ALLEN & HEATH XONE DX User Manual
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ALLEN & HEATH XONE DX User Manual

Xone:dx professional dj controller
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USER GUIDE
Publication AP7820
Allen & Heath User Guide for XONE:DX with Serato ITCH 1.6
1

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  • Page 1 USER GUIDE Publication AP7820 Allen & Heath User Guide for XONE:DX with Serato ITCH 1.6...

  • Page 2: Warranty

    Limited One Year Warranty This product is warranted to be free from defects in materials or workmanship for period of one year from the date of purchase by the original owner. To ensure a high level of performance and reliability for which this equipment has been designed and manufactured, read this User Guide before operating.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    CONTENTS Warranty..........Packed Items ........Power Supply........System Requirements ....... Software Installation Mac....Software Installation PC....Panel Drawings ........Rear Connectors....... Front Panel Connectors ....Mixer Section ........Master Section ........Library Navigation......Transport Controls......Hotcue Points ........Looping..........Beatgrid / Sync / Autotempo ..Advanced Play Features....

  • Page 4: Packed Items

    PACKED ITEMS Check that you have received the following: Safety Sheet Important ! Read this sheet before starting. Retain for future reference. Xone:DX Professional DJ Controller. Check that the rear panel optical out blank plug is fitted. Type A-B USB Lead To connect the Xone:DX to your computer.

  • Page 5: Power Supply

    POWER SUPPLY The Xone:DX contains its own Universal Voltage Input Power Supply unit with inter- changeable heads for territory specific mains electricity outlets. The power supply comes with a pin protector that needs to be removed before the de- sired head can be fitted. To remove the pin protector, pull down on the release mechanism and pull the protector out from the bottom.

  • Page 6: System Requirements

    SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS PLEASE NOTE: These are the minimum requirements to run ITCH with the Allen & Heath Xone:DX. For best performance and for use in professional situations we recommend you buy a higher spec com- puter. The minimum system requirements are: •...

  • Page 7: Software Installation Mac

    SOFTWARE INSTALLATION - MAC Free updates to the ITCH software are available from http://www.serato.com/itch. We suggest you check the website for the latest version before installing. To begin installation: • Either Insert the Serato ITCH install CD into your computers CD drive and browse to it using ‘Finder’. •...
  • Page 8 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION - MAC 4. Confirm the install location and click ‘Install’. 5. ITCH will now be installed. 6. A confirmation screen will appear when the install is complete. STARTING THE SOFTWARE The ITCH software is installed in your applications folder. To start ITCH, double click the ITCH icon in your applications folder.

  • Page 9: Software Installation Pc

    SOFTWARE INSTALLATION - PC Free updates to the ITCH software are available from http://www.serato.com/itch. We suggest you check the website for the latest version before installing. The installer should start automatically, if not: • Either Insert the Serato ITCH install CD into your computer’s CD drive and browse to it using Windows Ex- plorer.
  • Page 10 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION - PC 4. ‘Complete’ will perform a standard installation. Click ‘Next’ to continue. 5. Confirm the installation options and click ‘Install’. 6. ITCH will now be installed. 7. A confirmation screen will appear when installation is complete. STARTING THE SOFTWARE The ITCH software is installed in the following location: WINDOWS XP: Start >...

  • Page 11: Panel Drawings

    PANEL DRAWINGS Allen & Heath User Guide for XONE:DX with Serato ITCH 1.6...

  • Page 12: Rear Connectors

    REAR CONNECTORS BALANCED MIX OUTPUT Phase inverted balanced Mix (Soundcard Output 1-2) outputs on XLR-3 sockets. For unbalanced operation use Pin 2 and Ground—DO NOT SHORT PIN 3 TO GROUND. UNBALANCED MIX OUTPUT Mix (Soundcard Output 1-2) output on RCA Phono sockets. BOOTH OUTPUT Booth (Soundcard Output 3-4) output on RCA Phono sockets.
  • Page 13 REAR CONNECTORS 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 DECK 4 INPUT SELECT SWITCH Switch to select Deck 4 input between LINE and MIC. DECK 4 INPUT RCA Phono sockets for external connection to Deck 4 (Soundcard Input 7-8). DECK 3 INPUT SELECT SWITCH Switch to select Deck 3 input between PHONO and LINE.
  • Page 14 REAR CONNECTORS 16 17 18 SPDIF DIGITAL INPUT AND OUTPUTS SPDIF is a popular digital audio interfacing standard for connecting two channel (stereo) audio using a single COAX (RCA phono socket) or OPTICAL (TOSLINK socket) cable. For reliable connection use a 75 ohm COAX cable intended for this function. Avoid the use of cheap audio cables.

