Weaver

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External speakers for your practice room are a pretty good idea. Your controller probably (i guess it depends on what one you get) will be outputting the sound itself, instead of your laptop. I believe you can set it up so your laptop outputs the sound but I’m really not too sure lol. It really depends on what software and controller you end up getting!

IMO, start as cheap as you can. I’m sure lots of people would recommend spending a thousand dollars on studio monitors, but honestly any old speakers that let you more or less hear the sound are good to start with! I still use some old hi-fi speakers I’ve had for years when just mixing by myself. If you’re going to play for a crowd eventually you’ll want an actual PA system, but you can rent those.

Possibly blasphemous, but I live in an apartment and if I’m practicing late at night I won’t even use speakers. I’ll just monitor everything through my headphones. It does mean I’m messing with the cue fader and cuing and uncuing tracks a lot, but I’ve basically gotten used to it lol.

There is no reduction in quality, don’t worry 🙂

Think of it like watching a movie that’s at 24 frames per second on a screen that can display 60 frames per second.

I have a 2012 Hyundai Accent Hatchback. I’m not really a car guy, I just wanted something with some trunk space that would drive me places without exploding. So far it’s worked great!

Also, the stock sound system while not great or anything, was surprisingly not total crap.

First, it’s a really good song!

That said, I’m not a professional so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Cutting everything that’s not a bassline or a kick below 100hz is probably a good idea. This makes sure wider synths won’t bleed into the low ranges. IMO nothing muddies up a mix like too much competition in the low frequencies.

I, personally, employ a gradual tail off from probably 50hz – 20hz for the sub bass (20hz is the absolute cut-off). I do think you could bring the volume on the bass up a bit.

To keep the soundstage clear for the kick to make it through the bassline I usually sidechain the kick with a very quick attack and release on the bassline. We’re not looking for that “pumping” sound that house and trance music do a lot, we’re looking for a very fast reduction in bass for the duration of the kick only. Basically, scooping out a section of the bass for the kick (hard to explain without hearing it or seeing a waveform lol).

Also, don’t worry about not hearing bass on a laptop. That’s what happens. To be honest, the wide adoption of shit sound speakers is partially why music is so overcompressed these days. A lot of hard dance music is also starting to adopt sharp bass synths that have frequencies that push up into the mids so that crappy laptop speakers still kind of sound like the song.

I say nuts to all that! Make the ranges right, use compression where you need it, and just don’t worry if people with awful speakers can’t hear it 🙂

Is anything coming out of your main out?

I’ll update traktor when I get home and see if I can replicate the headphone left and right thing on the latest version.
And you’re sure the cue volume is up? Also, not sure if you know this, but on that controller you can press the cue and mix volume knobs in and they’ll pop out for easier rotation.

lol I had to dust off my S2 (literally, it’s pretty dusty in here!) and plug it in to check.
Good thing I’ve just been way to lazy to put it up for sale!