It's been a while since I used Traktor, but I'll try to help.
Do you use external mixer?

No i just use a laptop. I basically just want to be able to record some mixes. Is there any way to do this or do i need an external mixer? thanks for your help.

___________________
"Trance is not so much a style as it is a state of trance that you're in...
Where you forget what you're doing, when the hairs on your arm stand on end,
just purely lost in the music, for me...that's trance"

if you have multi channel soundcard it's good.
then all you need to do is select different outputs, one for the main channel and one to the headphones, connect one to your speakers (through amp) and the other one to headphones (through some amp too).

if you have regular stereo soundcard, you have to split the channels using audio doohickey, which splits the stereo output to two mono channels, then you'll connect one channel to an amp and one to your headphones.
and you have to select the proper configuration for it in Traktor.

in order to hear something in the headphones you must amplify it's signal, so it means you'll need two amplifiers (one for your main output) or you can work something out (if you're a little familier with electronics it's really easy to build small headphones amp).
My point is it would be much better to use external mixer with headphones channel already amplified for you.

*to each channel in Traktor (as far as I remember) you can assign left and right output. using audio doohickey you select right channel for main output, and left to headphones

You'll need a soundcard that has at least 2 stereo outputs (1 for amplifier/speakers (master), 1 for headphones (monitor)). Such as (on a desktop computer) a Soundblaster Live or almost any multichannel soundcard. But on a laptop the internal card only has one stereo output so you won't be able to preview the next track.

An alternative to using the Traktor internal mixer is to use an external mixer but you would still need a card with at least 2 stereo outputs.

So you're out of luck on doing a proper mix unless you get a multichannel soundcard such as the PCMCIA Echo Indigo DJ, or a USB or Firewire type card (such as from M-Audio). Cost $150 up.

However if you don't want to buy a new soundcard yet, and you can make do with monophonic sound you could set Traktor to put the master sound to the left soundcard output and the monitor (headphone) to the right soundcard output. You will need to rig a special splitter cable to send sound from your laptop 1/8" stereo jack to your amplifier(left) and headphones(right). But it will be mono sound, and not even mixed(L+R) mono, so it will not sound too good.

You can record your mix (although it won't be good without a proper headphone preview) using the RECORD button. This puts the audio info for the mix in a .NMX file. Afterwards use the WRITE button to create a WAV file (or multiple files) from the NMX. After that you can make MP3 files using another program of your choice.

Last edited by tvmann on Feb-17-2007 at 19:32

Thanks a lot guys for your help.

___________________
"Trance is not so much a style as it is a state of trance that you're in...
Where you forget what you're doing, when the hairs on your arm stand on end,
just purely lost in the music, for me...that's trance"