  • Page 15: Front Panel Connectors

    FRONT PANEL CONNECTORS HEADPHONES OUTPUTS Stereo 1/4” TRS jack and 3.5mm mini-jack. Plug in good quality stereo headphones intended for DJ monitoring. Use closed-ear headphones that provide maximum acoustic isolation when cueing your sources. We recommend that you use high quality headphones rated between 30 to 100 ohms impedance.

  • Page 16: Mixer Section

    MIXER SECTION The Xone:DX mixer section allows control of all four deck channels simultaneously, regardless of which deck layer is chosen. THRU mode may also be selected on each channel, allowing the playback of exter- nal audio sources such as turntables or CD players. FX1 AND FX2 ASSIGN The Xone:DX features two effects processors FX1 and FX2.
  • Page 17 MIXER SECTION CROSSFADE / CROSSFADE ASSIGN Each of the Xone:DX’s four channels can be assigned to either side of the crossfader, or disabled altogether if needed. Set the XFADE toggle switch to the left to assign the channel to the X (left side), or to the right to assign the channel to the Y (right side) of the crossfader.

  • Page 18: Master Section

    MASTER SECTION CHANNEL METERS The Channel Meters display the level of the Main Mix Bus. The meter display is sourced pre Master level and so does not represent the signal level on the outputs. During normal operation the meters display the level of the left and right channel of the program material.

  • Page 19: Library Navigation

    LIBRARY NAVIGATION The library contains all the music that you have added to ITCH. By using ‘Browse’ and ‘Search’ you can easily narrow down your selection to find the track you want. TIP: You can change the size of your library text by using the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + and Ctrl -. HARDWARE NAVIGATION CONTROLS AREA - Pressing the AREA button will toggle between ‘Files’, ‘Crates’...
  • Page 20 LIBRARY NAVIGATION BROWSING Press the VIEW button to open the ‘Browse’ panel. Use the SCROLL KNOB to navigate the ‘Browse’ panel. The ‘Browse’ panel will open above the main file library. The filters are ‘genre’, ‘BPM’, ‘artist’, and ‘album’. You can narrow down your search by selecting the specific genre, BPM or name of the track you’re look- ing for and ITCH will show the results on the main library window.

  • Page 21: Transport Controls

    TRANSPORT CONTROLS ASSIGNING A DECK The Allen and Heath Xone:DX has the ability to control 4 virtual decks, with a layer switchable deck se- lection for the left and right deck controls. By pressing the LAYER button on deck 1/2 you will switch between controlling either virtual deck 1 or virtual deck 2 inside ITCH with the left hand deck controls.
  • Page 22 TRANSPORT CONTROLS PLATTER The Xone:DX platters have different modes depending on what state of play the virtual decks are in. SCRUB MODE (PAUSED) When the track is paused, the platters are set to SCRUB mode. Platter movements push the track forwards and backwards to find a specific part of the audio, much like moving a record.

  • Page 23: Hotcue Points

    HOTCUE POINTS HOTCUE POINTS The Xone:DX features controls for four hotcue slots. To create a hotcue point, press one of the HOT- CUE buttons for the deck. The button will light up to show that there is a point set. To delete a hotcue point hold SHIFT and press the HOTCUE button for the point you want to delete.

  • Page 24: Looping

    LOOPING LOOPING There are three different types of looping you can use in ITCH; Manual, Auto-Loop and Loop Roll. ITCH automatically defaults to Auto-Loop mode. Loop areas show up green in the main waveform dis- play. AUTO LOOP Auto looping allows you to create loops that will automatically sync in time with the music. This is great for creating loops on the fly and other creative mixing techniques.
  • Page 25 LOOPING MANUAL LOOPS To create a manual loop you must enter an IN and an OUT point allowing you to create unique loops or loop lengths for music, for which you don’t have BPM information. Scrub through the track until you find the desired loop start and press the IN button in the Loop Section.

  • Page 26: Beatgrid / Sync / Autotempo

    BEATGRID / SYNC / AUTO TEMPO THE BEATGRID A beatgrid is a series of markers within a track that indicate a beat or a transient within the music struc- ture. A beatgrid allows ITCH to know precisely where each beat occurs, and where each bar is within the mu- sic structure.
  • Page 27 BEATGRID / SYNC / AUTO TEMPO SET A BEAT MARKER Pressing SET will place another marker at the playhead position. The Beat Marker will snap to the closest transient SETTING A BEAT MARKER WHEN PLAYING A TRACK When you press SET when playing a track you can tap in markers.
  • Page 28 BEATGRID / SYNC / AUTO TEMPO transients at that time but does not aim to keep the tracks' tempos matched. If you have dropped your next track in but it’s not quite in time, by pressing SYNC you can perform an automatic beat sync. Pressing the SYNC button will snap the current/slave track’s beat with the master track’s beat (see ‘Master Clock/Slave’...

