Ableton Forum

I'm running a Powerbook with Tiger, as is, and the Live demo. I'm about to buy the full version, and I need to know the minimum add'l hardware I need in order to monitor/headphone cue. Do I understand correctly that if I have, say, my powerbook's internal soundcard, and an external USB one (like the griffin imic, or the m-audio fastrack, or transit...none of which i have now), that I can play the master out through the USB, and the cue out from the powerbook soundcard? Or do I need a dedicated 2-output soundcard, such as the Indigo DJ? I'm really confused about this, and I'm keen to stay on a low budget.

Thanks a lot

In Tiger, (in Audio/Midi setup) you can make "aggregate devices". This lets you use, say, the mac's built-in headphone jack for cueing while you use a 2-channel USB audio interface for you main outs. Tiger takes all your input/outputs -which are addressed by Core Audio and treats them as one big multi-channel I/O.

So yes you could get by with just an additional stereo output audio interface. I'm not a DJ, though, so maybe some other Powerbook/Tiger DJ users can chime in with what they're using.

hope this helps

By "2-channel USB audio interface" do you mean 2 outputs, or just stereo output? (or input/output?)

Yes, I meant just 2-channel total. i.e. Stereo Output. You shouldn't need inputs at all for DJing.

HTH