Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Talk about your MIDI interfaces, microphones, keyboards...

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raboof
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by raboof »

Shadow_7 wrote:The USB 1.x bandwidth is quite limited. Even if you had a device and driver for 24bit 96kHz, you'd be hard pressed to have more than maybe two channels.
Indeed IIRC USB1.x can do full-duplex stereo at 24bit 48kHz comfortably, but nothing beyond that.
bassomat
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by bassomat »

The Echo2 is a USB 2.0 interface and I tried recording 2 tracks with the 2 input channels, one bass track and one microphone track in 24/192 and it worked. Recorded through ardour and had a latency of 10ms in qjackctl without any further system/ kernel modification. The systemload was 17% with a pentium 4 2800MHz dualcore processor, I had no xruns, but didn't test it intensivly.
Permababy
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by Permababy »

The dirt-cheap Miditech Audioface II is class compliant. It works on an iPad and also on Linux. The Miditech Audiolink III is also class compliant but the Miditech Audiolink Pro 24/96 isn't.
zenaan
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by zenaan »

So has anyone contacted Greg and the other (claimed ~400 kernel devs) at the Linux Driver Project, to request a driver for the hardware they wish to purchase? :
http://www.linuxdriverproject.org/media ... /Main_Page

This process (including signing of NDAs), is now streamlined by this project, and those who want to get into some coding will be mentored, but they have plenty of coders anyway.

It is so easy to complain, let's make use of the medium-term solution available - requesting a driver for the hardware we want, be developed.

Note this from the FAQ (http://www.linuxdriverproject.org/media ... _Questions):
Q: Can you write a driver for my [insert device name here] to get it to work? It isn't made anymore and no one has the specs for it.
A: Sorry, but this project is for devices in which we have the specification and hopefully the manufacturer's support. We don't have the time or effort that is needed to reverse engineer the device on our own, sorry.

So I guess that currently manufactured hardware might be a better bet here, and, where the manufacturer is supportive in some way. So this may require a little advocacy, or encouragement in some way - yes, leg work, yes, not instant gratification.
E.g., RME has shown actual support for Linux drivers, but quite some years ago it seems. Perhaps, if there were some advocacy by "us users" to RME and suggesting working with linuxdriverproject.org, then more modern RME hardware support will be achieved.

Same for _pick your favourite brand_ pro audio hardware.

One more FAQ:
Q: Are companies actually taking you up on this offer?
A: Yes, the initial response to this was amazing, a measurable number of new Linux drivers will be created thanks to this program.
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Re: which usb audio interface?

Post by Eino »

steevc wrote:I went back to using Windows for music. I can deal with limited functionality if I'm made aware of it beforehand. But given the outdated, inaccurate, and inadequate documentation regarding the state of linux audio, using linux for music making goes beyond dealing with limited functionality, and becomes a frustrating experience of unpleasant surprises and a relentless parade of problems at every step.
I gave up on Windows After windows vista. I saw the planned obsolesces that Microsoft was doing. also why should I pay for something I can get for free. Most musicians that use Linux are not running big recording studios so there is no need for professional software, but it's well on it's way.
I'm glad to work with developers over the years, to get the hardware, and software support needed.
The communication between the end user, and developers, are always need to get the support needed.
They are spending their time, and money to make it less of an unpleasant task to setup, and run Linux audio interfaces.
Improvements are made everyday. My self I keep it simple, i use MIDI interfaces, with jack, and i use a simple score editor.
I don't need top notch sound, to share my talents with the world.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it. "
John Lennon

https://soundcloud.com/eino1953
wolftonechambers
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by wolftonechambers »

For a pro level audio interface check out Sound Devices USBpre 2. For the features it aint cheap, but it's got rave reviews, and it's officially supposed to work on Linux. It's class-complient.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/USBPre2

The manufacturer lists Linux as an operating system:

http://www.sounddevices.com/products/usbpre2/
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Re: which usb audio interface?

Post by asbak »

j_e_f_f_g wrote: That leaves one last option: PCI and PCIe cards. Once again, linux audio support is stuck in the past. It supports some pro cards such as RME, but only the older PCI versions and not the newer PCIe versions.
Do we know for certain that the PCIe models don't work under Linux? There are suggestions that they do although I haven't been able to confirm this. It would be nice if somebody who has actually tried it could confirm whether or not a PCIe HDSP 9652 or 9632 works with ALSA.
This may be very important. New intel motherboards do not natively support the PCI cards. Yes, you can physically plug in the card and get audio. But the performance will be horrible, with terrible latency and audio glitches.
Apparently these newer (as of 2014) chipsets "support PCI". Obviously people need to "DYOR" and double check if this is truly the case.....
The 3x PCI slot Asus P9D-X makes use of an Asmedia ASM1083 PCIe to PCI bridge.
http://www.asmedia.com.tw/eng/e_show_pr ... _index=112

