USB powered soundcard to DJ with??

Jip · Post by **Jip** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:53 pm

Hi guys - new to Ableton - want to start using it to DJ !

I currently have a Tascam US-122 which is a great little USB powered device - however I have just found out that I can't route the "pre-listen" function to the headphone output (is this right??)

Does anyone have any suggestions of a soundcard that does this ?? or has the necessary outs (if so do I need an adapter for my headphones??)

It would also be extremely nice not to have to cart an extra adapter around and keep the setup as mobile as possible - so USB powreed is highly desired.

My laptop does have firewire but it is 4-pin rather than 6-pin so again I don't think it will power a soundcard (correct?)

Any help on this is extremly appreciated - looking through the forum there are some very nice people out there making this music creating community a nicer place for us newbies - and far less daunting !

Thanks

randyh · Post by **randyh** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:12 pm

My best advice is to absolutley STAY AWAY from USB soundcards. They're trouble. USB wasn't designed for streaming data sources, at least not 1.1 . Firewire on the other hand was designed for exactly that. USB 2.0 might be ok but the last time I looked none existed. Better yet, get yourself an Echo Indigo Dj and you'll have 2 independent outputs to route audio to. A lot of people here have them and are happy with them. It's powered by the laptop (since it's a pc card) and it's much smaller than any of the usb/firewire boxes. It even has a volume wheel.

-r

vangroover · Post by **vangroover** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:50 pm

can you put this little things in a mac aswell like say a g4 power book ?

randyh · Post by **randyh** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:54 pm

vangroover wrote:can you put this little things in a mac aswell like say a g4 power book ?

Here's the one with 2 outputs:

http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/CardB ... /index.php

If there is a slot on your laptop that looks like this would fit in it, you should be good to go.

(It does have mac osx drivers)

-r

vangroover · Post by **vangroover** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 11:18 pm

i dont see a little slot for it . any mac users can answer this for me ?

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:12 am

randyh wrote:My best advice is to absolutley STAY AWAY from USB soundcards. They're trouble. USB wasn't designed for streaming data sources, at least not 1.1 .

oh it aint that bad! If Access has fitted the new Virus TI with a USB1.1 connection that can stream 8 channels of 16/48khz, plus midi then i'm sure the original poster could get away with half that.

Jip,
look at the M-Audio Sonica Theatre
4 stereo 1/8" outs. great for DJing, bus powered, and okay latency.
$99

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 11:10 am

Whoa, there!!! Is this little thing the TOTAL DJ solution for Live and a Laptop?!? It's only £30 in the U.K!

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=ti ... &P36=HBPSP

I'm currently using an Audigy soundcard and the kx drivers on my desktop - no complaints with that. But can this tlittle, £30 5.1 system really be used for Live Dj'ing? Does this thing support pre-listening/master output? And most importantly (for me at least) - can it be used to record into live during a set???

andydes · Post by **andydes** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 1:12 pm

Don't like the looks of that myself. Looks more like an interface for games / DVD, not serious audio. I can't find any specs for it. To record on it, it'll need to have low latency (time lag between the computer and the ins and outs). Which usually means ASIO drivers. Decent sound quality is always nice as well.

I'd only look at interfaces in shops / sites dedicated to pro audio.

randyh · Post by **randyh** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:50 pm

AdamJay wrote:
randyh wrote:My best advice is to absolutley STAY AWAY from USB soundcards. They're trouble. USB wasn't designed for streaming data sources, at least not 1.1 .
oh it aint that bad! If Access has fitted the new Virus TI with a USB1.1 connection that can stream 8 channels of 16/48khz, plus midi then i'm sure the original poster could get away with half that.

Jip,
look at the M-Audio Sonica Theatre
4 stereo 1/8" outs. great for DJing, bus powered, and okay latency.
$99

It CAN absolutley be that bad!!

I have a friend who works at guitar center and he says that literally half of the usb soundcards he sells come back because their computers won't work with them. Clearly the computers are to blame but it's still a gamble whether your computer is going to get along with a usb soundcard. Here is an article that gets into it and a quote that I think explains this phenomenon:

http://www.sounddevices.com/tech/usbbasics.htm

"At the full date rate, 18 mono channels of 16-bit/44.1k (0.67 Mb/s) audio can theoretically be simultaneously moved across the bus. Since there is protocol overhead associated with USB, that 18 is brought down to typically 8 mono channels of 16/44.1 audio that can reliably be transferred across the bus. Variations in motherboard designs, motherboard chipsets, and USB host controllers have an effect on the bandwidth maximums of USB. In general, later designs implement USB more reliably than first generation chipsets."

Oh and don't think you're safe just because you're only using 2 or 4 channels. My friend (a different one) just traded his much hated m-audio audiophile for an echo indigo because the audiophile crapped out on him all the time just trying to record dj sets. His machine was a Sony 2.4Ghz too.

-r

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:30 pm

andydes wrote:Don't like the looks of that myself. Looks more like an interface for games / DVD, not serious audio.

24bit/96khz , and on my old HP laptops i got it down to 5ms input/output.
not bad for a $99 card. not bad for a $399 card even.

just because its marketed as a simple mobile surround sound card doesn't mean you can't use it for anything else. marketing is just cattle prodding people from one product for a specific job to another product for a specific job.

specs...
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/S ... focus.html
and yes there are ASIO drivers

randyh · Post by **randyh** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:41 pm

I think he was talking about this crappy looking thing:

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=ti ... &P36=HBPSP

-r

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:19 am

I just wanted to know if it could be used in conjunction with ASIO4ALL/kx drivers to provide monitoring, recording and main output.

I ain't good enough to spend £100's on my hobby... (Double

)

And it doesn't look crap, you meany.

andydes · Post by **andydes** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:07 pm

randyh wrote:I think he was talking about this crappy looking thing:

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=ti ... &P36=HBPSP

-r

Yeah, I was talking about that crappy looking thing.

Adam J: That M-Audio you found looks a lot better. It wasn't so much the marketing that got me on the other interface, more the complete lack of specs on their homepage that had me worried.

The Echo indigo DJ looks fine as long you don't need to record on your laptop.

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:58 pm

I want to record on my laptop. Can I use either of these (crappy or otherwise) to do it? If I could do it with the crappy one and ASIO4ALL, I'd much rather do that than spend £100 on an echo idigo DJ just to have to use ASIO4ALL with that, too.

Jip · Post by **Jip** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:03 pm

Why is the echo indigo not very good for recording to your laptop then? Is it due to the single stereo input?

Should I keep hold of the Tascam US-122 for that side of things??

PS whats asio4all??