PC DJ - two sound cards?

JG009 · 12-11-2009 2:19am #1

Mods move if needed.

Just curious, if you were running a programme such as traktor or similar and you wanted two sound cards or two out puts, whats your best option? Use a 5.1 card and split it or two cards? Going by reviews traktor doesn't seem to support two seperate cards. Anyone who has done this and has a surefire way it works please post. Thank you.

consume · 12-11-2009 2:27am

I also have a query on this though maybe it should be in production im not sure. But anyway would it be possible to use two behringer uca 202 to make a 4 in/4 out soundcard?
Does traktor not support more than one soundcard?

Would this be the next cheapest option if so?

electrogrimey · 12-11-2009 3:04am

Why do you want to use 2 soundcards?
1st of all, using 2 soundcards would take up both USB slots on a laptop, so you couldn't use a controller, and 2nd of all, it would be much easier to get a one soundcard with all the outputs you needed, although I know that's pretty expensive.

ED E · 12-11-2009 2:11pm

electrogrimey wrote: »

Why do you want to use 2 soundcards?
1st of all, using 2 soundcards would take up both USB slots on a laptop, so you couldn't use a controller, and 2nd of all, it would be much easier to get a one soundcard with all the outputs you needed, although I know that's pretty expensive.

Most have at least 4 ports nowadays....

electrogrimey · 12-11-2009 2:23pm

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

Most have at least 4 ports nowadays....

Macbooks, which most DJs, including me, use, have 2.

ED E · 12-11-2009 2:40pm

electrogrimey wrote: »

Macbooks, which most DJs, including me, use, have 2.

A downside to a Mac, other than the price, who would'a thunk it...

electrogrimey · 12-11-2009 3:01pm

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

A downside to a Mac, other than the price, who would'a thunk it...

Not really, seeing as for DJing all you need is two, one for the soundcard, one for the MIDI. And there's a firewire port too anyway.

SuprSi · 12-11-2009 3:08pm

When I used Traktor I used two soundcards and a program called ASIO-X. I can't seem to find a link for it anywhere so I think this might do instead;

http://www.asio4all.com/

From what I remember (it's around 4 years since I used it) it allows you to run two soundcards in Traktor as one, with one card providing the output to your headphone and the other to your speakers. I can't say how it worked, but it worked perfectly. If you have two cards it might be worth a shot.

JG009 · 12-11-2009 9:17pm

Ok thanks, when I install traktor ill report back.

Jev/N · 12-11-2009 10:42pm

Why all the complication of two cards? Just use a single, multi-output card!

vinylbomb · 13-11-2009 1:44am

Jev/N wrote: »

Why all the complication of two cards? Just use a single, multi-output card!

Absolutely. Like, why do you even need 2 cards?It makes no sense......

what way do you plan to route the audio coming out of Traktor? And which device will you use for monitoring (Traktor can only send the monitor signal to 1 out hence device AFAIK - but could be wrong here) so the other will be unmonitored........?

JG009 · 13-11-2009 3:51am

Jev/N wrote: »

Why all the complication of two cards? Just use a single, multi-output card!

To listen to one before it goes out on the mix. I have a 5.1 soundblaster, if that will work as two stereo outputs well and good, I just wanted to know what way yous guys work it? Last time I played with a set of decks they were real decks

Zascar · 13-11-2009 10:16am

I have a soundcard problem at the moment actually. Basically I do all my music/mixing on my desktop PC - cause I have some really good speakers - 5.1 altec lansing with a huge sub. The problem is they run off the Soundcard (they don't have a standard phono input). I have an Audio 2 DJ soundcard so I need to output the sound from that and route it back via the pc soundcard and out into the speakers. This does work - the only thin is that there seems to be a bit of a delay, as the music from my headphones (from the Audio 2 DJ) is a split second ahead of the sound coming from the speakers. Very annoying, and I'm not sure how the hell I'm going to fix it...

electrogrimey · 13-11-2009 12:25pm

Zascar wrote: »

I have a soundcard problem at the moment actually. Basically I do all my music/mixing on my desktop PC - cause I have some really good speakers - 5.1 altec lansing with a huge sub. The problem is they run off the Soundcard (they don't have a standard phono input). I have an Audio 2 DJ soundcard so I need to output the sound from that and route it back via the pc soundcard and out into the speakers. This does work - the only thin is that there seems to be a bit of a delay, as the music from my headphones (from the Audio 2 DJ) is a split second ahead of the sound coming from the speakers. Very annoying, and I'm not sure how the hell I'm going to fix it...

I would imagine that could be because of a poor quality standard soundcard built into the PC - it wouldn't be near the quality of the Audio 2 DJ. Still, maybe you can tweak the setting on the PC?

