What Soundcard for a laptop

djlt · Post by **djlt** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:56 am

I have an IBM T42 Laptop with an inbuilt soundcard. This only has 1 mic input and 1 headphone output. I have just started using Live and want to know - should I go with the Indigo DJ card or an external USB soundcard. I will be using Live for the sole purpose of Djing.
Anyone know what Sasha is using? I wan the best solution for home and for clubs. I have a mixer a decks. Cheers.

zekrab · Post by **zekrab** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:59 am

If it's only for djing, an echo indigo dj is the best choice for latency/price/weight...

djlt · Post by **djlt** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 11:08 am

I am going down the road of recording my vinyl to mp3. Should I do this in live or an external program. Also what is the difference between 128, 256 when recording mp3 - is it the quality.
I have tried recording with Super MP3 recorder with my existing sound card, the sound is fine in Ableton but the output from the laptop to the line input in my mixer is crap. The sound is fuzzy and only coming out through 1 channel. Will this be resolved with the Indigo DJ card?

zion15 · Post by **zion15** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 11:50 am

for those uses you should get a soundcard / audio interface that has at least one stereo input (for recording your vinyl) and two stereo outputs (one for monitor/cue, one for the main output). using the built in input and output will most definitely result in either mediocre or very bad sound quality - there aren't many laptops out there that have even decent quality sound chips.

the echo indigo series seems to have good sound quality and drivers but the i/o model has only one output and dj model has no inputs so if you want to do everything you described, you need to get something else.

if you have the money and want awesome sound quality and drivers, you could get a rme hammerfall system (cardbus card + multiface or rpm as the interface) but seeing as it's probably bit of an overkill, it might not be a wise idea. the price is close to 1000 euros and it has way more inputs and outputs than you'll probably need... plus you will probably get good enough quality from a little more modest setup anyway.

so some kind of inexpensive usb- or firewire-soundcard would probably be right for you but i can't give you any specific suggestions on what to get.

the 128, 256 etc. in mp3 are called "bitrate" - basically the smaller you set it, the smaller and worse quality your mp3 will be. if you really want to record your vinyls as mp3, i'd advise to use a high quality encoder ("lame" is probably the best one) and reasonably high bitrate - something like 256kbps doesn't have that much audible compression artifacts anymore.

however, if you want the best archival quality and have enough hd space, record the audio as unpacked first (wav/aiff) and then encode it as flac. flac is a lossless format which means it makes the files smaller without losing audio quality. live 5 supports flac out of the box.

vinkalmann · Post by **vinkalmann** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 3:31 pm

I recently purchased the Echo Indigo DJ and have been very happy with it. Like was said before, it has dual stereo outputs where one can be used for cueing and the other for the mix. Rather than doing this though, I use both sets of outputs going into a mixer and then do the cueing from there. Another way this card can be used is to have four mono tracks coming from the card going into the mixer. Having four sliders on the mixer available is REALLY nice rather than adjusting levels through the GUI. This ard is a good bang for your buck at $150.

Of course the lack of inputs makes this card useless for recording your vinyl.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 3:36 pm

I bought an Indigo DJ AND I/O, got all my bases covered

gpvillamil · Post by **gpvillamil** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 8:47 pm

I use an echo Indigo IO.

By using the ASIO4ALL drivers I can use the laptops built-in audio for cueing, and the IO for output. Might be some latency issues, but no big deal so far.

I am using an IBM T41 btw

vinkalmann · Post by **vinkalmann** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 9:54 pm

Hey gpvillamill,

I installed the Asio4all drivers and can't seem to get both devices (indigo dj, and soundmax(audio card that came with laptop) active at the same time. Any ideas?

I'm using a Thinkpad r40

thanks!!

gpvillamil · Post by **gpvillamil** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:18 am

vinkalmann wrote:Hey gpvillamill,

I installed the Asio4all drivers and can't seem to get both devices (indigo dj, and soundmax(audio card that came with laptop) active at the same time. Any ideas?

I'm using a Thinkpad r40

thanks!!

Choose ASIO drivers in Ableton. Choose ASIO4ALL as the device. Press the configure hardware button. Enable the echo card and the soundmax audio in ASIO4ALL. (You may need to enable the advanced mode in ASIO4ALL). Close that dialog (the ASIO4ALL config). Go to configure audio outputs in Ableton. You should see a single device with 10 ouputs or so. The first four are one port in the echo card, the second four are the second port on the card, the last two (9/10) are probably the Soundmax card.

It is possible, depending on your config, that the soundmax might turn up as channels 1/2, the channels on the echo card start from there.

ben_blue · Post by **ben_blue** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:36 am

i have had nothing but good results from my Echo Indigo and Indigo DJ cards.
http://www.echoaudio.com

djlt · Post by **djlt** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:37 am

Thanks everyone. I am thinking of getting the I/O card so that I can record my vinyl to Live. I will use the in-built sound card for monitoring when Djing. I have got the ASIO drivers, the final question now is - is there much of a delay between the in-built sound card/Live

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:57 am

If you're using ASIO4ALL, they all share the same driver, so they'll have the same delay. You should be fine.

subterFUSE · Post by **subterFUSE** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:10 pm

I'm using an M-Audio Firewire Audiophile. It is perfect for me. It has 2 RCA outputs, 1 RCA input, 1 SPDIF input/output, and a 1/4" heaphone jack.

Lets me record with the inputs, DJ in Live with the outputs... and was about $170.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOFWAP2496

djlt · Post by **djlt** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:53 pm

I am new to this and everyone is pointing me to the Indigo Cards - what about external sound cards. Other than getting more inputs/outputs is there any disadvantages to using an external card.

mjmedik · Post by **mjmedik** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 4:01 pm

I have the Echo Indigo DJ for my work laptop because I don't have a firewire port and I absolutely love it, however; If you do have a firewire port (they also make PCI firewire ports to add on to your computer in case you don't have one) I recommend getting the M-Audio Firewire Audiophile....it rocks! Sasha uses the audiophile as one of his soundcards in his DJ rig too. I guess the only disadvantage to the Audiophile that I found was that it requires an AC outlet (not powered by the computer).