Laptop Sound Cards?

[JAMdisco]

I'm hoping to go from CD's onto MP3's from a laptop.

The laptop is going to be high spec (2gb ram, 160GB HD with a 350GB external HD, 1.8 Ghz). Not sure which software to use as I can't really afford a seperate mixer yet and need to know how to send a signal to my powered Mackie 450's and a signal to my headphones for monitoring.

Question is:- is there a way of splitting the signals to do this with an additional sound card? If so, what do you reccomend. I have around £150-£200 max to spend after I've bought the laptop bearing in mind I need software as well.

Any help please as I desperately want to get away from CD's.

[CRAZY K]

I'm hoping to go from CD's onto MP3's from a laptop.

The laptop is going to be high spec (2gb ram, 160GB HD with a 350GB external HD, 1.8 Ghz). Not sure which software to use as I can't really afford a seperate mixer yet and need to know how to send a signal to my powered Mackie 450's and a signal to my headphones for monitoring.

Question is:- is there a way of splitting the signals to do this with an additional sound card? If so, what do you reccomend. I have around £150-£200 max to spend after I've bought the laptop bearing in mind I need software as well.

Any help please as I desperately want to get away from CD's.

Dragonfly Daves your man--hes got a similar set up

CRAZY K

[Dragonfly]

Hi I'm not sure how to put the laptop drectly into your mackis mate but a small 2 channel mixer can be picked up very cheaply 20 quid or so which would really add to you options .... i would suggest a maya44 soundcard i have one and the sound from my laptop is just phenominal .... to go from soundcard to mackie you would need a phono to xlr lead .

[DJ James Lake]

This is the soundcard I use. http://www.native-instruments.com:80/index.php?id=audio8dj&ftu=12d90912d908098

You can buy it with or without Traktor Scratch.

[Vectis]

If you have that budget for a soundcard, buy a Numark CM200USB mixer instead. It has two USB soundcards built in plus 4 other stereo channels and a mic input for anything else you may wish to connect.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I have a Maya EX card and it's been fine. Have a look at the Thomann site http://www.thomann.de/gb/esi_maya_44_usb.htm where you'll find the card Dave was talking about for less than £70 which leaves you ample budget for a mixer.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

If you have that budget for a soundcard, buy a Numark CM200USB mixer instead. It has two USB soundcards built in plus 4 other stereo channels and a mic input for anything else you may wish to connect.

If you do, then don't buy PCDJ cos it doesn't work with it.

[Dragonfly]

This is the soundcard I use. http://www.native-instruments.com:80/index.php?id=audio8dj&ftu=12d90912d908098

You can buy it with or without Traktor Scratch.


I'm hoping to go from CD's onto MP3's from a laptop.

The laptop is going to be high spec (2gb ram, 160GB HD with a 350GB external HD, 1.8 Ghz). Not sure which software to use as I can't really afford a seperate mixer yet and need to know how to send a signal to my powered Mackie 450's and a signal to my headphones for monitoring.

Question is:- is there a way of splitting the signals to do this with an additional sound card? If so, what do you reccomend. I have around £150-£200 max to spend after I've bought the laptop bearing in mind I need software as well.

Any help please as I desperately want to get away from CD's.


My advice would be


pcdj red - £60 - £80
maya44 sound card - £70
2x ground loop isolators - £10
2nd hand mixer off ebay or dj bids for £40 - £60

[JAMdisco]

What are the ground loop isolators for Dave?

[Dragonfly]

they stop any hum that you can get when using a laptop to dj with ... i have 1 at the moment and on saturday tested my laptop as ive just gone into it also ....... the channel with the isolator absolutely crystal clear the one with out a very slight but never the less audible hum through the speakers

for the cost a very good useful piece of equipment.

[Vectis]

If you do, then don't buy PCDJ cos it doesn't work with it.

Huh? You sure?

CM200USB works with Microsoft drivers under XP and presents at OS level... so why should an application software package not support it? That implies there is a list of hardware it doesn't support...

Not tried it mind...

Works fine under OTS and R4.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Huh? You sure?

CM200USB works with Microsoft drivers under XP and presents at OS level... so why should an application software package not support it? That implies there is a list of hardware it doesn't support...

Not tried it mind...



I have and it doesn't.

I even recommended someone to buy that mixer and then couldn't configure it for them. I posted on the PCDJ forum who told me that it wouldn't work.

[JAMdisco]

My advice would be


pcdj red - £60 - £80
maya44 sound card - £70
2x ground loop isolators - £10
2nd hand mixer off ebay or dj bids for £40 - £60

What kind of mixer would I need? Would a "normal" mixer work or would I need a usb mixer?

[Dragonfly]

no just a normal 2 channel mixer would do you as you woul just use phono to phono leads from the maya sound card to the mixer......

for example new ....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Behringer-VMX100-DJ-Mixer-Fast-Delivery_W0QQitemZ180170766789QQihZ008QQcategoryZ2 3785QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

or if you wanted spare channels to say plug in back up cd plyers or something ......

second hand :

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CITRONIC-CDM-10-4-DSP-DJ-Karaoke-Mixer_W0QQitemZ330177524841QQihZ014QQcategoryZ4845 9QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

hope this helps ... now before everyone starts on the mixers ive linked to ive listened to the chap and posted things that are examples within the price range he is after ..... we would all like denon or allan and heath mixers but for the budget that wont happen.

im sure others may be able to suggest other options within your range.

