Urgent - Trying to play decks through Line In

I know these are silly things but 1) are you sure the 3.5mm jack is plugged into the Line In - looks like this: |>O<| and 2) are you sure that the Line In hasn't been muted/ volume turned down really low?

Not trying to be sarcastic by stating the obvious, but I know sometimes the obvious things are overlooked.

Try using Audio MIDI Setup in Utilities to configure the input device. This could possibly help. What app are you using to accept the sound input, maybe the configuration is all funny and messed up?

If you are after serious sound, then don't use the Line In port on the MBP. Buy an external sound device (Firewire soundcard/mixer is a good start, and they don't cost that much).

Sound quality varies greatly and is often really distorted and poor when using Line In on soundcards. Especially for a laptop, I wouldn't recommend it.

I play guitar, and for recording I use an Alesis Firewire Multimix Mixer - the sound quality is fantastic. The Alesis Multimix handles all of the sound, output and input so the clarity is brilliant.

Costed me $300 for it - but was worth it if you are serious about doing some high-quality mixes.

But then again, the pro's who make mixes do it using software to get it perfect, unless they are playing live, where part of the talent is being able to create some wicked mixes live just with your decks.

stuppy said:

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah I spent about 2 hours fiddling with every setting I could in OSX to do with sound.

Only way I could get it working was using some software called iLine by Rogue Amoeba Software - but that gave a really bad delay that made mixing impossible.

Soeone has suggested using Garage Band to run a passthru which I am going to try tomorrow.

Mixing thinigie isn't really something I would want to buy - I am not bothered a bout super quality - just want to be able to play through the computer to record and hear it through my spaekers.

Is there nothing cheaper I can buy to get it work?

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Why wouldn't you split the signal from the mixer and run one line to the Mac and one to the speakers? Many mixers have more than one output for this purpose.

Any time you run audio into a computer and then back out, there will be a delay (called "Latency") as the signal is converted from analog to digital, then from digital back to analog.

Monitoring 'through' the computer doesn't make much sense.

Mixing live sound plus computer generated sound is another issue.

stuppy said:

See I was trying to avoid buying more equipment.

What I ended up doing last night was going back to the same setup I had when I used my turntables (I now have CDJ1000 Decks and a DJM600 mixer).

I have a Core2Duo PC - which I put my Audigy2 sound card into. I then ran the 3.5mm cable from the audio out port to the speakers, and then a cable from the mixer to the line in. The Audigy2 doesn't seem to do any kind of processing at all - the music out the speakers matched the headphones exactly.

So what is the best way to do what I want to do then?

I basically have 2 computers that I want to run off the 3.5mm stereo jacks, then I have a mixer that I want to hear the audio out of. I want to be able to record what i mix on the Mac prefereably. I am looking for the cheapest solution. As long as I get good sound through the speakers when live mixing, and listenable sounding recordings then thats good.

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If the Audigy2 has optical out you could run that over to your digital in on the Mac and do your recording there or just split the 3.5mm stereo to run to the speakers and the Mac. Let the PC process the mix and handle the output, which leaves the Mac dedicated to record. Any delay should simply be a timeshift of the mix (ie: the Mac records the mix .5 sec later) but you'll still hear the mix in real-time.

You have 2 computers and one mixer and you want to pass the audio through all three and monitor out the end of that chain without any latency?

And you don't want to buy any more equipment.

Good luck. Your system could be more complicated, but I don't know how off the top of my head.

The Audigy card probably has an analog, hardwired passthrough - in other words it is mirroring the analog input without any digitization, which is why you can hear it with no time delay.

You don't have that on the Mac, and you won't have that if you go optical out from the PC - either way you are introducing digital conversion and latency.

You are thinking of this system as a daisy chain configuration. You need to think of it more as a star configuration.

I think you need a mixer to combine the PC, CD/Turntable output, and the Mac output.

At the least, a Y cable to split the mixer output so that you can plug that into the speakers for real-time monitoring of the CD output, as the Mac is recording it. I am assuming you have powered speakers.

CD Mixer output
|
+--- to speaker input
|
to Mac input

You should have a record out on your mixer, use that output to the mac and the main outs from the mixer to your speakers.

Though, you should probably still get some kind of usb sound card for the mac.
M-audio has some cheap ones that sound decent.

Decks into MAC

Try using Sound Edit mate, Im going through the same now, it sounds great but not sure on Compression settings for play back after saving but you can play it it instantly and it is easy to use.

You shouldn't be using anything with the word phono on it... that's strictly for vinyl. no phono in. no phono out. no phono splitters. you want LINE. LINE level is what CD players, iPods, your laptop ect. output audio at.

beatzfreak said:

You should have a record out on your mixer, use that output to the mac and the main outs from the mixer to your speakers.

Though, you should probably still get some kind of usb sound card for the mac.
M-audio has some cheap ones that sound decent.

Click to expand...

Yes, your mixer should have REC out. If so plug that into the laptop and the Master, MSTR or Mix out into your amp/speakers.

This means as longs as your levels for each channel never hit red your recording won't clip. and you can control your speaker Vol. from the mixer without altering the lever going into the laptop. Oh and it removes the delay.

Hint. turn off monitoring in your audio recording software.

Peace.

EDIT: Avoid splitters like the plague. They F**K up your signal to noise ratio.