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The output level from my laptop is enough to drive my powered mixer at a nice level but I get noise off of my drive when it is accessing the next song.I bought a sound blaster external card and it helped with the noise but now the output level is not great enough to to push the mixer to a good sound level.I have read where some people are using the Lexicon Alpha which has a line in gain control and an output level but How are they going from the 1/8 stereo jack to the Lexicon which has only dual 1/4 L & R inputs or a xlr input?Is there another sound card that is just as compatible as the sound blaster with a input gain and output level control?

The ALpha bypasses the 1/8" jack & goes straight to the mixer via the 1/4" jacks. It plugs into the computer via USB.

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The soundblaster has a D/A converter that turns the computer's pre-amped digital signal into a anolog signal suitable for live music equipment. "Output level" from the computer end is controlled by the settings of the sound card and the computer, and wouldn't just arbitrarily give low outputs unless the settings are off or you have a loose or broken connection. The amp in your mixer is what "pushes" the pre-amplified signal, not the computer or the soundcard.

The sound card should be passing the raw signal to your mixing amp that is produced by the sound card PRE-amplifier., i.e., the signal before the sound is amplified, so your amplification problem isn't in your soundcard or computer unless they are just plain broken. Your problem is a volume or mute setting somewhere on the soundcard, computer, or mixing amp.

Check the "sound device" options on your computer to make sure everything is turned all the way up and unmuted. Do the same for the options for the sound card, if it has its own program separate from the computer's "sound device" options (some don't). Also make sure that the actual volume control on your computer is turned all the way up and not muted.

Again, unless something is just plain broken, there is no reason other than user settings that the mixing amp shouldn't be getting a perfect signal to work with.

It could also be a pre-amp button or PFL button or something like that is pressed on the channel on your mixing amp. If these buttons were pressed on the channel your have the computer running through, your signal would bypass the amp and you'd only hear a pre-amplified signal, which would be muffled and at low volume. So make sure there are no miscellaneous buttons on your mixing amp that are pressed as well.

See if any of that helps before you go buying more stuff. The stuff you have should work fine if configured correctly.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Got to thinking, he said he has an external card but wondered in the Alpha scenerio how to connect the 1/8" jack to it? Is he running the 1/8" jack from the computer internal sound card into the external Sound Blaster card?

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