It's not clear at this time whether or not it provides sufficient performance for xrun free PCI audio at low latencies.
If you really want a PCI audio interface, you should look for a motherboard with a chipset that supports native PCI. These Intel chipsets (apparently) do: C224 C222 C216 B75 Q75 Q77
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-ge ... post351820

The problem here is that the wording and terminology is a bit unclear. Intel's specifications simply states "PCI Support - Yes"

Intel Chipsets

C222
http://ark.intel.com/products/75516

C224
http://ark.intel.com/products/75519


Interesting looking motherboards - DYOR and don't assume that they'll necessarily be suitable

Supermicro X10SLA-F – ATX with 5x Legacy PCI 5V slots for A/V applications
http://www.supermicro.nl/products/mothe ... 0SLA-F.cfm

Asus P9D-X w. 3 PCI slots
https://www.asus.com/uk/Commercial_Serv ... /overview/
Last edited by asbak on Fri Oct 24, 2014 9:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
j_e_f_f_g
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Re: which usb audio interface?

Post by j_e_f_f_g »

asbak wrote:Do we know for certain that the PCIe models don't work under Linux?
Until/unless an enduser actually tries a particular audio device, no one knows for sure. Alsa devs don't document their work, the alsa database is inaccurate/ill-maintained, and lots of questionable assumptions are made (for example one would assume a Focusrite 18i20 works because the earlier 2i4 does... but that doesn't appear to be the case).

Trust only first-hand accounts. If taking a chance on an untested item, make sure you can return it.

USB-MIDI is no problem. Audio is still not standardized.

Author of BackupBand at https://sourceforge.net/projects/backupband/files/
My fans show their support by mentioning my name in their signature.

steevc
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Re: which usb audio interface?

Post by steevc »

j_e_f_f_g wrote:
asbak wrote:Do we know for certain that the PCIe models don't work under Linux?
Until/unless an enduser actually tries a particular audio device, no one knows for sure. Alsa devs don't document their work, the alsa database is inaccurate/ill-maintained, and lots of questionable assumptions are made (for example one would assume a Focusrite 18i20 works because the earlier 2i4 does... but that doesn't appear to be the case).

Trust only first-hand accounts. If taking a chance on an untested item, make sure you can return it.
This was what I was trying to improve upon in the old wiki. We could be linking to reports (blog/forum etc) of working hardware and build a useful reference. We need more than just 'it works' as some devices have extra features that may not be supported, or need extra configuration. These pages got migrated to the new wiki, but that broke it a bit. I see some updates, but a lot of the links were broken. I've just fixed most of those.

http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/hardware_matrix

It just needs people with working hardware to add anything that's missing. I count it as one of my contributions to open source :)

I'm a fan of wikis generally, but some people don't see the point when they can 'just Google it'. The down side of that is that you are just getting random results rather than building an actual reference.

Steve
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Musicmaker
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by Musicmaker »

Took the plunge and bought a Focusrite 18i20. On Ubuntu 14.04 it works out of the box with Jack. Can see the 16 and 20 channels once Jack is started. Used it under Bitwig as the sound carde. Connect trough a USB 2.0 port (Intel chipset) . Jack won't start if it is connect trough a USB hub. Before booting Linux, setup the routing of the channel under Windows (Yup, sorry, no Linux tools for this) . In Qjacktrl select the 18i20 USB device in the setup). Then start Jack in Qjackctrl. Installing the Pulse-Audio bridge you can to get PC sound to the headphones on the 18i20. Of-course, it would be very favorable if Focusrite could support full ALSA and JACK/JACK2 as well as configuration tools as the core of the chip-set used in most Focus-rite devices probably are all the same. There must be someone in this world having the passion and knowledge to help the Linux community. There is some plumbing done on customized ALSA code to enable the mixer, you can find it on the web, but have not tried that yet but plan to do that on a non-production system since there isn't a good step by step manual or documentation for it (trial an error probably). BTW, the 18i20 USB/MIDI interface works well under ALSA.
On another note, anyone tried the Behringer u-Phoria UMC1820 yet? That might be a nice low cost unit for the home. :D
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by asbak »

The UMC1820 hasn't really hit the shelves yet afaik. I have a UMC404 which works straight out of the box w. Jack & ALSA so there's a good chance that the 1820 will also work. Like Jeff mentioned, until somebody's tested it we can't be sure.
And Steve's hardware matrix updates suggestion is a very good one. Information on working / compatible audio devices are patchy, outdated or vague for the most part.
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by dsreyes1014 »

asbak wrote:The UMC1820 hasn't really hit the shelves yet afaik. I have a UMC404 which works straight out of the box w. Jack & ALSA so there's a good chance that the 1820 will also work. Like Jeff mentioned, until somebody's tested it we can't be sure.
And Steve's hardware matrix updates suggestion is a very good one. Information on working / compatible audio devices are patchy, outdated or vague for the most part.
Curious to know if you're having the same problems I'm having with my UMC204 when using it @48khz duplex? I'm getting consistent popping and clicking as if the capture is stuck on 44.1khz and playback is at 48khz. Playback only or 44.1khz duplex I don't hear it. Only in duplex at 48khz and higher.
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by asbak »

I've mostly used the UMC404 for playback of audio, video & softsynths. I've also used it for inputting bass guitar into guitarix (for live sound processing) whilst playing midi files with Rosegarden & Carla through the other channels.

Setup

linux low-latency kernel installed
jackd2

Qjackctl
jackd -S -R -P89 -dalsa -dhw:UMC404 -r48000 -p128 -n3 -Xraw
Dither - none
Audio - Duplex
Enable D-BUS - unticked

There's no popping, usually no xruns with lv2 softsynths when playing back audio @48000 Hz.

- I religiously kill jackdbus before starting jackd.
- I don't yet know of a way to prevent it from loading in the first place. (Unless perhaps I recompile jackd2 without Dbus support)
- I don't make use of Cadence at all because it appears to rely on jackdbus.

Things you could perhaps try:

- Disable all non-required devices in BIOS
- Unplug ALL other USB devices from your computer (guess you won't be able to get rid of keyboard & mouse though)
- Move audio interface to different USB ports & try again
- Ensure that you killall -9 jackdbus before starting jackd
- Ensure that pulseaudio isn't running
- Ensure that jackd isn't running, before starting it
- Ensure that Cadence isn't running (which means jackdbus will be running)
- Check whether your USB ports are sharing IRQ's with other devices which could be interfering with / competing with them
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
dsreyes1014
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by dsreyes1014 »

asbak wrote:I've mostly used the UMC404 for playback of audio, video & softsynths. I've also used it for inputting bass guitar into guitarix (for live sound processing) whilst playing midi files with Rosegarden & Carla through the other channels.

Setup

linux low-latency kernel installed
jackd2

Qjackctl
jackd -S -R -P89 -dalsa -dhw:UMC404 -r48000 -p128 -n3 -Xraw
Dither - none
Audio - Duplex
Enable D-BUS - unticked

There's no popping, usually no xruns with lv2 softsynths when playing back audio @48000 Hz.

- I religiously kill jackdbus before starting jackd.
- I don't yet know of a way to prevent it from loading in the first place. (Unless perhaps I recompile jackd2 without Dbus support)
- I don't make use of Cadence at all because it appears to rely on jackdbus.

Things you could perhaps try:

- Disable all non-required devices in BIOS
- Unplug ALL other USB devices from your computer (guess you won't be able to get rid of keyboard & mouse though)
- Move audio interface to different USB ports & try again
- Ensure that you killall -9 jackdbus before starting jackd
- Ensure that pulseaudio isn't running
- Ensure that jackd isn't running, before starting it
- Ensure that Cadence isn't running (which means jackdbus will be running)
- Check whether your USB ports are sharing IRQ's with other devices which could be interfering with / competing with them
Unfortunately I've tried everything you've listed on many other Arch boxes as well, even on a Windows machine and it still pops and click at 48khz and higher. I even sent back my old UMC204 to get a brand new one and the same thing. I was back and forth with someone from the alsa dev mailing list about the issue but we got nowhere with it. So I'm stuck at 44.1khz duplex as I use it live 1 input to Guitarix and all 4 playback ports. I'm really leaning towards the capture ports are stuck on 44.1khz while the 4 outputs are changed to 48khz.
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Re: Support of audio interfaces under Linux

Post by asbak »

It's strange as I'd have thought the 204 would be very similar to the 404.
Perhaps they aren't or perhaps something else is causing your misfortunes. There are so many variables it's hard to know where to start looking.

If you have a spare drive lying around you could try installing Mint (that's what I'm using) + lowlatency kernel + KXstudio and give it another go.

Alternatively, an easier test would be to boot up with AVLinux (or KXStudio?) from a USB stick and try again to see if that makes any difference. I'd imagine that you should be able to get decent sound with AVLinux + your hardware. If not, then perhaps there is some kind of issue with the soundcard as you mentioned.

(Check the URL in my signature for installation steps & tuning. It's not perfect but at least I'm getting reasonable performance from a UA-25 and UMC404 with it using LM17)
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
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