coming back to me anymore, only the PFLs. Yikes...... This is not very healthy for my ears, and gets me tired faster...

Strange enough, I never hear this echo/reverberation when DJ'ing in large rooms, or outside. Maybe this is due to speaker orientation never facing me, sound output power wearing out before reaching me back, or just luck so far? Looks like the distance between speakers and walls (which could bounce sound back) is a major factor. But this is just a guess.

Does anybody have any ideas on fixing this issue in small rooms? Should I invest in new, better headphones that could (hopefully) completely isolate my ears from ambient room noise? I'm currently using simple SONY MDR-CD170 headphones.

I can appreciate feedback from anyone's experience.
If switching to better headphones happens to be the best solution, trusted quality brands and models suggestions will also be appreciated.
Thanks!

This is why they have booth monitors.

Well, I did have monitors. They were simple, cheap, dumb 1W powered speakers, but I had them. The main PA output was rather low (so everybody around could talk easily), this wasn't a big loud party. Still, even when cranking up the monitors, I could still hear echos/reverbs of the main PA output back into my headphones.

1W != a monitor. You need to have something decent to drown out the main system and any reflections.

Hi all,

FYI:

I just had a party at that same location. I found out that most of the annoying echo I was getting was due to the fact that since this was a small indoor party, we were using a Home Theather system (amp, eq, speakers) as a cheap PA system. Well, that device had "5.1 surround sound" enabled, and the "rear" speakers were actually creating a voluntary echo, which was getting me confused! (ahah!)

Solved:

1) Used a much better receiver that was set to have its "5.1 surround sound" capabilities DISABLED.

2) Used "better" monitors - small Behringer MS-16 powered speakers (8W each, enough for an indoor party).

3) Used the great Pioneer HDJ-1000 headphones (those are awesome, they isolated all of the ambiant sound and had a great/rich bass reproduction).

Mystery solved. No more echoes.

Cheers!

--
DJ SIX

just going to throw this in, for any new players that may stumble on this, as i see this alot -

it looks much nicer to have everything lined up straight(speaker cabinets, table / or equipment rack, etc) but usually this will just bounce back off the wall you are facing giving you symptoms just like you are describing. (obviously much worse with surround on - )

remove this as much as possible by turning them towards the center slightly and facing them into the opposite corners of the wall they are facing.