Calibration

Make sure, when you click on estimate threshold

that you put the needle on the record
that the record is not moving
that the music is playing as loud as you expect it to play during the gig (you can play in internal mode on the other deck for example and crank the volume up)

Even if your circles are well rounded you could have some issues

stop the record, make sure that you only (!) see a small dot in the calibration boxes
if you see a line (diagonal, vertical, horizontal) there might be some noise coming in, this can be due to some bad grounding resulting in pops and crackles while you scratch
make sure there are not power lines near to the SSL box or the rca cables running the phono signal to the SSL box
make sure you have set the input level correctly. Turntables in general use the "phono" setting, CD players the "line" setting.

Acknowledgements

Credits for this article go out to: