S4 with extrnal soundcard

[DJ Aaron]

I've been reading a bunch of threads slamming the S4 internal sound card so I did a little experiment on my own with my Line 6 UX1. I didn't go through the trouble of connecting my mains but I did compare the headphone outputs and found the UX1 to be more musical (less distortion and overall more pleasing to my ears). I didn't play around with any settings so it's possible I have some gain structures in the S4 that can be tweaked.

I was able to figure out how to go in to the Traktor settings and select the external sound card for the main output, however, when I did that the cue output was disabled on my S4. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I just went in to the audio settings on Traktor and selected my external sound card and the main audio out was routed properly. There's another option for Win Sound card further down the page but it didn't appear to do anything that I could discover.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Paka Ono]

Traktor does not give you the ability to split audio channels between 2 different devices. People have requested that feature, but I don't expect it to be implemented anytime soon.

If you are using an external sound card, you must use that as your headphone cue as well.

/edit You need to adjust your S4 audio settings if you are getting distortion. There is the main volume within Traktor and there is a separate volume on the S4 themselves. Not to mention the individual gain adjustments per deck.

I suggest setting the Traktor volume between -10db & -7db. And then fine tune the volume with the volume knob on the S4.

[DJ Aaron]

Thanks for the quick reply!

How would I cue using the external card? It has a headphone jack as well as main audio outs but I have no way to listen to the cued track. I often mix in just my headphones and set the mix control knob to have both the cue and main program going at the same time but I don't see any way to do that in this scenario.

[Paka Ono]

Thanks for the quick reply!

How would I cue using the external card? It has a headphone jack as well as main audio outs but I have no way to listen to the cued track. I often mix in just my headphones and set the mix control knob to have both the cue and main program going at the same time but I don't see any way to do that in this scenario.

Well the external sound card has to have multiple stereo outs before you can cue in your headphones. If the headphone out on the UX1 is the same as the main outs you are hosed.

Does Traktor recognize multiple outs on the UX1? That would be a tell tale sign.

And set your cue/program mix know to cue only. That way you only hear the cued track in your headphones.

/edit Personally I would just use the S4 and not bother with the UX1. I haven't had any sound quality issues with the S4 hardware itself.