Laptop Soundcard

[geoffers 0]

Hi All,

 

I am thinking of making the move to pc djing and have been reading all the other threads which have been very helpful. I have a few other questions. is it okay to run the sound from the headphone socket on a laptop to the mixer and or amp ? or do you need to use an external sound card, if so can anyone recomend a good value one please ?

Thanks

Geoffers

[BigBen 0]

Hi Geoff, there are many threads detailing this very topic. Do a quick search and you'll find loads of detail. In summary, the headphone socket only provides a single channel so you can't listen to a second track, to cue up, if the laptop is already playing. Sound quality will be lost through the headphone socket too, although this won't matter too much if your components further down the line (mixer, amp, speakers, interconnects) or your source files (mp3's, wav's, wma's) aren't of a decent quality.

 

I use an old Tosh lappie and I use the headphone socket. A lot of the MP3's I use are 128kbps. As I upgraded my gear I began to notice just how bad some tracks sounded...the lappie is now only used as back-up or for ultra-quick track retrieval.

[Paul Smith 0]

ASIO, WDM and all the other things that I know little or nothing about all come into play when DJing from a laptop. If you use an external soundcard the quality will be superior to the installed one which, let's face it, is only there for a couple of very small speakers.

 

The other thing to consider is if you want to beatmatch etc etc because if you use an external soundcard for your output and then try to use the internal one for cueing then there will be a noticeable delay between the two. In this case you will need the external soundcard to be able to provide you with both sound sources.

 

I always keep a lead handy to plug in to the headphone socket 'just in case' but external does provide you with better quality - as for which one well expect half a dozen suggestions starting now. ......

[Award Entertainment 0]

I use the Xitel Pro HiFi Link for my primary output and the laptop's headphone socket for my secondary. I also have a standard Xitel HiFi Link as backup, just in case. They are an amazing product and incredible value for money when you see the cabling that comes with them for free!

[dj.silver 0]

I'm 100% laptop, I use Traktor software with the M-audio sound card. You can take your headphones from the sound card (front left on the photo) works a treat. It's a firewire connection. Cost, about £130 max. http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Fire...phile-main.html

Edited January 15, 2007 by dj.silver

[paraffinlamps 0]

I`ve tried a Soundblaster Live 24 bit external usb ( £40 from Argos) and currently I use a numark cm200usb mixer .Both work fine and sound quality seemed ok to me for the price .

I use them with PCDJ Red ( the old version not vrm ) and had no problem at all setting them up .The Soundblaster will give you 2 channels which you can put into 2 channels on your current mixer .

The CM200usb gives you 2 audio devices built into the mixer .

[Tim Brennan 0]

I use a GIGAPort AG USB to 8-channel external interface. It sounds great and I have had no problems with it what so ever.

 

I primarly use PCDJ FX with it configured to drive the card as two stereo channels (4 of the 8 channels in use) and use an external mixer. You can also configure PCDJ to just drive two channels and use PCDJ FXs mix functionality.

 

I have also used Traktor DJ Studio with it.

 

It also has a headphone socket but I have never used it.

 

Tim

[RosieR1 0]

hi I use a soundblaster Audigy2 nx sound card £35 from pc world its usb and gives you 2 channels into the mixer the sound is first class and i get no hum from the labtop into the speakers i use it with virtual DJ and the set up is very easy to do with the software you set it to 4.1 sound and the front channel of the card is channel 1 on the mixer and the rear channel is channel 2 on the mixer , I have thought about going down the road of having a usb mixer but will probs leave that untill i have a bit more expierence and cash .

 

Regards

 

Brian

[EdBray 0]

hi I use a soundblaster Audigy2 nx sound card £35 from pc world its usb

 

Great price that, I paid just under £80 for mine.

 

[KrazyKaz 0]

I use Terratec Aureon 7.1 Firewire. Costs £100+

 

8 channel

Mic input with gain control and peak LED

headphone output with volume control

24 bit/96khz

buspowered

remote control

optional external power supply

 

need to be running windows XP

 

it's a good enough gadget for my requirements.

 

 

[EdBray 0]

Only trouble is Kaz, not all laptops have a firewire port.

[KrazyKaz 0]

Only trouble is Kaz, not all laptops have a firewire port.

 

Fair comment

 

The answer then would be a USB external soundcard like Soundblaster.

 

[geoffers 0]

Thanks to everyone for the advice ! I got my dj software and hope to buy a soundcard in couple of weeks.

 

thanks

Geoffers

[pdentertainment 0]

Great price that, I paid just under £80 for mine.

 

Me too !!!! need to find this branch that's knocking them out at that price and i'll buy another two or three !!!

[The Ogrady Roadshow 0]

I`ve tried a Soundblaster Live 24 bit external usb ( £40 from Argos) and currently I use a numark cm200usb mixer .Both work fine and sound quality seemed ok to me for the price .

I use them with PCDJ Red ( the old version not vrm ) and had no problem at all setting them up .The Soundblaster will give you 2 channels which you can put into 2 channels on your current mixer .

The CM200usb gives you 2 audio devices built into the mixer .

 

 

would one of them work with samdj?

 

[pdentertainment 0]

umm dunno thought SAM was mainly for braoadcasting purposes not live work will have to check it out

[The Ogrady Roadshow 0]

they do different packages