  • Page 29: Advanced Play Features

    ADVANCED PLAY FEATURES KEY LOCK Normally when changing the speed of a track you will hear a change in the pitch of the music. With KEYLOCK on, when you change the speed the pitch will stay the same. This is useful to avoid two tracks sounding out of tune when mixing them together.

  • Page 30: Effect Units

    EFFECT UNITS The Xone:DX features two effects processors. Each mixer channel can be sent to either or both of the effect units. DEPTH The DEPTH knob controls the amount the effect is applied to the control signal. The MOD DEPTH knob controls the modulation depth or feedback of the effect. The X knob controls extra effect parameters.
  • Page 31 EFFECT UNITS SELECTING AN EFFECT Press the SELECT EFFECT button to enter effect select mode. Rotate the TIME/ACTIVATE knob to scroll through the effects list inside ITCH pressing the ACTIVATE knob down to select. FX CUE (SHIFT Mode) Pressing SHIFT and the SELECT EFFECT button will send the effected signal to audition on your head- phones.

  • Page 32: Effect Types

    EFFECT TYPES This chapter describes the basic effects shipped with the Xone:DX and ITCH 1.6. Check online for new updates and new effect types: www.serato.com/downloads/itch REVERB Reverb is a series of small natural delays or reverberations of the audio signal, creating a spacious atmos- pheric trail such as you would hear in a cave or in an enclosed space.
  • Page 33 EFFECTS TYPES EFFECT TYPES TREMOLO The Tremolo modulates the signal volume, lowering and increasing it rhythmically to the set time divi- sions, as if you were performing a series of cuts on the mixer’s cross fader. The TIME knob determines the rate of the volume drop, while the FEEDBACK knob modifies the modulation on the signal volume.

  • Page 34: Direct Input

    DIRECT INPUT In the unlikely event of a software or computer failure, the Xone:DX has a Direct Input system that al- lows an external audio source to be played through its balanced output stage while the software or com- puter is restarted. It is also possible to perform a hard reset on the soundcard whilst the software or computer is shut down.

  • Page 35: Software Overview

    SOFTWARE OVERVIEW The above screenshot displays the ITCH software. To achieve a detailed overview, the software GUI will be split into the following sections: BROWSER / LIBRARY EFFECTS MASTER SECTION DECKS WAVEFORM / BEATGRID Allen & Heath User Guide for XONE:DX with Serato ITCH 1.6...
  • Page 36 SOFTWARE OVERVIEW - BROWSER / LIBRARY ALBUM ART Displays the cover art for the selected album. FILES Displays the Files Panel, which enables you to search any connected hard drives for tracks to import into your library. BROWSE Displays the Browse Panel, which enables you to browse your library for tracks by genre, BPM, artist and album.
  • Page 37 SOFTWARE OVERVIEW - BROWSER / LIBRARY SEARCH - Searches your library for the text entered in this field. SEARCH - Searches your library for the text entered in this field. LIBRARY - Displays the songs available in your current selection. LIBRARY - Displays the songs available in your current selection.
  • Page 38 SOFTWARE OVERVIEW - EFFECTS CURRENT EFFECT The currently selected effect applied to the channel. DEPTH The amount of CURRENT EFFECT applied to the selected audio sources. PARAMETER 1 (MOD DEPTH) The first parameter for the CURRENT EFFECT. PARAMETER 2 (INTENSITY) The second parameter for the CURRENT EFFECT.
  • Page 39 SOFTWARE OVERVIEW - MASTER SECTION MASTER SYNC Displays which decks are syncing to the Master Clock. MASTER CLOCK Displays the current Master Tempo. RECORD BUTTON Starts / stops recording. TEMPO MATCH DISPLAY Displays tempos of all tracks to visually aid mixing. RECORDING TIMER Timer for current recording.
  • Page 40 SOFTWARE OVERVIEW - VIRTUAL DECKS VIRTUAL DECK FOCUS Displays the currently focused deck layer. ARTIST NAME Artist tag for the current track. AUTOLOOP VALUE Shows the current autoloop setting in beats. TRACK NAME Title tag for the current track. PLAYBACK MODE Toggles between single and continuous playback modes.
  • Page 41 SOFTWARE OVERVIEW - VIRTUAL DECKS TRACK OVERVIEW An overview of the currently loaded track’s entire waveform. PITCH RANGE Displays the current value of the Pitch Range. PITCH Applied pitch offset as a percentage. TRACK TIME DISPLAY Displays the current position of the playhead in the track. BPM FIELD / TAP BUTTON Displays the track’s BPM.
  • Page 42 SOFTWARE OVERVIEW - WAVEFORM / BEATGRID WAVEFORM FOCUS Displays the currently focused waveform. WAVEFORM Waveform of the currently loaded track. BEATGRID BEAT MARKER A thick red line will indicate a manually set Beat Marker. BEATGRID BAR DIVISIONS Each bar is divided up into four thin line divisions. BEATGRID MARKER The beginning of each beatgrid bar.

