Hi
I need advise which soundcard to get , I want one that allows headphones through one channel and speakers through another in the one soundcard , I don't know what you call this kind of card but know a lot of you traktor guys have them ( so I can cue my mp3's for mixin in the headphones ).
I just want to get a cheap card that can do this as I am a student and just starting of in this area , plus I have small crappy speakers so quality isn't uppermost in my thoughts , just want a cheap card that can do this so I can learn the basics. Can you suggest a card to do this and tell me roughly how much it would cost ? also what do you call a card that can allow both headphones and speakers through different channels ?

regards , locutus

what you have to do is have two soundcards installed in your computer... this will allow you to sample with your headphones. im not even sure if they make soundcards that allows you to play music out of speaker and sample with headphones or with another line at the same time! but anyhow.... this is the set-up that most MP3 DJ's have.. good luck

2 soundcards is an option, but it depends what Operating System your running. I would recommend a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, Its a good solid card with 4 outputs. I use it with Traktor, and because it has a VersaJack (You can set whether u want it to be digital in, analogue out etc.) it comes in really handy since I use the Main Output for my speakers and the VersaJack for my fones, I get about 55ms to both outputs with win98, but full duplexing it ASIO with Win2K you could probably get about 25ms. The soundcard i'm looking to upgrade to is the Delta44 from M-Audio, that has 0ms to all the outputs.

would this card work
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Player 5.1 PCI

?

U mean the SB Live Player 5.1? most creative cards arnt up to the job for mixing or high DSP related work, I don't think traktor will like it. How many outputs does it have, & does ASIO see them both, or if u dont have ASIO does Traktor? However if you still want to run the SB card, then i suggest you get another of the same type and run them both on IRQ 10 and 11 (11 for main speaker output, 10 for fones), but bare in mind I don't think you can use Win98 or 95 with 2 identical cards.

I second the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz! It's a professional sound card that gives great sound quality, low hiss, is great for recording, is cheap, and is also great for gaming, to boot! It's the best sound card out there, IMO (I like sound cards that you can game on AND that have quality recording stuff...)

I agree,

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

Combined with the Sennheiser HD280 Pro's, u get an awseome double team! only thing wrong with Cruz is that the latency isn't fast enough for traktor, and it dont have proper ASIO support, other than that tho its a beast.

the cheapest method would be to spend 5 dollers at radio shack and by a channel splitter

What are u talking about? U mean get 2 mono signals down one line? coz that would just be pointless, let alone u needing a second output so the software reads it, that would defeat the object of having a monitor...

I like the CMedia-based cards - they are very simple! it's all on the chip, and the chip is good. low noise, low cost, and the drivers for 2000/XP allow multiple boards without bitching.

I mix using AtomixMP3 with 2 CMedia CM8738-based cards - total cost: $60 for atomixmp3 and $20 for the 2 soundcards. can't be beat, sounds great.

-mer