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External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke
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Author:  BigDaddyMac27 [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 3:09 pm ]
Post subject:  External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

Can anybody tell me a good sound devices. Newbie

Author:  Lonman [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 3:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

Lexicon Alpha is a great interface that allows for recording options as well.
http://www.zzounds.com/item--LEXALPHA

Author:  BigDaddyMac27 [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 3:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

Maybe I got it wrong, the device I'm looking for needs to inprove the sound coming out of the laptop to the mixer, my laptop has a cheap soundcard.

Author:  Lonman [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 4:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

BigDaddyMac27 @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 4:40 pm wrote:
Maybe I got it wrong, the device I'm looking for needs to inprove the sound coming out of the laptop to the mixer, my laptop has a cheap soundcard.

Yes it will do exactly that - that is primarily what I use it for as well. I just added that it will also allow for recording as well.

Author:  Wiggly Dave [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 4:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

A decent mixer should sort it out without any other devices

Author:  Lonman [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 4:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

Wiggly Dave @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:36 pm wrote:
A decent mixer should sort it out without any other devices

He's looking to bypass his built in sound card with a good external.

Author:  Micky [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

Lonman @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 7:46 pm wrote:
Wiggly Dave @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:36 pm wrote:
A decent mixer should sort it out without any other devices

He's looking to bypass his built in sound card with a good external.


The Zed-12 & 14 both have a USB audio card so that should do it :wink:

Author:  birdofsong [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

We have externals that we used to use when we were running laptops called a MAYA 44 USB. Made by Audiotrax. It's an external sound card with several inputs. Worked great. We aren't running a laptop anymore, so I haven't used one in a while, but I definitely had a good experience with it. I'm not sure if they are still available.

birdofsong

Author:  hamsamich [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

my laptop sounded like crap without my audigy. yuck! the berhinger uca-222 sounds pretty good too, cheaper and smaller if you want to go cheap......I only used it to record, but I tested the output and I thought it was good enough. has usb connection. audigy fits in old-style pcmia slot. old though. circa 2005.

Author:  Lonman [ Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

I have tried the Behringer interface, and there is no comparison in sound.

Author:  hamsamich [ Tue Feb 02, 2010 8:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

I'm sure it's not as good as higher end stuff, but for 35 bucks it was pretty good. Better than the integrated sound on my laptop for sure.

Author:  letitrip [ Tue Feb 02, 2010 9:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

Wiggly Dave @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:36 pm wrote:
A decent mixer should sort it out without any other devices


Crap in, crap out, doesn't matter how good the console is. A crappy sound card with a high noise floor, high distortion and/or lots of processing artifacts can not be compensated for simply by having a desk with good pre-amps and EQ's. That's like saying your console should be able to make up for a crappy singer or a crappy microphone, it just doesn't happen.

So replacing a crappy OEM installed sound card with a high quality USB audio interface is a good idea. I think Lon's got the OP covered pretty well as far as recommendations.

Author:  jamkaraoke [ Tue Feb 02, 2010 9:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

BigDaddyMac27 @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:40 pm wrote:
Maybe I got it wrong, the device I'm looking for needs to inprove the sound coming out of the laptop to the mixer, my laptop has a cheap soundcard.


What is installed on your laptop? Is it an OLDER laptop?
Most laptops nowadays give adequate sound from the standard cards. There may be another reason you're not happy with the sound.

Author:  Wiggly Dave [ Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

jamkaraoke @ Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:07 pm wrote:
BigDaddyMac27 @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:40 pm wrote:
Maybe I got it wrong, the device I'm looking for needs to inprove the sound coming out of the laptop to the mixer, my laptop has a cheap soundcard.


What is installed on your laptop? Is it an OLDER laptop?
Most laptops nowadays give adequate sound from the standard cards. There may be another reason you're not happy with the sound.

8)

Author:  Wiggly Dave [ Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

you can plug any old sound device into a half decent mixer...if the operative knows what he is doing..it will sound good coming out....hell...I have had the music saved on mobile phones sounding good!...

Author:  rogerniner [ Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

Disagree on the good mixer fix bad sound. My old laptop hummed like a Hong Kong... person who was good at humming. I bought an M-Audio Fast Track Ultra... and while a bit buggy, the sound is great PLUS i could run a mic into the box, run it through filtration/effects on the laptop, and out through my mixer. NOW I don't suggest doing this with a laptop with an older processor, but when I did get it to work, it was fun!

Author:  stogie [ Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

wiggly Dave you just flat out wrong. There is a reason external USB sound cards are being made and sold, they do a better job of decoding sound files so what gets fed into a mixer is much higher quality. If you feed crap into a mixer, no amount of tweaking and EQing will make it sound good.

It's less of a problem now since lots of laptops are using better sound cards and as was mentioned some mixers have the soundcard built in now like my Alesis Multimix 8 USB. I haven't used them all so there may still be some crappy sound cards in new laptops. In any case, I own and have been using both the Behringer UCA 202 and a Creative labs X-Fi for about a year and a half to two years and both work great. Just plug them into the USB port and run a cable into your mixer, easy as pie. Here is a link to the X-Fi:

http://cgi.ebay.com/CREATIVE-LABS-XMOD-USB-COMPUTER-SOUND-CARD-PC-MAC-X-FI_W0QQitemZ370330184125QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item56396629bd

IMO the X-Fi sounds slightly better, but the Behringer has some very nice features like L&R RCA Input and Output jacks which can be very handy for recording. It also has an 1/8" headphone output jack with a volume control so in effect you have two outputs from one sound card. The difference is barely noticeable between the two different sound cards and both are completely plug and play.

Author:  hamsamich [ Sat Feb 06, 2010 7:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

totally agree with stogie. if you feed noisy crap into a mixer, how can you make that sound good? and the low priced berhinger usb UCAs are the way to go if on a budget. pretty good bang for buck wise. love my UCA for ease of recording!

Author:  enzoab [ Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

BigDaddyMac27 @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 3:09 pm wrote:
Can anybody tell me a good sound devices. Newbie


I'm using the Native Instruments Audio 2 DJ. Amazing card! can't say more positives about it. Best $99.00 I've spent on my rig. 1/4 inputs, seperate volume wheels for each channel; A and B, easy to set up. Just amazing.

Mark

Author:  ripman8 [ Wed Feb 10, 2010 3:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: External Sound Devices To Use With A Laptop For Karaoke

Agreed!

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