Zascar · 13-11-2009 12:28pm

Actually its not an in-built soundcard - its a separate PCI soundcard - a Soundblaster Audigy2 - which is prett good afaik.

Where in the settings do you think this might be? I've played around for ages but I can't fix it...

electrogrimey · 13-11-2009 12:44pm

Zascar wrote: »

Actually its not an in-built soundcard - its a separate PCI soundcard - a Soundblaster Audigy2 - which is prett good afaik.

Where in the settings do you think this might be? I've played around for ages but I can't fix it...

Oh, well that just makes it more complicated

Are you using Windows yeah? I'd imagine it's either in Sound in the Control Panel, or else in Printers & Other Hardware. I've been using Mac for a while now, and I've never used vista so I don't really know these days though.

SuprSi · 13-11-2009 4:23pm

How are you routing the sound through Audio 2 DJ card?

Zascar · 13-11-2009 4:38pm

Ok let me explain fully (sorry for hijacking thread). The speakers I have are Altec Lansing ADA995 speakers - which plug into the Audigy2 soundcard via a cable with 3x 3.5mm Jack plugs - Black, yellow and Green. This is an image of the soundcard/speaker setup from the manual:

The two other ports on the soundcard are Mic and Line In.

The "Audio 2 DJ" plug in via usb, and has two outputs. One is is the Master Out, the other is the headphones. I have a cable going from the Master Out into the Line in on the Audigy2 Soundcard. I had it set up this way working perfectly using my Xponent - no delay whatsoever. For some reason since I added the Audigy 2 there is small time difference between the sound coming out of the headphones (Audio2 DJ) and the speakers (via the Audigy2).

Maybe I've done something silly I'll have another crack when I get home.

The only other thing I can think of is to get some sort of adapter to take the line out of the Audio 2 DJ and get a connector plug to connect the block-green-yellow cables. This way i would bypass the Audigy2 soundcard all together (not idea but I could live with it) that is if I can even get such a connector...

SuprSi · 13-11-2009 5:39pm

Could it be the Audigy driver? I had one of those myself and had some issues with latency that were only resolved with new drivers. It's been years though and I haven't used anything like this in some time so I could be way off.

vinylbomb · 13-11-2009 11:07pm

Forgive me, because I am not familiar with either product, but I'll see if I can help.

Am I correct in saying the Audio 2 Dj has 2 audio outs, both 3.5mm jack (one for main output, and one for monitor)?

What input do the speakers take? According to the specs on the web they accept 3.5mm jack as well......

Zascar · 13-11-2009 11:24pm

The speakers do not have normal 'inputs' as such - it has a cable coming out of it which has 3x 3.2mm jack plugs on it (as per image above). They plug 'into' the soundcard. The cable that comes with the Audio2DJ has RCA's at the end.

I think a simple way whcih might work is to get one of these: http://i8.ebayimg.com/01/i/001/22/2e/cfd2_12.JPG
and connect the Audio2DJ and the speakers directly.

I think the green is the front speakers and the black is the rear speakers, so I could get another splitter to make both front and rear speakers working. Worth a shot anyway.

vinylbomb · 14-11-2009 12:29am

OK, right, the issue you are having is because of the DSP chips in the Soundblaster working to convert the output audio to 5.1 (well, its not true 5.1, its an emulation butttt........:rolleyes:). Obviously the monitor signal comes to you before this is done, hence the lag to the main output.

http://www.amazon.com/Console-Adapter-Convert-Plugs-Single/dp/B0006U3ACY

This (or something like it) should do the job to connect directly to the Audio 2 Dj.

Edit :The caveat is that it wont be 5.1 (or even close), it'll simply make all of your speakers work with one stereo image.

Dunno if this is clear or not, am I making any sense?

ED E · 14-11-2009 9:53am

Zascar wrote: »

The speakers do not have normal 'inputs' as such - it has a cable coming out of it which has 3x 3.2mm jack plugs on it (as per image above). They plug 'into' the soundcard. The cable that comes with the Audio2DJ has RCA's at the end.

I think a simple way whcih might work is to get one of these: http://i8.ebayimg.com/01/i/001/22/2e/cfd2_12.JPG
and connect the Audio2DJ and the speakers directly.

I think the green is the front speakers and the black is the rear speakers, so I could get another splitter to make both front and rear speakers working. Worth a shot anyway.

A mate of mine has an Audigy setup like that runing on 5x3.5mm jacks. It should be possible to bridge all the speakers on the 5.1 into one channel(little switch on the bac of the sub) and then use one of the 3.5s t connect it to the Audio2. This leaves out the unnecessary loop through the other card.

PC DJ - two sound cards?

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