Recording analogue audio via the Z2 possible or do I need a second sound card?

Hello,

I've been using Traktor Scratch for around 10 years now. My setup: two vinyl decks, an Audio8, an external Ecler mixer and a Kontrol X1. Tempted by the current price drop of the Z2, I would like to replace the Audio8 and the Ecler mixer with the Z2. I thinks there still a use case for the X1 in combination with the Z2.

However, I was wondering how to record my sets. With the Audio 8, I have routed the recording output of my mixer to the 7/8 input of the Audio8. Can I do something similar with the Z2, for instance by routing the booth outputs to the Aux input, or is it possible even without external routing? Unfortunately this not much information on the internal sound card. Is it an Audio10, or does it have less inputs?

Or is it impossible to record my sets using the Z2, and would I still need a second sound card? In that case I don't see much value by replacing my current mixer.

I've tried to find an answer on this forum and on the web, but it seems to be a topic that's not covered at all.

I hope you can help me out with this. Thanks in advance!

 

Using Z2 with timecode works in internal mixer mode. This means you can record your set with the internal Mix Recorder and need to setup Record Source to Internal.

 

Thanks for unintentionally answering one other question I have,

I'd expected that when playing digital only I can use the internal recorder, which is now confirmed.

However,

What will happen when I play regular vinyls? Do I have to route everything through Traktor to be able to use the internal recorder, or do I have to reroute the mixer output externally to a dedicated input to be able to record?

 

for recording regular vinyl
- set both channels of Z2 to direct thru mode
- this activates the mixer inside the Z2
- the Z2 soundcard driver provides a virtual stereo output with the Master Out signal
- you select this output as recording source in Traktor, set Mix Recorder to External Input as you probably did the A8

Groeten naar Haarlem

 

Hello,

I recently purchased the Z2 mixer. I'm a former club DJ making the move to digital. I'm trying to digitize some of my album collection that I can't repurchase to use in Traktor Scratch Pro with a DVS home studio. I've tried recording using the settings described above. The recording levels are very low and the waveforms produced are too small to be of use for accurate beatgridding. I'm recording in direct thru mode with the the settings described in Chapter 14 of the Traktor Bible. I have to turn the gain on the mix recorder up very high to get a decent level in the recorder meters. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Many thanks.

 

Same here! And we are not the only ones!
https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/kontrol-z2-usb-7-8-record-output.197705/
So if you try to just digitize vinyl with the z2 - even with gain cranked all the way the recorded waveform / level is low.. What is the deal? Native instruments where's a fix? Can you do a firmware update to have the 7/8 to ableton post fader? Or something like that? Maybe have it so we can route ableton out into a channel too and not just direct to the master..?? I feel like I need to return this mixer..

 

Z2 is using the input signal of each channel. Even if you change the gain it will not change the recording level. Simply record from channel a or b (depending which side you want to record) and normalize the files after recording. It works great!

 

Yeah no thanks, that's not s solution but a work around. the mixer should have a post pre amp routing so we can set a good recording level.

 

Changing gain does change the recording volume but if cranked all the way it is still like 20dB lower than normal. The point of sampling vinyl is to get the rich sound that brings, but if the level is low you loose that. adding the extra processing of normalizing adds to a thin digital sound in my opinion.

 

This is true for analog recording but not for digital signals as far as I know. Since the signal is changed from analog to digital at the input of the mixer it should not make any difference to use the mixer gain or normalize the recording afterwards.

 

Digitizing vinyl this way with the Z2 mixer or like will need to be put through Ableton or like software to bump up the gain some, just make sure you save it at 320kb mp3 and use a min 24 bit depth and sample it at 44.1khz (eg. free garageband will not go this high) and the common sense stuff, fresh needles, etc.
i got the tip off of boosting the audio directly from the beat junkies and if its good enough for them is good enuf for me. they use Waves L2 plug in to boost the audio in Ableton. PEace all and good audio to everybody!