Dj Chachi
This is for the newbie’s
Are you having problems with the needle skipping? Well here are the settings I have on my TT’s. It work for me I sure hope it works for you.
First make sure the rubber foots are all the way in (up) this way you don’t have the platter higher on one side and lower on the other.
Second the weight, height and anti skip are different for each particular needle plus you have to add to that your personal preference, in other words, what works for you.
Third remember that when you buy new needles you have to give them what I call a break in (mechanical term) for the needle to settle down. When I buy a new needle I put the counter weight all the way in, and put the needle on top or a record without spinning and leave it there for a day or two, this gives the needle some time to settle down (break in) making it less bouncy. Don’t try scratching with new needles, let them get adjusted.
Now let me show you my needles; Stanton 680AL.
You are not going to find these needles, they are old as hell. I bought these on 1990 but I hardly use them, they had like 50 hrs use before I put them to work for good, they do very little damage to the record and they also have a good sound quality. They have a newer version and style that you can find tho. I remember that when these needles were brand new, I couldn’t scratch with them, YEAH I KNOW right out the box I wanted to scratch with them; now they work like Sure M-44, they handle very fast scratching with now problem.
This is the height on my tone arm.
How I got to that height conclusion? Well very easy. First I use a small level and made sure the TT was completely level in all directions. Then I rest the needle on top of a record without spinning and balance the level on top of the S of the tone arm (SL1200 has a S style arm) wasn’t easy tho, but I did it, then I started adjusting the height of the tone arm until it was completely flat, or level I might say. With these needles this came up to a 2. (Remember this is going to change depending on how high is the style of the needles and how thick is your slipmat)
This is my Antiskate Setting
On these needles Stanton’s specification dictate that antiskate should be 0, I used that as a starting point. What I did was started scratching with different records at different speeds “33 & 45” with different antiskate settings and I wrote down all the settings, after try & error I came up with the best working setting for my TT’s and needles.
My Tone Arm Counter Weight Setting
Some Scratch Dj’s prefer taking the counter weight off of the tone arm and flip it so the numbers face out, away from the needle. By doing this the numbers will no longer have any meaning for calibration. They say that this setting allows more weight to be put on the needles resulting in less skipping. Well I don’t like it and I don’t want to over weight my needles for reasons beyond the scope of this small article, plus I like using the numbers, for example when I am mixing I set my needles with 3.5 to 4 grams pressure, then when I know I’m going to do some heavy scratching, I rotate the counter weight one more turn for that 1 or 1.5 extra gram of pressure.
When the needles were new after what I like to call the break in, (you know the one or two days the needle resting on top of the record with the counter weight all the way in) I started using 3 grams of pressure. In about two weeks or so I was already using the 5 grams with no problem.
These are the specs for my needles:
Stanton Specs
"0" antiskate setting
"4" tone arm height setting without headshell weight;
"5" if using extra weight
2 to 5 grams stylus pressure setting.
As you can see my settings differ a lot from those of the manufacture.
Well here you have it, TT’s setting demystify, I hope this is of some use for some of you guys.
Feel free to ask, share, add or comment on this matter and sorry for the Spelling and Grammar, I don't write much in English, just trying to share my 2 cents.
Are you having problems with the needle skipping? Well here are the settings I have on my TT’s. It work for me I sure hope it works for you.
First make sure the rubber foots are all the way in (up) this way you don’t have the platter higher on one side and lower on the other.
Second the weight, height and anti skip are different for each particular needle plus you have to add to that your personal preference, in other words, what works for you.
Third remember that when you buy new needles you have to give them what I call a break in (mechanical term) for the needle to settle down. When I buy a new needle I put the counter weight all the way in, and put the needle on top or a record without spinning and leave it there for a day or two, this gives the needle some time to settle down (break in) making it less bouncy. Don’t try scratching with new needles, let them get adjusted.
Now let me show you my needles; Stanton 680AL.
You are not going to find these needles, they are old as hell. I bought these on 1990 but I hardly use them, they had like 50 hrs use before I put them to work for good, they do very little damage to the record and they also have a good sound quality. They have a newer version and style that you can find tho. I remember that when these needles were brand new, I couldn’t scratch with them, YEAH I KNOW right out the box I wanted to scratch with them; now they work like Sure M-44, they handle very fast scratching with now problem.
This is the height on my tone arm.
How I got to that height conclusion? Well very easy. First I use a small level and made sure the TT was completely level in all directions. Then I rest the needle on top of a record without spinning and balance the level on top of the S of the tone arm (SL1200 has a S style arm) wasn’t easy tho, but I did it, then I started adjusting the height of the tone arm until it was completely flat, or level I might say. With these needles this came up to a 2. (Remember this is going to change depending on how high is the style of the needles and how thick is your slipmat)
This is my Antiskate Setting
On these needles Stanton’s specification dictate that antiskate should be 0, I used that as a starting point. What I did was started scratching with different records at different speeds “33 & 45” with different antiskate settings and I wrote down all the settings, after try & error I came up with the best working setting for my TT’s and needles.
My Tone Arm Counter Weight Setting
Some Scratch Dj’s prefer taking the counter weight off of the tone arm and flip it so the numbers face out, away from the needle. By doing this the numbers will no longer have any meaning for calibration. They say that this setting allows more weight to be put on the needles resulting in less skipping. Well I don’t like it and I don’t want to over weight my needles for reasons beyond the scope of this small article, plus I like using the numbers, for example when I am mixing I set my needles with 3.5 to 4 grams pressure, then when I know I’m going to do some heavy scratching, I rotate the counter weight one more turn for that 1 or 1.5 extra gram of pressure.
When the needles were new after what I like to call the break in, (you know the one or two days the needle resting on top of the record with the counter weight all the way in) I started using 3 grams of pressure. In about two weeks or so I was already using the 5 grams with no problem.
These are the specs for my needles:
Stanton Specs
"0" antiskate setting
"4" tone arm height setting without headshell weight;
"5" if using extra weight
2 to 5 grams stylus pressure setting.
As you can see my settings differ a lot from those of the manufacture.
Well here you have it, TT’s setting demystify, I hope this is of some use for some of you guys.
Feel free to ask, share, add or comment on this matter and sorry for the Spelling and Grammar, I don't write much in English, just trying to share my 2 cents.
Inviato Tue 20 Jan 09 @ 3:44 am
AudioDelite
whats up man,
i used to dj with the hercules rmx but now i wanna get into turntables and so i need some help setting up my equipment.
i just wanted to know how do you set up the turntable weights and the antiskates.
i mostly beat mix hip hop music but would like to start scratching into my mixes, not extensively though,
this is what i use for my equipment:
virtual dj pro 5.2.1
numark ttx tts
numark cc1 cartridges
numark ppd01 for a mixer
hercules rmx for a soundcard
ssl2 tcvs
ANY ADVICE AND SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME AND HIGHLY APPRECIATED! THANKS so much!
i used to dj with the hercules rmx but now i wanna get into turntables and so i need some help setting up my equipment.
i just wanted to know how do you set up the turntable weights and the antiskates.
i mostly beat mix hip hop music but would like to start scratching into my mixes, not extensively though,
this is what i use for my equipment:
virtual dj pro 5.2.1
numark ttx tts
numark cc1 cartridges
numark ppd01 for a mixer
hercules rmx for a soundcard
ssl2 tcvs
ANY ADVICE AND SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME AND HIGHLY APPRECIATED! THANKS so much!
Inviato Mon 09 Mar 09 @ 9:39 am