LinuxMusicians

Hi All,

Im sure you get loads of similar questions - but a search hasn't found exactly what Im looking for. I run Ubuntu on a laptop and Ubuntu Studio on a desktop. I have lots of experience of audio production and interfaces, but not on my own Ubuntu machines. I want to get away from dual booting windows/linux - I've done some research with programmes and Ardour etc look really good but, I need some guidance RE interfaces.

So - what I want is a definitive answer about a relatively low price audio interface (say sub £200 GBP) that I can run on my desktop machine (portability is not an issue) with no messing around - plug it in and it works is what I want.

Does such a thing exist!?

Thanks in advance,

Alex.

Alex,

Depends a lot on your needs, but the M-Audio 2496 sounds a lot like what you're asking for

How many inputs / outputs and of what type will you require?

Cheers,
Mattt.

Not many - it will be mostly for recording/using my bass directly into the computer. 2 would be fine really!

Is the M-audio totally plug and play then? My desktop machine should be plenty powerful enough but doesn't have firewire...

Thanks for the reply!

Alex.

Alex,

Groovy - then the 2496 exceeds your requirements

It's a PCI card. Completely supported ("plug/play"). And capable of *very* low latencies using Jack (jackd).

You'll want to use the envy24 mixer or, better, mudita24 - these provide native control / mixing for the ICE1712.

They can be had for under $AUD200 and you'll find plenty of information around for using them on GNU/Linux.

More info about the card itself: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/A ... e2496.html

Cheers,
Mattt.

In pictures of it it looks to have phono inputs - how would I go about plugging a 1/4" jack from a bass into it?

Alex.

Alex,

Yup - the analogue ins / outs are indeed RCA.

They are also line level. This means you (may well) need a preamp or DI.

For my guitar, I run from pedalboard final out (or amp line out, depending on the amp I'm using and how I want to monitor, etc) into an active preamp box (I happen to use a Behringer MIC200), then from the preamp into the card (I happen to use a 1/4" jack to RCA cable as the preamp is 1/4" jack out).

For my bass player, his amp head has a send / return loop. The send is situated directly after the preamp stage, so provides a suitable level for interfacing directly with the card - of course, the level is determined by his amp's pre-gain setting so that needs to be set appropriately. It works very well for our purposes, though (we don't use this setup while gigging - only in my home studio). 24-bit recording means that a bunch of headroom on the input levels is okay, though. I also happen to use a 1/4" jack to RCA cable for this, for reasons that should be self-evident.

For mics, once again the preamp box comes into play.

If you have a mixer with preamps, you may well utilise that instead

Note that the 2496 does not allow you to set input levels, so one needs to adjust this at the equipment interfacing with the card.

Cheers,
Mattt.

Cool - I rekon for now, I will beable to get away without a Preamp on my bass, I'll try it straight in and see if I need to get a DI. Just looking around at some prices, will pull the trigger later today, and just need to order 1/4" to RCA cables.

Thanks for the help - I'll let you know if/how it works!

Alex,

You won't be able to run directly from your guitar to the 2496 without a preamp or DI

Your instrument is "instrument level" out, but the card needs a "line level" in...

Cheers,
Mattt.

Cool - I have a little DI I can use for now to test with; will upgrade it as/when it all works!

Alex.

I can vouch that the M-Audio cards are plug and play. I picked up a Delta 66 and the Omni I/O box on ebay for around £100 altogether. The Omni is ideal for me as I can plug guitar or bass into the pre-amp inputs and you get two headphone outputs too. Having extra inputs can be useful if you want to leave things connected. Without the Omni I would have needed a mixer or perhaps a DI box. There are plenty of cheap mixers out there and one will give you more options.

mattt wrote:You won't be able to run directly from your guitar to the 2496 without a preamp or DI

The preamp section of guitarix could be helpful here.

The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 has two inputs and two outputs, is USB, accepts direct inputs of phone jack including TRS ones AND XLR inputs for mics in a dual-purpose multi-jack, and is plug and play with great latency (see this Wiki article for frame/buffer and period settings for USB device) There is a thread here discussing this unit. It sounds exactly like what you need, and is quite affordable.

Terry

Right, I have got my lovely new M-audio 2496 in my desktop and it all works - really nice sound quality and no latency. Is there any (easy) way I can hear my bass without booting up Ardour? That seems to be the only way I can hear atm. What I ideally want to be able to do is hear my bass via some sort of monitoring whilst hearing pre-recorded audio so I can practice along to it - I can't at the moment.

Any ideas?

Alex,

You certainly can

Are you after hardware (through the card and straight back out to your amp with no other signal processing (as well as the signal being converted to digital which you can route to software)) or software (being able to hear your software-processed signal while also hearing your backing track or whatever)?

For hardware, play with the envy24 / mudita mixer - I don't use direct monitoring with our setup, but I'm pretty certain you just need to raise the faders for HW In 1 (or 2, as appropriate) - you *may* need to also set your HW Outs on the PatchBay / Router page to Digital Mix...

Cheers,
Mattt.

I'm looking for software - so that I can have bass signal, and audio from the PC coming out of the soundcard together..