computer hardware & audio interface choices
Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2020 3:40 pm
Hello!
I need to change my old setting and I'm seeking advice regarding hardware (computer & audio interface). I haven't yet managed to reach a deciding state with the answers I could find on the forum, and as I think my situation my actually be quite common, I thought it could be useful to describe it and gather your answers here.
I'm happy to see that linux now is more than ready for audio production It was not the case (for me at least) when I bought my previous gear, more than 12 years ago. I seek to update my system, buying a desktop computer and an audio interface, dedicated to music (using AVLinux). Here is the foreseen use:
_ recording (reaper) with a reasonable amount of tracks (most likely at most 5 + a parent drum track); so there will be some plugins running but not an incredible amount;
_ guitar practicing : need to hear me in 'real time' (low latency) and with a couple of plugins if possible to get a decent enough sound (even if not super fancy); so far I've been using a toneport on my old 2008 mackbook and it was doing this just fine (toneport works out of the box nowadays on linux (say avlinux), but you can't use this line6 'tonedirect monitoring' which is part of gearbox/podfarm, and the connexion is usb 1.1 so I get too much latency or too many cracks if I use plugins :-/ )
I won't really mix/master (other than for personal use/small diffusion).
Any advice on the computer spec (cpu/ram/motherboard/hardrive) would be nice (I'm completely out of the current standards!).
I'll put a firewire PCI card (I have an external firewire HDD), so any advice on the chipset for linux compatibility is welcome.
This also means that I do not mind a firewire audio interface (actually, I tend to like it because it saves some cpu cycles compared to usb, but that may be irrelevant nowadays, and maybe I can get a good cheap second hand option).
To keep talking about the audio interface, I'd like at least 2 inputs (XLR & instrument, I'll be recording from jack at instrument level, from XLR microphone & out of a DI box with XLR cable), and midi IN/OUT (old school) could be good (I plan a small keyboard extension). A line in could be useful (and is usually there anyways I believe).
I've seen things like Berhinger U-Phoria UMC404HD although it seems they're usb only now (well, if it works well enough I don't insist on firewire but I'd like to keep latency under heavy control!), but again I'm at loss here.
I guess a PCI-E card with external pre-amps converters is a whole different budget (and I don't have a feedback regarding compatibility with (av)linux).
So here again, any help is welcome.
I apologise for this long post. I believe there might be a number of people wanting to build up a practicing/recording desktop under linux, in particular with instruments like (bass) guitars/microphones/midi keybards, so I think it might useful to others too.
Many thanks!
I need to change my old setting and I'm seeking advice regarding hardware (computer & audio interface). I haven't yet managed to reach a deciding state with the answers I could find on the forum, and as I think my situation my actually be quite common, I thought it could be useful to describe it and gather your answers here.
I'm happy to see that linux now is more than ready for audio production It was not the case (for me at least) when I bought my previous gear, more than 12 years ago. I seek to update my system, buying a desktop computer and an audio interface, dedicated to music (using AVLinux). Here is the foreseen use:
_ recording (reaper) with a reasonable amount of tracks (most likely at most 5 + a parent drum track); so there will be some plugins running but not an incredible amount;
_ guitar practicing : need to hear me in 'real time' (low latency) and with a couple of plugins if possible to get a decent enough sound (even if not super fancy); so far I've been using a toneport on my old 2008 mackbook and it was doing this just fine (toneport works out of the box nowadays on linux (say avlinux), but you can't use this line6 'tonedirect monitoring' which is part of gearbox/podfarm, and the connexion is usb 1.1 so I get too much latency or too many cracks if I use plugins :-/ )
I won't really mix/master (other than for personal use/small diffusion).
Any advice on the computer spec (cpu/ram/motherboard/hardrive) would be nice (I'm completely out of the current standards!).
I'll put a firewire PCI card (I have an external firewire HDD), so any advice on the chipset for linux compatibility is welcome.
This also means that I do not mind a firewire audio interface (actually, I tend to like it because it saves some cpu cycles compared to usb, but that may be irrelevant nowadays, and maybe I can get a good cheap second hand option).
To keep talking about the audio interface, I'd like at least 2 inputs (XLR & instrument, I'll be recording from jack at instrument level, from XLR microphone & out of a DI box with XLR cable), and midi IN/OUT (old school) could be good (I plan a small keyboard extension). A line in could be useful (and is usually there anyways I believe).
I've seen things like Berhinger U-Phoria UMC404HD although it seems they're usb only now (well, if it works well enough I don't insist on firewire but I'd like to keep latency under heavy control!), but again I'm at loss here.
I guess a PCI-E card with external pre-amps converters is a whole different budget (and I don't have a feedback regarding compatibility with (av)linux).
So here again, any help is welcome.
I apologise for this long post. I believe there might be a number of people wanting to build up a practicing/recording desktop under linux, in particular with instruments like (bass) guitars/microphones/midi keybards, so I think it might useful to others too.
Many thanks!