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External Soundcards for Laptops

S

soloflyr1

Guest
Wondering what external (USB) soundcard you folks would suggest for a laptop running (UGH!!! Vista), tried the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra, M-Audio's Vista driver didn't work, go figure.

Looking for a simple 2 stereo channel out solution, not looking for anything but audio playback through an external mixer.

If you have any suggestions for DJ software they would be appreciated also. Playing with several ones right now to decide on one to go with.

Thanks in advance for any advice you would like to share.
 
radiorob2.0 said:
busyradioguy said:
I love this sucker!!! :)

http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-U-C...8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1211858115&sr=8-1

I have two of them, one feeding PC audio into a mixer and another feeding a separate PC's audio into a low power FM transmitter. Great product! 8) 8) 8) It already works out of the box! No drivers needed.
Click to expand...

A caveat. It sounds great but there is no way to set levels, the mixer doesn't offer an option. You will be working with very hot inputs.
Click to expand...

You set the levels via the Windows Volume Control Panel.
 
Perhaps I can help, being a mobile DJ that uses all of the above...

First, I am using PCDJ FX with the karaoke add-on. This gives me three virtual decks on the laptop to play back MP3 files. The only down side is logging only logs tracks played on the first two players and automixing only mixes the first two players. It is a minor issue IMHO.

For the soundcard, I am using the Gigaport AG. It has 8 channels out, or four stereo channels out, and works with the native Windows drivers and are assignable in PCDJ and others.

There are more soundcards out there, and this thread and board might be helpful:

http://start.prodj.com/viewtopic.php?t=46710&highlight=laptop+sound+card

For Gigaport specs:

http://www.esi-audio.com/products/gigaportag/
 
soloflyr1 said:
Wondering what external (USB) soundcard you folks would suggest for a laptop running (UGH!!! Vista), tried the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra, M-Audio's Vista driver didn't work, go figure.
Click to expand...
I'm running a Fast Track Pro on a Vista machine - no problems with the Vista driver at all (its actually presented the least amount of trouble with this machine). I also run an EMU 1616m on it (PCMCIA), an Edirol UA-1X, and a Centrance Mic Port on this particular notebook. For simplicity, you can't beat the Edirol though.
-D
 
Good point about the balanced vs unbalanced situation.

In my particular case, the product I recommended previously works for me, because the mixer I route it to can handle both balanced and unbalanced audio. You could probably put a transformer after the output stage of the Behringer item I suggested, to handle the unbalanced to balanced conversion. But yeah it might be cheaper to invest in a balanced sound card if you require balanced lines.
 
I appreciate the advice, all of it.

I have considered the Gigaport AG, & the Behringer U-Control. They look like simple yet good solutions.

The ART USB has picked my interest, neat little package that looks quite durable.

The M-Audio Quattro, gonna have to keep my eyes open for one of these, to experiment with if nothing else.

As always I welcome input from one & all because I will be the first to admit I don't know everything. Just getting into the laptop phase of DJ'ing so there is a bit of learning curve on my part.

Thanks again,

solo
 
Re: You can't beat this one!

LA_Guy said:
This is the one to buy...dirt cheap and sounds absolutely GREAT! It even has an optical digital output. I keep one in my bag (with drivers on my USB drive) for when I need a good soundcard on the fly.

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/micro/home.aspx
Click to expand...

I have a "cheat" that I used to use before getting my hands on a USB balanced audiocard: D/A converter. Sonic Solutions D/A converters show up on ebay all the time for basically pennies on the dollar of what they cost new. Just feed it with an optical digital signal and it gives you two balanced XLR outs, plus an aux digital output to connect to something else if you choose.
 
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