DJing From Laptop?

Ok, well I currently use Traktor DJ Studio 3 for mixing music on my laptop (dell inspiron 6400) and am going to be doing a few ';sets'; at various parties over the summer. I don't own any amps/hardware (eg mixing decks) at the moment.





As I'm sure u no, u can cue up songs on the deck you aren't currently playing so that you can listen to your mix before its played on the speakers. This obviously will require two outputs on my laptop, one that goes to the amps playing the current song, and one for headphones that allows me to ';cue'; the next song. I only have a headphone out jack on my laptop. If I bought a headphone splitter, would that do what i want (play the unchanged song on the speakers and let me edit/listen to something else on the headphones without interfering with the speakers?) If not is there any hardware i must buy or how would i get around this problem?





Many thanks in advanceDJing From Laptop?
A headphone splitter will just split the same signal, your best bet is to buy a 5.1 surround sound adaptor similar to this one;


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mini-USB-Sound-Box鈥?/a>





or something with similar functionality.





you only need one external soundcard like this as it has 3 seperate connections when you only need two, one output for your main speakers and the other for your cueing channel (headphones.)





when you've installed whichever multi-channel audio device you get, go into traktors preferences - soundcard and ensure yours is highlighted, then in the section below soundcard called output routing, you'll need to setup which channels are sent from traktor to each output.


On a typical 5.1 usb adaptor, each output is stereo so channels 1 %26amp; 2 will be for one of the output connectors, 3 %26amp; 4 for the next output and 5 %26amp; 6 for the other output. it might not intially be obvious which pair of numbers refer to each output connection but by either only playing audio through traktors headphone channel OR the main master output, you'll soon work out which one is which through trial and error.





Obviously you'll also need a cable to connect your speakers/amp, with a 3.5mm adaptor (small headphone jack) on one end and probably twin rca phono connectors on the other end to connect to active speakers or a poweramp.





If you can afford it, invest in a mixer as using the same usb 5.1 audio adaptor, you can have both decks on traktor output to your mixers channels, then mix hands on without having to use the mouse for deck control AND mixer control.





this requires only a slightly different setup in traktor and an extra cable.DJing From Laptop?
It wouldn't. Buy a USB sound ';card'; (Turtle Beach makes some nice ones) - you need 2 sound cards to have 2 sound sources, and you can't install an internal one in a laptop.