Help needed with laptop and Spotify

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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1

Help needed with laptop and Spotify

Hi all. Need help please on something I’m not that familiar with. I have DJed with vinyl turntables and CDJs most of my life but now I want to play Spotify on my laptop through my mixer. The trouble is it sounds garbage. I use a stereo jack to dual mono jack cable to run from the headphone socket on my laptop into the back of my mixer - but the sound is no way near as good as what I hear from the vinyl turntables on channel one and two of the mixer compared to the laptop on channel three. It’s quiet and I can turn it up but it really lacks bass and general ‘oomph’. What can I do to get the laptop to sound as good as the vinyl turntables in this instance? Is there something else I should be doing?

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You need to buy an Audio Interface. It connects to your laptop by USB and provides much better audio output(s) than the built in headphone socket.

You don’t need to spend a fortune. But, since you’re dipping your toes into the water of digital DJing, you might want to explore other possibilities (going full digital? Vinyl/digital hybrid set-up?) before spending any money…

3

Hey Patch. Thanks for your response. Yes, an audio interface. I’ve been advised to try this by someone else so I bought the u-control uca222:

https://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Behringer-U-Control-UCA222-USB-Audio-Interface/AML?origin=product-ads&campaign=PLA+Shop+-+GENERIC&adgroup=GENERIC&medium=vertical_search&network=google&merchant_id=1279443&product_id=13773d1&product_country=GB&product_partition_id=290482833329&gclid=CjwKCAjw8uLcBRACEiwAaL6MSYiT-gioJ85g28ueCOjtzUqU_XzJ7upE3oojeTf_bLm9bQnNSzVGcRoCgFUQAvD_BwE

I’m embarassed to say though that I can’t hook it up! Do I need a double socket lead each end to go from the output on the interface to the output in the back of the mixer, or do I connect the audio interface into a channel on the mixer? Also when I plug the USB port into my laptop the laptop recognises the device but does nothing else. I really don’t know how to go forward on this one so any help will be appreciated!

4

Connect the UCA-222 to your computer by USB. Then, set it as your default audio output device in the control panel.

Connect the outputs (RCA > RCA cable) from the UCA-222 to an input on the channel of your mixer that you want to play the audio from your computer on. Set the phono/line to “LINE”. Now you’ve got 3 volume controls - your channel gain, your channel volume, and the volume control on your computer.

5

Thank you! No one has ever given these instructions before - I’ve really had no idea! I’ll try and let you know how I get on. Thanks so much again buddy.

G.

6

You the man! It worked - proper pleased. Thanks so much for your help :slight_smile:

7

My pleasure mate.

8

Awww, I remember when Patch helped me when I first started on the digital side.

*sniffs

:blush:

9

:laughing:

Ha! I really did laugh. :thumbsup:

10

Just don’t tell Karlos Santos. You know how jealous he gets.