Please help a noob choose a mixer and soundcard

[bigussy]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to get into mixing a bit more, and I was thinking about purchasing a mixer. I should probably warn you guys that Im really not tech savvy, so forgive me if I ask any stupid questions.

I currently use either Traktor 2 or Mixxx(mostly traktor tho) with an Akai APC20 as a midi controller. This setup actually works pretty well for me (Im just a bedroom DJ atm, and I dont think Im anywhere near good enough to do paid gigs yet)

However, it does have one major flaw, which is no seperate headphone/cue output. Since I only really mix for myself, I get around this by either placing extreme faith in my ability to read the waveforms, or pausing the song playing, moving the xfader over, and listening to it, then resuming the playing song.

But I would really like to have a real headphone output. I do not have a soundcard, and I understand that getting a soundcard would probably be the easiest way to fix this. However, I understand that some mixers also have a built in soundcard, and I thought that it might be better in the long run to get one of these. Ideally, I'd like to one day, when I have the cash, and the skills, move up to timecoded turntables + mixer and then finally just two turntables +mixer, old school turntablism style.

I should mention that Im on a fairly tight budget - 500 euros max, ideally under 300 (prices in france seem to be the same as US prices but in euros, AFAI can tell, so if something is $500 in the US, it'll be 500E here)

I was originally looking at the Behringer DJM900USB, but it seems that the soundcard is only for recording and Im not sure it will wok well with Traktor. I heard that the Allen and Heath Xone 42 has a soundcard built in that works with tracktor, but its 700E, so a bit out of my budget.

I've also looked at the NI Audio 2, which seems to get a bit of love on this forum, and then maybe getting a mixer without a built in soundcard (though no idea which one to get). However I imagine it wont work for timecode, so Ill have to get the A6 for that?

Ive also looked a bit the the Reloop RMX 40, which has a built in soundcard, I think. Will it work with Traktor though? Or do only NI soundcards work with Traktor?

tl;dr:
Could anyone recommend me a good mixer + soundcard setup for under 500Euros?

[makar1]

The RMX 40 does not have a usable sound card, it is mainly for recording your mix.

The Audio 2 will give you a separate cue channel for cheap; you could also pick up an Audio 4 or 6 for future timecode if you find one at a good price.

[Eliot Han]

you can start out with the audio2dj and later on you can mix externally with a simple 2 channel mixer.

[Daily Crisis]

NI Audio 2 is perfect, I had a question about sound cards the other day. Audio 2 was a popular choice in my post, and also it's affordable. I found this website using www.google.fr (Google Shopping) and it's 79 EUR + 5 EUR Postage and Packaging you can access the website here. As for a mixer, just look around on Google Shopping on www.google.fr you can look at it here. I don't know much about them to be honest, I just recommend Behringer, Pioneer, Allen & Heath (although probably not in your price range) etc. the list goes on.

[bigussy]

thanks a lot for the help guys.

I've settled on getting a NI A2 and then an Allen and Heath Xone22, which comes to about 340Euros with the site Daily Crisis linked, so nicely within my budget.

[Kaek]

Kontrol Z1

Use it with your iphone/ipad/laptop.