Ableton Forum

Hi All!

I am about to make some pruchases.. but before I do, I wanted to be sure I'm making choices that will work..

I'm a DJ and play house. I want a setup that will be portable (for DJ'ing), but also be powerful enough to produce music (still learning). This is what I have in mind:

-Live 4.1
-Operator
-Evolution UC-33e
-Sony A690 laptop (see specs here)

The sony laptop has a port replicator with RCA line in/out as well as the headphone port..

Can someone please let me know if this will work? or will i need an external box like the m-audio firewire audiophile? Also, I want to be able to mix records/CDs with loops from Live.. is this possible? and how do i connect it all up?

I apologise for the newbie questions.. I just don't want to spend all that money and make a mistake!

Thanks in advance!

Changes are that you won't be able to monitor before sending to FOH with
that card. Maybe ASIO4ALL handles that.... Not something I'm very clued
in with but my first guess is you'll need a real multi-channel soundcard.

-Ben

I've never come across a built in laptop soundcard that wasn't noisy or prone to clicks and dropouts.

you almost certainly need a sound card. you might consider getting a midikeyboard and sound card combined like the

Novation x-station or
M-Audio ozone

(to give you price options) they both have enough sliders and knobs to make the uc33 unnecessary and they have keys as well.

I'd also not buy the operator there is a very similar soft synth called the panzer tank which is free. You can get operator later but it might not be what your after.

thanks for the advice.. i didn't realise those keyboards had sound cards too! The only thing is that I'm not sold on USB for sound.. USB is much more CPU intensive than firewire and USB 1.1 has far less latency..

what controllers do people use for DJ'ing? The UC-33e looks the best for this purpose.. does the novation x-station work well in that kind of scene?

So many choices..

It might be a worthwhile investment to buy the Dave Hill book on Live 4 as it will give you a lot of answers and insight before spending any cash.

You will absolutely need a decent multi-channel soundcard. I have the FW 410 and the UC33e and they both work flawlessly with Live.

Iwould suggest Indigo DJ and Novation X station . No need for ext power and when you need inputs you can use the X stations audio in. If you want to spent less- Ozonic will give you all in one solution its like FW audiophile but with controller. Unfortunatelly pc laptops dont provide 6 pin firewire so you will have to use ext power supply.

czechchap wrote:I've never come across a built in laptop soundcard that wasn't noisy or prone to clicks and dropouts.

ever use a powerbook?

thanks for your help guys..

i've purchased the sony A690 laptop today (should arrive in the next few days), and i'm going to get an echo indigo DJ + evolution UC-33e...

i think this solution will suit my DJ'ing.. the sony laptop i'm getting has RCA line in plugs for recording (on the port replicator). i'll wait on the keyboard, and see how deep i really get into producing music (the laptop's querty keyboard will suffice for simple tunes now)..

i don't want to jump in and spend $500 on the novation x-station until i know this is not a passing fad

AdamJay wrote:

czechchap wrote:I've never come across a built in laptop soundcard that wasn't noisy or prone to clicks and dropouts.

ever use a powerbook?

I have a 17" titananium powerbook and yes sometimes I use the built in soundcard - but mostly I use my m-audio audiophile. When I said laptop I meant pc laptop, and I'm sure some of the red sub laptops have fine inbuilt audio as well.

Btw. do you use the inbuilt audio on your powerbook or do you use a seperate s.c. I'm just curious.