Audio interface advice for a beginner

[HJenkins]

Hi all.

I’m a musician in a wedding band and I occasionally DJ.

I’ve had some trouble playing audio out of the 3.5mm audio output of my MacBook lately. I’d like to continue playing audio from my MacBook but switch between this and my DJ controller (Traktor Kontrol S2 first generation). So I think I may need an audio interface.

The Traktor controller communicates to my laptop via USB and has audio (phono?) outputs. I’d quite like an interface that has XLR outputs for the audio from my laptop. But realise this means 2 USB connections so may cause some issues(?). Honestly not sure though! Not entirely sure if a mixer is required either…

I don’t want to buy the wrong thing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Excalibur]

Hello and welcome Hywel. Do feel free to pop across to Newbies and tell us a little bit more about yourself, we're a nosy lot.

Re your audio question, I'm not a Mac person, but there are plenty here who are. I'm sure someone will have a good idea for you. I personally have a Peavey mixer which has a USB sound connection, although I've never used it, as far as I can remember. That would take care of the sound from the Mac, and has XLR outs. As far as taking a second USB to the controller, well that's well out of my area of expertise, sorry.

[Imagine]

I may be mis-interpreting this one (not unusual), but WHY does the audio need to come from the MacBook?

Your solution could be as easy as something like this phono (from the Traktor) to XLR converter

[Excalibur]

I may be mis-interpreting this one (not unusual), but WHY does the audio need to come from the MacBook?

Why? No idea. According to Hywel, it just does. The 3.5mm jack is proving problematical, so a USB solution is being sought, as well as the controller. the phrase " switch between" is a big clue. Do try to keep up at the back there.

[Nakatomi]

How do you get the audio from the macbook to the PA system ordinarily?

For what it's worth, you shouldn't really be using 3.5mm stereo jacks for anything but emergency playout duties anyway. Minijack sockets on laptops etc just aren't built to last like a good quality 1/4" or XLR - and when the socket 'goes' you're gonna be stuck.

I don't use anything Fruity myself, but I'd guess you're not exactly flush with USB ports so would like to avoid using a second port (or shudder - a hub etc).. your best bet would be to adapt the RCA outs from the controller to whatever you need for the PA.

Being that the output from the controller is a very healthy line level, you don't need it to be balanced on XLRs - you could just run a good quality RCA cable to your PA/mixer if it's only going a few metres away.

[HJenkins]

Hi all,

Thanks for your responses to this.

I use my Traktor controller for mixing together songs that have been downloaded to the hard-drive on my laptop. However, I need to play audio from my laptop in between live sets (when I sit down or grab a bite to eat, it's also good for playing the first dance song through). I normally use Spotify on my laptop so I can simply set a playlist to run. This is handy in case I get asked to play a song I don't have downloaded etc.

I think the 3.5mm jack output on my laptop is broken so it would be great to come up with a solution where I can play audio from my laptop (via USB) and the Traktor controller, but also mix between these.

At the moment I take the phono outputs from the controller to the band mixer. The inputs to the mixer can take XLR or 1/4 inch jack. So I run a cable from the Traktor controller that is female phono there and male 1/4 inch at the mixer. Just need to figure out what to do with the audio from the laptop now that the audio out is broken.

All the best,

Hywel.

[Excalibur]

Come on lads, is it only the terminally befuddled Old Git who can actually read and understand a simple question?

The lad wants to play music directly from a Mac, and also through a controller, and be able to select either option at will. His 3.5mm jack is not working, so we're looking at USB. Simples.

As I type this, one costly option springs to mind, which is to swap the controller for a Denon Prime or similar. ( Said it was costly).
Effectively my solution to this problem is to use a Surface tablet for a second playout, into a spare controller channel. Perhaps a cheap tablet/laptop might make a cost effective solution?

Now then, is it feasible to lash a sound card into the Mac to play into one mixer channel, while using the controller to play into another? That's too technical for me, so I'll pass it over to the Mac lads, cough, Wayne, cough.

Hywel, you'd better hope none of the admins see you admitting to using Spotify as a playout, as that is very, very naughty. Spotify, and similar streaming services are not legal for public playout. I know Denon have some sort of streaming service enabled, but that's apparently OK. Again, not my area of expertise, sorry.

The whole area is a desperately grey area in many ways. Let's just hope no numpty mentions the P****b word.

[Nakatomi]

My go-to emergency audio interface is a behringer UCA-202 which I always have with me in my laptop bag. You can pick one up for around £20 these days.

It provides pretty good quality audio (and 3.5mm stereo headphone, with volume control) output via RCA sockets. I've only ever used it at home to digitise stereo analogue audio from various sources though - there's so far not been any need of emergency playout yet!

You'll have to use another stereo pair of inputs on your mixer of course (unless the traktor controller also has a stereo line input).

Come on lads, is it only the terminally befuddled Old Git who can actually read and understand a simple question?

The lad wants to play music directly from a Mac, and also through a controller, and be able to select either option at will. His 3.5mm jack is not working, so we're looking at USB. Simples.

As I type this, one costly option springs to mind, which is to swap the controller for a Denon Prime or similar. ( Said it was costly).
Effectively my solution to this problem is to use a Surface tablet for a second playout, into a spare controller channel. Perhaps a cheap tablet/laptop might make a cost effective solution?

Now then, is it feasible to lash a sound card into the Mac to play into one mixer channel, while using the controller to play into another? That's too technical for me, so I'll pass it over to the Mac lads, cough, Wayne, cough.

Hywel, you'd better hope none of the admins see you admitting to using Spotify as a playout, as that is very, very naughty. Spotify, and similar streaming services are not legal for public playout. I know Denon have some sort of streaming service enabled, but that's apparently OK. Again, not my area of expertise, sorry.

The whole area is a desperately grey area in many ways. Let's just hope no numpty mentions the P****b word.

Oh I understood perfectly & pointed out that nobody should be relying on 3.5mm stereo jack connections for anything unless it's an emergency because they're prone to breaking prematurely

There's possibly a way to reconfigure a Mac to use the audio interface in the traktor controller for audio output from programs other than traktor - that'd save the aggro of needing to use another usb audio interface but might be a hassle switching between them.

Oh! There's another way.. if it's just for background duties why not get a Bluetooth audio receiver like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016NUTG...ing=UTF8&psc=1. Then set the Mac to play all in-house (non traktor) audio through that. Nice & easy - with the added benefit you can use any Bluetooth capable device to play audio through the PA - and without hogging a precious USB port