Ok, I am a DJ and want to record my mixes through Audacity. I could do this no problem through my iMac G5. However, I recently purchased the new iMac and was gutted to find I would need to buy a USB sound card in order to records my mixes.
After doing a test recording I was shocked to find that this was a “mono” USB sound card and therefore the sound quality was pretty poor. Can anyone recommend a suitable USB sound card ? Or a better way of recording my DJ mixes ?
I use a Behringer UCA 202.
It has stereo line level in, and stereo line level out. Mine is a really old version and it does not have a headphone socket, but they do now.
The main limitation is that there are no level controls (other than headphone volume), so you need to adjust the recording level by setting the playback level of the thing that you are recording - If recording from a mixer, keep the level below 0 dB.
The good side is that as long as you set the level of the signal correctly, the recording (and playback) quality is very good (absolutely amazing for the £25 price tag).
It’s not just a mono soundcard. It’s a headphone and microphone soundcard and the microphone part is mono. That’s normal. It’s not broken. Even if you did manage to connect it, the sound quality will be terrible because it will be running in overload. Microphone sound is far smaller and delicate than your Mixer Stereo Line signal and the adapter would have no idea what to do with it.
That adapter is designed for applications such as this: