Hello “A” team. I have just eally gotten into DJ’ing. I actueally have almost every song for every venue, and DJ’s often get their music from me. So one asked me why don’t I do some small parties myself. I live music and I have most anybody. Well, I went and got a Hercules DL air pro, a 1000 watt amp. two 1200 watt speakers and I have been practicing with some small speakers hooked to my laptop, and it turns out I figured it out and I’m pretty good with beat matching, bringing music in etc. But my problem is how do I hook all of this up. I got a pretty good idea but I want to be sure. From my laptop I have hooked to my mixer its a USB port. I also have a External 5.1 USB 3D Audio Sound Card Adapter for PC Desktop Notebook Laptop. How do i get my mixer hooked to my amp, and my amp hooked to my speakers. There is only a small plug for some speakers that I am using now to practice in the front of the mixer and a large port that I have my headphones hooked to. Those are the only places to insert into the mixer. HHHEEEELLLLPPPP!!!
Yeah your sound card must have an output on it.
You can then go straight to the amp but I actually use an extra mixer on mine where you can plug in mics that might be useful and you can set your master volume there.
my mixer does not have all of the ins and outs that i have seen on many. There are only 2 ways to plug anything up to it. There is the very small input that is just like the two on the side of the laptop that show mic or earphones. Its just like those, and it has a large hole in the other side that I plug my headphones to listen at what it being played and what I’m getting ready to play. No more places to hook up anything. The only other cord is the one coming from the mixer, which is a USB which I plug into the laptop.
Your mixer (not really a mixer at all, it’s a dj controller) doesn’t have a sound card so there is no master out, just the headphones. Your external sound card unit should have an out on it which you need to either directly plug into your amp or into a 2nd mixer.
Thanks JaF, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain this. The others that I give music to have these GREAT BIG set-ups that really confuse me as they try to explain over the phone, they live in other states. Still lost because I understand what you are saying but I do not have these ports to just plug into, it seems that I need a bunch of converters.
I went to radioshack and got a converter from my small male input that converts to two large male ends that will plug into my amp., then I got the 16gauge speaker wire that will go from the amp to the speakers. the “SOUND CARD” where will it fit into the scheme of things. Remember I have the dj controller (USB) plugged into the laptop. The soundcard is USB hookup also, and if I insert it into the laptop I should hook “what” to it, it has two insertions one shows the icon of a mic and the other headphones. Plus now I have one USB port left and I have two more USB ports needed (my music on the external drive and my mouse)
Sorry I missed it in your first post. So just buy the right connector, mini-jack to rca and plug those into your amp.
I’ve never done that so I’d ask “safe to connect laptop sound to PA system?” just to be sure. I’d imagine it still wouldn’t be a bad idea to invest in a mixer before your amp just to boost the signal. When I bought my PA speakers they threw in an Alto ZMX862 mixer for free. Something like that should work. Probably find something that would work at a pawn shop too I imagine.
OK next step. I’ve put this together but have not heard it yet. That’s with two speakers from A side and B side. I want to put a sub-woofer in the middle of all this how do I go about doing that.
These small speakers that I spoke of are actually plugged into the DJ controller not the laptop. This is the mini jack that I plan to plug into and go straight to the amp. is this correct, or should I come from the laptop… from the sound card… from the mic side…to the amp? How does that sound? I’m not sure