  • Page 43: Main Screen Overview

    MAIN SCREEN OVERVIEW VIRTUAL DECK The virtual deck shows the speed and position of a track. When a track is loaded to the virtual deck it will change from black to white with a black stripe. As the track progresses, the virtual deck will rotate. The circular progress bar around the edge is a visual representation of the position within the track, and will begin flashing 20 seconds from the end of the track to warn you that the track is nearing its end.
  • Page 44 MAIN SCREEN OVERVIEW TRACK OVERVIEW DISPLAY This area provides a complete overview of the waveform of the track and includes a marker to show the current position within the track. This view is useful for finding transitions within the track. The wave- form is coloured according to the spectrum of the sound;...

  • Page 45: Importing Music

    IMPORTING MUSIC ADDING FILES TO THE ITCH LIBRARY There are several ways to add files to your ITCH library: Press the AREA button on the Allen & Heath Xone:DX until the files panel opens in ITCH where you can browse your hard drives for music to add. Loading a file to either deck from the files panel will automatically add it to your library.

  • Page 46: Preparing Files

    PREPARING FILES ANALYZING FILES Before you play your music in ITCH it is very important to analyze your files first. The analyze files func- tion processes the tracks in your library to detect file corruption, prepare the waveform overviews, and if enabled, calculate the BPM values.

  • Page 47: Organising Your Library

    ORGANISING YOUR LIBRARY ITCH can support an unlimited number of tracks – the only limitation is the size of the hard drive of your computer. A number of features are included to help you to keep your music organized and find tracks quickly and easily.
  • Page 48 ORGANISING YOUR LIBRARY SETTING UP COLUMNS The track information display area can be customized to display any of the columns listed below. • album • filename • location • artist • genre • remixer • bitrate • grouping • sampling rate •...
  • Page 49 ORGANISING YOUR LIBRARY LIBRARY MANAGEMENT RESCAN ID3 TAGS The Rescan ID3 tags button is found in the Files panel and re-reads file tags for the entire library. Use this function if you have edited or modified file tags in other software. TIP: Rescanning the tags is a handy way to identify any files that can’t be found, for example, if the files have been re-named or moved.

  • Page 50: History

    HISTORY Pressing the history button in ITCH opens History Panel. This is a complete log of all the tracks you have played (in sessions) and allows you to export your ITCH session information as a data file. Each session is catalogued by date and time.
  • Page 51 HISTORY Export You can export each session as a data file using the export button. Select a session, then choose your preferred file format, and click export. There are three possible export formats: • text - to create a simple text file with your session information contained within. •...

  • Page 52: Recording And Auxiliary Inputs

    RECORDING AND AUXILIARY INPUTS RECORDING ITCH can capture recordings of your mix output, mic, or aux input channels. Recording controls are grouped into a strip below the Master Clock section. Select the source to record from the drop down menu. The recording meter shows the signal level that will be recorded to disk. The Mix source records the master output signal, post faders and EQ, pre master gain.

