griffin iMic + built-in audio aggregate setup APPLE USERS
for those of us with an apple running tiger 10.4 or higher. I have had great sucsess using my on board audio card , and an imic , by ganging them together in the aggreate device editor. If you have not played with the editor yet you can find it by launching "audio midi setup" , then clicking the "audio" menu at the top of the screen , and open the aggregate device editor. Click the plus button to create a new device , name it if you like. Select the built in audio , and use it as clock sourse. Selct the output of the imic as your second output, now you should have an audio device with 2in/4out made from the 2 devices , that you can select as an audio i/o for Ms Pinky. I should mention that if you try to use the input of any usb device in the aggregate device editor , you are doomed. As far as I understand it, usb is not stamped for on time delivery , so selecting usb input as clock sourse, or slaving usb input to another clock sourse , simply will not work. If you would like to get more than 1 input for multiple decks , try a firewire audio device....
More about this
Yes, you will still need a preamp in the input signal chain. If you already have a 4in/4out card, like the maya 44, this won't be much use to you. This tip is for those who want to mix two tracks without having to buy a 200+ dollar interface. It is also a way for you to make a much larger audio interface out of several small ones.
USB input clock
Keep in mind that 2 imics as an agrigate device may not work because of the usb input clock synch problem I mentioned in the original post. Try using just 1 imic , and your onboard audio , It works better that way. I only use 1 turntable with this set up ,plugged into the onbooard audio, to control both file players.
There are more options
Wait to buy anything. I will be posting about a test with the behringer fca202 , it is a $79 firewire interface. Firewire is time stamped , and should give much better performance. I will post my findings as soon as I can.