The quest to find a good sound card that is portable, dependable and easy on the wallet seems to never end. There are several decent options out there, many of which we already covered in our under $200 round up, but nothing really stands out as a must buy. Some of the more expensive cards try to be the all in one home studio solution offering a variety features but not really excelling at any of them.
A basic dj sound card should have:
- reliable, rock solid drivers
- loud, clear outputs
- good A to D converters
- headphone jack on the front (with volume control)
- a pair of master outputs
That’s it! Make it portable, rugged, easy on the wallet and bingo you have a easy sell. Well my friends I am happy to report that the audio fire2 just about fits the bill. Lets look at its many strengths and a few of the drawbacks in closer detail.
Continue reading ‘Small, Loud and Stable- AudioFire Review’
I get a lot of mail from people every week asking different questions about digital djing. Even though its impossible to answer each and every question fully, dont stop sending them in. The kind letters you send are what keeps me going and helps put a personal feel on this sometimes distant internet thing.
When we recieve an email with a complicated question, I usually respond that its best to post those types of questions in the forum where everyone can benefit from the answer and a discussion will get started. Most of the questions are great but sometimes they take a little bit longer than an email to properly answer. So to answer some of teh common questions in a public forum, we want to try a something new. Every Friday, until you get sick of it, I will answer one letter in detail. So without further ado here is the letter of the week!
Continue reading ‘What Sound Card do we Reccomend?’
Native Instruments has a impressive record in the software department but their hardware products have less of a history. So when the audio 8 was released many months ago, I was speculative, and held off giving it a try due to the fact that I had already identified several good sound card options. One thing that remains elusive though, is a reasonably priced, high quality sound card that supports direct phonograph inputs. With more and more people using Ms. Pinky, Deck a Dance and tools for Ableton Live time code control, Phono inputs are a good thing to have around.
Continue reading ‘Native Instruments Audio 8 Review’
At this price point there should not be much of a difference right? Well, one thing we do not like around here is assumptions without any real evidence or experience to support that assumption. So, while writing a new column for Remix magazine about sound cards I took it upon my self to try and find out what separates a $100 sound card from a $800 one. After talking to all kinds of “experts” and engineers and after sifting through mountains of marketing propaganda I had a really hard time really finding any quantifiable differences. This reality is hard for us to accept in a society that places a high value on the price tag of a product. “Its $1000, so its got to be the best right?!”
Continue reading ‘4 Dj Sound Cards under $200 (updated)’
Dj tech tools is working on an extensive comparison of 4 excellent dj sound cards for under $200. We are testing their performance and have created a way for you to listen to the difference between the Numark Dj I/O, Novation NIO, Maya 44 and Indigo Dj. The video and full reviews will be posted on Friday which brings me to my other point. From here on out we are moving to a regular posting schedule. New articles come out every Monday, Wed and Friday morning with bigger reviews and tutorials published on Friday mornings. Its very tempting to get caught up in the blog rush of posting small bits every day but we want keep our focus on a few really helpful articles per week and not dilute the content. So check in on those days OR subscribe to our feed via email in the bottom of the Tool bar.
From the editors desk, on which is piled 50 sound cards-
Ean
As a result of our videos a ton of people seem to be very interested in the VCI-100 but remain confused about how it works. Every day I get more emails asking “Do I need a sound card, if so how does that work?” Dont fret, here at Dj Tech Tools we have the answers for you. Just check out this Sound Cards 101 video courtesy of Ean Golden.
Readers are Saying