Trying To Make Some Tracks

[AdrockHiggs]

Hello everyone, ive been reading everything i can on this site for about 5 hours, its 4:42 AM here in Nova Scotia, and ive learned a lot. There are just a few thing i want to run by you all and id like some help.

Im a bedroom DJ interested in making beats and having some friends rap on them. Ive made a few not-half-bad beats on Fruity Loops. Now im looking at a soundcard to put in my computer and i was wondering if a soundblaster live would work for this.

Ive got 2 turntables going into my Gemini UMX-5 mixer, the output of the mixer goes to my amp, id like to send my turntables via the mixer into the computer, and have that monitored in my speakers by sending an output from the soundcard into my amp.

for vocals would the mic input on my mixer be enough? or does this soundcard have a mic input or what?

I also want to multi track record mixes on my decks.

So is the soundblaster live a good card or is there a better one out there for a guy on a pretty tight budget? also what would the best software to use to take beats i make and mix those with scratching and vocals?

Thanks A Lot In Advance
A"Z"H

 

[DougC]

---Soundblaster 5.1 will work: it has a gameport/MIDI plug, mic, line-in, a front-out, rear-out, and a digital one I've never used.....SPDIF or something. -?
---SBL's are available online for (US) $32 + shipping, if you buy the OEM/whitebox version. The US retail price is around twice that much. The SBL is a good card for $32. At least two different places have it for this price.
---The retail version includes some freeware; none of which I ever used much. I don't know if the OEM version includes the freeware CD or not. About a year ago, the big two freeware programs that my retail version included were Cakewalk Express Gold 8.0, and Fruity Loops Express, neither of which I use now. Express Gold only allows four mono tracks of audio at a time, and Fruity Express you don't need anyway. I moved to Cakewalk Home Express 2002, it does everything I need for audio mixing/MIDI/soundfonts, but the built-in MP3 convertor is trialware.
---Creative card drivers can be shifty in WinXP; when you install it and power up it might work completely, might not work at all, or might work anywhere in-between. There's a 375-meg driver from Compaq that usually works for everybody when nothing else does. Any other Win OS isn't a problem.