Macbook Pro internal soundcard
Hi i’ve always used my macbook’s line out with a 3.14mm to rca cable for bedroom djaying, but I always see people posting on here about getting a soundcard, so I was just curious as to how much better is an external soundcard compared to the macbook pro’s internal one? do you really notice much of a difference between the two?
To make a long story short: yes.
To make a short answer long: heeeeell yeeeeesss.
No really though, there’s a considerable difference, sound quality and feature wise. Depends on the sound card and whatnot, but the sound card is a pretty pivotal aspect of digital DJ work, so I would strongly consider investing in one. Even a Native Instruments Audio 2 is a good start.
A external soundcard gives you the ability to cue your tracks up, you cant do that with an internal card.
Also the sound quality is night and day, you will notice all sorts of things in you tracks you have never noticed before !
Gotta be honest: With the MBP the only real difference I noticed was the latency drop.
Bento is right about the cueing and sound routing though!
thanks guys for the replies,
I am getting the vestax spin that comes with a built-in soundcard, would you consider getting the Native Instruments Audio 2 dj soundcard to route the sound that way, or would it be fine out of the midi controller/just save the usb slot?
built in soundcards tend to suffer from problems - latency, poor sound quality, unstable drivers.
mac internal audio isn’t shabby, it’s got nice n low latency but I’ve noticed it’s missing a lot of detail. getting an external, dedicated soundcard is the way to go. NI cards aren’t too bad, but if you have firewire grab a presonus firebox. Anything better than that and you’re looking at spending more money than you probably want to at this point.
as a bedroom dj (and someone who has just started to play out) I have used the internal soundcard in the past. In the bedroom, it doesnt seem to bad. Then you throw it through the clubs PA, and you notice, shittttt… there is an extra 15 ms latency on top of the usualy latency I experience in my bedroom. I can no longer cue juggle or do anything, unless I have external headphone cueing.
would an external soundcard improve the sound of my itunes 128kbps songs? or would they still sound inferior crummy?
To an extent, but at 128, there isn’t much you can do to be honest. I would re-attain the track at a bare minimum if 192 if possible, 320 would be more ideal
I find that reallly weird stuff happens at 128. Icky phase issues, and a definite lack of balls in the low end. It depends what kind of tunes you are talking about. If its Iron and Wines home recorded tracks from the early 2000s, they are extremely lofi to begin with (although I still have them in flac).
aww man haha, alright. Would a soundcard emphasize the poor quality?
yea thanks, I noticed the other day when i hooked up my laptop to some jbl speakers, that the 128 songs sounded like they just didn’t have much umph in the lower ends, and were sort of un-solid up on the highs. Oh and btw I would be using electronic/ dance/ techno for the 128’s
although I have a significant chance of being flamed here. If you honestly bought the tracks, back in the day when 128 was the stuff and itunes was just budding… it should at least lighten the load off your mind when you go find them at a higher bitrate. I didnt start my digital music buying career till after beatport was established (love it), and if I buy hard music, its in the form of vinyl now a days, cause I’m a sucker for big album art.
Actually IMO it’s a myth that you cannot cue tracks with an internal card.
My ghetto setup uses my built in soundcard, and a set of USB “gaming” headphones. I got it so that in Traktor, I am able to cue my tracks with the headphones and have the main out go through my speakers.
It took a little time and setting up, but it works. Just a generic pair of Logitech USB headphones (that even have a mic built in) which I think cost me $40 or so.
I think it’s more of a driver issue than anything, and knowing how to set it up as a seperate sound device on your system. It can be done. Is it worth it? To me, yes, because I don’t have the cash to spend on better equipment.
But as people say, having the proper equipment will always be better. But until then… do what you can do.
i think you’re setup for all practical purposes could be considered a two-soundcard setup, those usb headphones are acting like a generic usb audio device.
if you’re computer has multiple output internal card like alot of realtek, etc. internal cards on desktops do, then you could have one setup for main and one for cue.
i can’t think of a laptop that has a multi out internal card, but there’s probably an exception to the rule out there.
thanks for the input guys, I just order an Audio 2 DJ soundcard, so hopefully it’ll match up to the hype that i’ve read about on the forum.
regards,