  • Page 53: Additional Setup

    ADDITIONAL SETUP The setup screen allows you to customize elements of ITCH to how you want them to work. Click the associated tabs to switch between five groups of options; Hardware, Playback, Library, Display, and Mixer. The version and build number of ITCH are displayed in the lower left hand corner of the setup screen. Also located here is the check for updates button.
  • Page 54 ADDITIONAL SETUP PLAYBACK OPTIONS GENERAL: PLAYBACK KEYS USE SHIFT With this option on, all cue point, loop, and general playback keys on the computer keyboard require Shift or Caps Lock to function. LOCK PLAYING DECK When this option is checked, you can only load a track to a deck if it is paused. HI-FI RESAMPLER This significantly reduces digital distortion at very slow or very fast playback speeds, increasing the CPU load slightly.
  • Page 55 ADDITIONAL SETUP BRAKING This controls how fast the track stops when the deck is paused. Counter-clockwise, the stop is immedi- ate. Clockwise rotation increases the stopping time from a finger grab all the way to a slow turntable power-down. RECORDING: BIT DEPTH Select the recording bit depth as either 16 Bit or 24 Bit.
  • Page 56 ADDITIONAL SETUP SHOW ALL FILE TYPES Enable this option to show all files when importing tracks into your library. If this option is not selected, only files that ITCH can play will be displayed. INCLUDE SUBCRATE TRACKS Displays the tracks from any subcrates in their parent crate. With this off browsing in a crate will not show tracks that are in any subcrates of that crate.
  • Page 57 ADDITIONAL SETUP MIXER OPTIONS GENERAL: DISABLE CROSSFADER Disables the cross fader. Gives you the option to select either 6DB or 12DB of gain for your equalizers. OVERDRIVE: Turns up the mix output level. HEADPHONE Turns up the headphone volume. NOTE: Adding overdrive can reduce audio quality so is only recommended if you are encountering problems with your output levels.

  • Page 58: Whitelabel Audio Files

    WHITELABEL AUDIO FILES Whitelabel audio files are a unique file format (file extension wl.mp3) developed by Serato. They are spe- cially prepared for use in ITCH, with files pre-analyzed, tagged with song and artist info, BPM and album art where possible. Whitelabel audio files play as high quality 320kbps stereo audio in ITCH with an ITCH controller at- tached.

  • Page 59: Troubleshooting And Support

    TROUBLESHOOTING AND SUPPORT TROUBLESHOOTING The following suggestions may help you if you are experiencing poor performance with ITCH. • Check for updates using the check for updates button in the setup screen or by visiting http://www.serato.com/itch • Close all other open programs Disable wireless and wired networking connections ...

  • Page 60: Corrupt Files

    CORRUPT FILES Corrupt file: This MP3 contains invalid frames. This MP3 contains frames which do not conform strictly to the offi- cial MP3 specification. ITCH can not be certain that this file will play back 100% accurately. Corrupt file: This file contains corrupt frames that This file contains two or more contiguous corrupt frames.

  • Page 61: Midi Control Values-Mixer / Fx

    MIDI CONTROL VALUES - MIXER / FX SECTION F#-1 CC12 CC27 CC14 CC34 CC15 CC16 CC32 ▼ ▼E-1 Bb-1 CC17 CC25 C#-1 Eb-1 CC19 CC24 CC10 CC22 CC23 CC26 CC21 CC18 CC20 CC11 CC33 ▼G#0 G#-1 A-1 C#0 Bb-1 CC28 CC13 The MIDI messages transmitted from the MIXER and FX sections are as shown above.

  • Page 62: Midi Control Values-Virtual Decks

    MIDI CONTROL VALUES - VIRTUAL DECKS C#-1 Bb-1 ▼Eb0 C#-1 Bb-1 ▼Eb0 CC35 F#-1 F#-1 CC35 Eb-1 G#-1 Eb-1 G#-1 ▼F0 ▼F0 RED Layer Channel 13 RED Layer Channel 15 GREEN Layer Channel 14 GREEN Layer Channel 16 The MIDI messages transmitted from the virtual decks are as shown above. It can be seen that the note and controller values are the same for both the left and right-hand decks.

  • Page 63: Midi Return Values

    MIDI RETURN VALUES F#-1 C#-1 Eb-1 C#-1 C#-1 G#-1 G#-1 CC17 CC25 Bb-1 CC31 CC31 RED Layer Channel 13 MIXER / FX RED Layer Channel 15 GREEN Layer Channel 14 GREEN Layer Channel 16 Channel 12 The LED’s on the Xone:DX can be turned On and Off via MIDI messages that are received from soft- ware.

  • Page 64: Block Diagram

    BLOCK DIAGRAM Allen & Heath User Guide for XONE:DX with Serato ITCH 1.6...

  • Page 65: Specifications

    SPECIFICATIONS Frequency Response SC in to SC out 10 Hz to 20kHz +0/-1.0dB 96kHz Sample Rate 10 Hz to 30kHz +0/-3dB THD + N Line In to Line Out +8 dBu < 0.008% Maximum Output Level (Balanced) +14dBu Maximum Output Level (Unbalanced) +8dBu Maximum Input Level +9dBu...

  • Page 66: Registering Your Xone:dx

    REGISTERING YOUR XONE:DX See more products from ALLEN & HEATH at: www.allen-heath.com Large Live Sound mixers — iLive digital, ML and GL Series Small Format Live Sound mixers — ZED, Mix- Wizards and PA Series DJ products — Xone Series Sound Management Series —...

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