I bought a cheap USB sound card (the Behringer U Control) so that I could queue songs in Ableton while another song was playing (a basic move when you’re DJing). The trick is to use it at the same time as your internal output, using ASIO4ALL for Windows or Aggregate Device Editor for Mac.
Audio interfaces with more than one output are way more expensive, so this is the cheap way. .
ASIO4ALL in Windows worked awesome. But on Mac in it kept crapping out after a few minutes. I’d get a hideous crackling sound out of the audio interface.
The solution: set your internal soundcard as the “Clock” (whatever that means) and go into the Sound Preference Pane and set the Aggregate Device as your audio output. The second part is important.
Also, I noticed that setting your internal line-in as an input in Ableton helped, or at least it reset the problem when it occured. And once I fixed it, I still noticed temporary distortionwhen other applications (like Firefox, iTunes, Mail) were active.
General observation: It shocks me, when Mac is the platform of choice for so many audio professionals, that this shit is so janky. Seriously.
Hi. Your site displays incorrectly in Explorer, but content excellent! Thanks for your wise words =)