DJ Event Planner joins the Central Kansas Chapter of the American Disc Jockey Association in inviting you the to 2009 Midwest Mobile Entertainer's Seminar. This event will feature national level speakers, including Jim Cerone, Stevie Ray, and social media guru Andy Ebon. There will also be equipment give-a-ways and excellent networking opportunities.

This event will be held November 8th and 9th, 2009, at the Airport Hilton in Witchita, Kansas. Registration is still available for $169 per person, $149 for ADJA members.

Midwest Mobile Entertainers Seminar Website

The Disc Jockey New is a monthly newspaper targeted at Mobile Disc Jockeys. The writers cover a variety of topics: performance, business management, marketing, personal development, and more.

The publication has moved to a paid subscription base. Starting September of 2009, all subscribers must re-subscribe online or with the download order form to continue to receive the monthly Disc Jockey News.

The newspaper is also now mailing as a periodical. What does that mean? You will have the paper in DAYS instead of weeks. Look for your November issue starting about November 3rd.

The subscription fee is $12.50 annually for US residents. The newspaper can also be sent to Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Disc Jockey News Website

DJ Event Planner has not had an official version release in nearly a year. We will soon be releasing Version 5 of the software. Nearly all of the features are already available in your account, including:

• Quote Generator
• Inquiry Source Reports
• Employee Payroll System
• Customizable Song Request Categories and Limits
• Double Booking Warning System
• Custom Fields

For a complete list of features that have been released since version 4 go here: Support -> New Features.

The Monday Morning newsletter has never included a hardware review, but this week I am making an exception for a new product from Native Instruments.

I have been a digital DJ for the better part of a decade. Until now, I have not run across a USB sound card that offered: high quality sound, dual outputs, and a compact size. There have been a few multi-output USB soundcards available, but none of them were very compact. No larger than a deck of cards, the Audio 2 DJ USB audio interface provides two high quality stereo outputs.

The interface is very straight forward. There are two 1/4" female jacks for audio, a volume knob for each channel, and a USB connection port. Two sets of lights indicate signal presence and signal strength. No external power supply or connections are required as the device is bus-powered. The audio outputs are pro-level: +9.6 dBU with a 101 SNR and .007% THD. Those are great specs.

Installation did require using the included CD drive disc. I was up and running within 5 minutes of opening the box. There appear to be drivers for Windows and Mac users.

I believe that this audio interface is a perfect companion for a laptop based system. Because it gives you two discrete stereo outputs, you can use an external mixer and really mix, instead of just cross-fading between songs. Having two outputs allows you to preview the next song you want to play.

The real appeal of this audio interface for me is the compact size. The manufacturer sites says it is 25.5mm x 60mm x 91mm. While the other Native Instruments audio interfaces weigh in a 511g and 825g, this unit weighs only 84g. Despite it's light weight and plastic construction, I have no worries about having it bounce around in my laptop bag. It is very solidly built and nothing protrudes from the unit that would break off.

Finding a place to buy this product proved to be somewhat difficult. Back in September when it was released, many online retailers had the item listed on their website, but did not have it in stock. There may still be some supply issues, but you should be able to find it if you look around. I picked mine up for $99 delivered. I consider this product an excellent value and a big improvement over just using a laptop's built-in single output headphone jack.

Audio 2 DJ Audio Interface