Choosing the right Sound Card

[Bowers90]

Hi Guys )

I was wondering if anyone could help me with my little dilemma:
I'm a very amateur DJ and I have only really been playing around with software like Virtual DJ for about 18 months. I've pretty much got it nailed so I thought i'd treat myself to a Numark Stealth Control (no Audio Interface) and I have started doing small gigs in my Student Pub on campus. I'm studying something completely unrelated to Music so DJing is just a hobby that I really enjoy on the side - so i'm not a hardcore superstar DJ in the making.

I have a crappy external cound card at the moment, and at present I use this to output my master to the speakers, and use my laptop Soundcard to monitor and cue up. Although Virtual DJ allows this, i'm interested in migrating to Traktor, since my Midi Controller is designed for that and i've heard nothing but good reviews about it. It seems Traktor won't allow my current setup and would prefer that I buy into their product base (cheeky swines!) so after a couple of hours of trying to decide on what to buy, I thought i'd come here for an answer.

The two products i'm looking at are the Native Instruments Audio 4 DJ (~£169) and the Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1 (~£169) for the same price.

The reason i'm considering the Audio Kontrol 1 is because at the moment in my venues, I have to connect my setup to ANOTHER PA via a stereo jack, whereas the Audio Kontrol 1 has midi outputs which could potentially defeat the element of using the PA (or maybe the speakers use XLR, what's more likely?) - but at the expense of being able to use a 4-deck configuration.

I can't see myself ever using 4 Decks, since I just do it for fun and wouldn't be buying another set of decks, but I was wondering if anyone had used the two products and could point me in the right direction

Thanks a lot in advance, and if there's anything you want me to explain just ask - I get a little confused once the cables start flying all over the place, my tech guy deals with all that lol

James

[sine143]

you are using midi correct? Why not go for the Audio 2 dj (around 70 GBP i think). Its got 2 stereo channels, for mains and monitors, and its damn tiny.

[haze324]

yep if your using a midi you don't really have 4 decks requiring inputs. You can use a maya44 if your on a tight budget as well. Ive seen those being sold fairly cheap.

[BentoSan]

I am in the process of buying an audio 4 dj at the moment because i have a couple of turntables i want to run timecode with(i mix internally).

If your just mixing with midi then all you need is an audio 2 dj, if you want to mix 2 decks externally then you will want a audio 4 dj, if you want to mix 4 decks externally then you will want a audio 8 dj.

[Bowers90]

Thanks a lot guys, if i'm honest I kinda skipped the Audio 2 DJ because it looked a bit boring :P but then if it does everything I could need it to then what's the point in forking out an extra £100!

Cheers for your help, I appreciate it