Hi there,
I’m using the regular line out on my motherboard to connect to my djm 700 mixer (with a simple headphone to rca converter cable) and then out to my rokit 8 monitors. I’ve noticed a lot of static/noise when everything is connected in this method. When I connect my crappy beats headphones using the same port there is no static at all which is strange because if i run everything through the djm 700 and then connect my headphones to the jack on the mixer there is very noticeable static. It is not the cable either as i have tested that independently from everything else. Is this possibly a ground loop that is causing this? I really have no idea. What could fix this problem?
Thanks!
The soundcards and their respective output connections on most motherboards aren’t very good, especially when amplified further by an external mixer and powered speakers (Too high of a THD rating), RCA’s and Stereo 1/8" headphone jacks are also unbalanced connections, which also add more noise to the signal, although negligible in this case.
Your best bet would be to live with it, or use a better external soundcard.
or what kind of a sound card would you recommend? The problem is that i want to keep my monitors plugged into my djm 700 so i can still use them when i’m djing.
It might, but you’d be better off with something meant for production like a USB, Thunderbolt, or Firewire Audio Interface. Some PCI stuff is good, I’ve never been a big fan as I do most my work on my laptop.
Focusrite makes some good stuff for the price. Native Instruments’ Audio Interfaces, whether they be for DVS (Traktor Audio) or otherwise (Komplete Audio 6) are pretty good as well. They’re also more portable, and use better connections than RCA to 1/8" headphone cables.
Any USB sound card is going to be a decent bit better, even things like the NI Audio 2 or Audio Engine D1…the little Focusrite Scarlett 2i2…basically anything, really.
One big problem is just the physical size of internal cards…the analog parts of the signal path don’t have that much space the designers can devote to them. And that makes a difference.
Another problem is how many wires are inside a typical PC…they’re all unbalanced and lead to a lot of RF interference. It doesn’t affect digital signals, but it will affect analog ones, which happens on the sound card with a bit of a wire run left.
When you’re running headphones off those output, the noise doesn’t get amplified that much compared to a DJ mixer that is probably running a little hot and then the monitors with a relatively high-gain amplifier into relatively inefficient speakers.
ok then maybe i can get some help getting my sl3 to work… haha. There is a lot of crackling when i playback my songs in ableton thru the sl3. (this is not static or interference) It sounds like something you would hear if the usb buffer was set to low for your system specs. But i’ve set it everywhere on the scale with no difference.
I used to have this problem but now I use a soundcard with RCA out and ins on my desktop. Won’t go any other way these days other then an external USB card.