[Tom]

with my laptop i use the behringer bcd3000 midi mixer. all you do is plug the mixer into the laptop via usb and this give you 4 audio channels.

1+2 = Main mix

3+4 = Monitor mix


Most people dont like behringer but everything i have had from them i cant fault at all.


then on the midi mixer there are also inputs so you can have either have a double cd deck or 2 record decks so if the laptop fails then you can still mix with the same controller.

this also comes with traktor 3 le and this can be upgraded to traktor 3 for about 99 euro's if im correct.


hope this helps

[JAMdisco]

The Behringer looks good (and a reasonable price at £145 with software) Is Traktor any good?

Other than that - would this set up work ok or are there too many components?

[Dragonfly]

thats what my set up looks like and is fine.

from the sounds of it you are looking at 200 quid ish for the behringer with the proper version of traktor 3?? i still think you could get pcdj and a decent mixer probably 4 channel for 150 quid.

[JAMdisco]

Is PCDJ better in your opinion.
I want to be able to use my headphones to monitor the non-playing channel. Do all mixers have this facility as I've been looking at some and it's not always obvious. The mixer I have at the moment has a monitor button above each channel.

Oh and before you ask - it's a kit form that I'll be selling and one of the outputs is faulty - I can get it repaired under warranty but only have the one set up, I know it's bad only having one set up but that's another reason I'm going to laptop and external HD - I'll have a CD player on standby with several songs back-to-back in case of system crashes - eventually I will have 2 laptops and spare external HD.

[Dragonfly]

I know alot of people on here swaer by traktor and virtual dj but i have found these are the more expensive software options .... if you get pcdj red you then have the option of upgrading to pcdj fx or pcdj vj when you have done a few gigs and got money behind you for a further 80-100 quid

i just feel to get yourself up and running within the budget you state and not stretching yourself and having to scrimp on other things that this would be the better option.

[JAMdisco]

Cheers Dave, you've been a great help. I'll go and start putting my shopping list together. :D :D :D :D

[JAMdisco]

Any chance of a piccy of your equipment (don't take that the wrong way!!!)

[flatliners]

go for virtual dj great program or you could get a numark total control and the numark io i know its 225 but would do you http://www.decks.co.uk/products/dj_production/numark/total_control

[DJ James Lake]

The Behringer looks good (and a reasonable price at £145 with software) Is Traktor any good?

Other than that - would this set up work ok or are there too many components?

Oh yeah traktor is extremely good even the LE version, especially if your into mixing, have been using it for 3 years now.


In fact tonight have been playing with the latest version that came out today.

[TONYTIGER]

If you do, then don't buy PCDJ cos it doesn't work with it.

I am no expert on the computer side of things but one of my young roadies runs a small disco and uses laptop with pcdj fx the numark mixer you mention and a dac2 his laptop has windows xp and it all works fine so theres something weird going on.:confused:

[JAMdisco]

Well my laptop is coming tomorrow (Friday 2nd) and I'm still looking around for soundcards / mixers. I was going to go with the Maya 44 USB and an analogue mixer. Until I saw this (http://www.djstore.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.pl?item=numdxm01usb&t=d)

Surely this combines the two for little extra cost?

Does anyone use these or know what they're like?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Looks OK, but it's only 2 channel. What happens if you need to put a CD player on etc for backup?

[JAMdisco]

well I figured it has 2 usb connections to connect to laptop. that leaves 2 sets of phono inputs on the rear to connect a cd player. Just a case of switching from phono to line output (I think this would work)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Phono inputs are for turntables - you need line inputs.

[Dragonfly]

doing that you would need to have both of the players on your laptop assigned to one channel . which you can but i prefer to have it as if it were 2 seperate decks.

[JAMdisco]

well, it seems like a good piece of kit for the money, IF the laptop goes down I can just switch leads to the cd player or use some of these (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=218473&criteria=phono%20adaptor&doy=1m11) and have both plugged in to the line inputs.

What do you reckon? Would this work?

Also, I would only use the USB inputs which would still leave the line inputs free on the back.

[Dragonfly]

yes but remember its still only 2 channel so you can only use 2 channels at once with a sound card and 4 channel mixer you can have each player on a separate channel and your cd player plugged in cued up ready to go incase of a freeze or malfunction....

no messing around or telling people ooohhh hold on im just going to swap the leads over ..... just hit start and away you go .... ok its a personal way of doing things but i know me and id fluster in aload of silence while people watch me hook things up.

[JAMdisco]

I could still have the cd player queued up ready (plugged into one of the line inputs) OR using the adaptors as previously mentioned!

I'm not being argumentative by the way - I just want to make sure it would work at the least expense having just forked out £800 on a laptop. I could always upgrade when more gigs have passed. (am quite busy up to new year).

I don't get flusterred - I'm as cool as a frozen cucumber!

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

My advice would be to get a mixer with 4 channels or at least a line switch.

[Dragonfly]

My advice would be to get a mixer with 4 channels or at least a line switch.

I totally agree with DJ Yoda. i would have 4 channels then if a channel goes you have a spare just think it covers more bases.

[JAMdisco]

I might go for this option for now, and keep my other 4 channel mixer (part of a kit I was gonna sell) as back up.