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Long story short, trying to connect DJ equipment (DJM 800 mixer) to record from the mixer to laptop (Audacity). Couldn't get it to work with standard headphone jack, bought a USB Soundcard, most seem to be plug and play but it's not recognised on my latop, wondered if anyone had an idea what to do? Tried all the advice online but no luck.
Tried on two laptops, Acer laptop running windows 11 and 2019 Macbook Pro running Ventura 13.01.
Any advice greatly appreciated, don't know a lot about computers being honest...
Cheers
Does it appear in Device Manager when you plug it in?
I know its mac not MS, but sometimes on MS computer if the newly installed bit didnt get recognized, you unplug the mouse then plug it back in and the computer goes 'Oh, somethings happened here' and goes on a look about to see whats what, and at that point recognizing something new has happened.
Doesn't appear in Device Manager. Tried different USB ports on Mac and Windows but no luck. Macbook is 2 USB C ports but tried both and different ports on the USB-C adapter
Thanks
If it doesn't come up in devman at all then the computer isn't even seeing it. If it was detected but not working, you'd see it appear with a warning triangle.
Is there an "on" switch on the device?
Does it require external power? (Would be weird, but...)
Is it broken?
On Mac in the terminal, does anything show in dmesg when you plug the card in? Other than that, like Cougar said, does it need power?
Which USB sound card is it? Some need driver software. You might also want to try a different cable if you have one available to rule out a fault there.
Which USB sound card is it? Some need driver software. You might also want to try a different cable if you have one available to rule out a fault there.
Was going to say exactly this. The drivers bit. Mine won't work without its own drivers as they're kind of bundled with the application to change levels/sample rates etc.
Does it require external power? (Would be weird, but…)
My current device (Focusrite) doesn't. but my old one (Presonus) did. I preferred the old one as it still worked as a kind of audio router even with no computer attached. This got me thinking, why couldn't I power this one from a USB charger of some description? Just tried an iPhone charger and it didn't work, but maybe a different charger plug thing? How much juice does a USB port on a laptop chuck out?
Sorry for the deviation OP. Hope you get it going.
Which USB sound card is it? Some need driver software.
If it doesn't appear in Device Manager at all, it's not a driver issue. Well, unless it's a driver issue with the USB port itself I suppose. "I can see it but I don't know what it is" is a driver issue.
How much juice does a USB port on a laptop chuck out?
5V at 0.5A. For USB2 anyway; USB3 is higher, I'd have to look it up. 1A?
That's a point actually - the USB plug on the soundcard cable, is it blue internally?
I've seen higher-power devices (typically external optical drives) ship with USB cables like a Y-connecter, two USB-B plugs on the same end. One is power + data, the other additional power. Both have to be connected. I'd have hoped the OP might have mentioned something like this, though!
Apologies for the late respone, and thanks for all the replies. Been feeling awful all weekend and didn't do a lot yesterday.
It's. this card here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09QQCX1V2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Bought the other day so shouldn't be damaged, Still doesn't appear to show up anywhere. The description / comments suggest it's just a 'plug and play'.
It's a USB 2.0, i.e, not blue on the inside.
Think I'll just send it back and try my luck with something else.
Thanks
China special. Have you checked there is anything inside?
Have you tried the mixer jack output with headphones and with both laptop jack inputs ? You shouln't need an external sound card.
The mixer has jack, RCA and XLR outputs. The first thing to check is that they are all working. If they're working you shouldn't need a sound card, just plug into the laptop 3.5 jack input.
If you do want to use a soundcard of better quality than the one in your laptop then I suggest buying a more upmarket one with RCA connectors. I used to use an external soundcard but the soundcard in my latest PC is fine and I just use the 3.5 jack input.
Edit: check the laptop audio settings. Type "audio" into the Windows search bar and click on audio settings, the input shoud me th emicrophone jack by default but the soundcard will appear if you plug one in.