Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

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

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tossin
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Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2020 12:06 pm

Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by tossin »

Hi MigrantRecordings,

Unfortunately it's not possible to use the L-12 as an audio interface at 96kHz. You can only record to SD-card at this sample rate. There is a note in the operation manual that says: "Audio interface functions cannot be used when the sampling rate is set to 96 kHz".

So this is not a linux issue and it wouldn't work under Windows either. It seems that the USB-port is simply switched off if you set the sample rate to 96kHz, since the ZOOM does not even appear as a usb device in lsusb.

Tossin
uulbri
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Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2019 8:05 am

Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by uulbri »

So finally, after months, I did give a try to @tossin suggestion (my priority was jack not really pulseaudio).

This is super cool, but there was one glitch.

I adapted the script @tossin provided to have the names I wanted, and I wanted as well to do it for each and every track available on the L12. This is when troubles arrived.

Something very strange was that issuing the pacmd/pactl commands one after the other in the shell was fully working, but as long as I tried to do that within a script it was failing. Some sources were fully working and randomly some others did not. :shock:

@tossin mentioned the potential need to increase a sleep time if commands were failing, but even increasing to 10 s was not enough to fix my issue !

Fortunately, after a lot of reading, I figured out how to it cleanly:

First create a temporary dummy source and set it as default:

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pactl load-module module-null-source source_name=dummy-temp-source
pactl set-default-source dummy-temp-source
Then you can perform all the remapping you need as explained by @tossin, without any sleep time, full throttle ! :D

And after that you can switch to one of the source your created, and destroy the temporary source:

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pactl set-default-source my-newly-created-source
pactl unload-module module-null-source
Now it's consistently rock-solid !

I hope it helps. Thanks again @tossin
--
Uulbri
tvaz
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Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by tvaz »

Hi, I'm considering this device for my linux box, however I've seen some reviews saying it gives serious issues with AMD Ryzen support. Could anyone confirm if that's true nowadays? Thanks!
uulbri
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Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2019 8:05 am

Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by uulbri »

Hum honestly, I do not see any relationship with the CPU type ...
Would be interested you provide any link about that.

I use Intel, but I seriously doubt it plays any role in the sound stack.
--
Uulbri
tvaz
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Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by tvaz »

I'm trying to found them, so far I see this review from amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/reviews/B0 ... geNumber=1

And also this in their product description:
* Operation is not guaranteed with CPUs from Atom, Celeron or Pentium series or CPUs made by AMD.
** Only USB host controllers with Intel Chipsets are supported. Operation is not guaranteed when used with USB hubs or expansion cards.
And some other reviews (in Spanish) from thomann.de:

"Tras horas sin ser capaz de rutearla de forma que pudiese usar su retorno de audio resulta que la mesa no soporta procesadores AMD!!"

"...compré este producto en 2.018, funcionaba muy bien con mi pc procesador AMD y al actualizar a la firmware 2.14 resulta que ha dejado de funcionar como audio interface en mi ordenador"

All from 2019 though, maybe things have changed? I also can't see how such a mainstream CPU could play wrong with a sound device from Zoom...
uulbri
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Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2019 8:05 am

Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by uulbri »

Honestly I don't know what can be taken away from these kind of reviews, and if it's general.

But anyway, what is true and that I didn't know as I don't own any AMD Ryzen, is that AMD has reported that some motherboards with some particular components had some intermittent USB issues (not the CPU), so if you want to be on the safe side avoid these components for the time being (or in your case check if your motherboard contains these components). But anyway it's a USB issue not specific to the L12, meaning that potentially you could face the same issue with any device...

The good news seem that they (AMD) are apparently supposed to deliver a fix in April (1st of April ??).

So the only thing that I can say is either you wait a bit to see how things evolve, or you avoid the specific hardware (but in your case you have it already), or deal with the intermittent USB issue (if any) until they deliver the BIOS update...

And depending on the laws of your country (this is the case in mine), you could as well order a L12, test if you face any issue, and return it if you're not happy with it...
And by the way if you follow the advices provided by manufacturers, good luck to find some "Linux compatible hardware" :wink:
--
Uulbri
tvaz
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Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by tvaz »

Thanks @uulbri for the answer. I may be able to give this Zoom a shot, after some frustration with Focusrite and MOTU on my Debian system :\
uulbri
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Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by uulbri »

Ah ? you had problem with Focusrite too ??
Humm, I would clearly suspect the same USB issue... I didn't know there was such a wide-spread issue with AMD-compliant motherboards. I was potentially considering AMD for my next system, I will think about it twice now... and clearly follow that story and its fix.
Do not hesitate to keep us posted with your results.
--
Uulbri
tvaz
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Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by tvaz »

Just to be clear about my experience with Focusrite (and avoid being unfair!): My 2nd Gen 18i20 worked fine, say much better than the Motu, however making the mixer work was quite painful. I remember I had to use a third party tool I found on github, but still, at the time it was quite bugged and the GUI wasn't pleasant to play with. I'm not sure if this GUI mixer project evolved, or maybe it's now supported by Alsa? Anyway, I also gave up because I wasn't too happy with the preamps quality.

Actually, I only need a fair quality device with 4 preamps and balanced stereo output. The LiveTrack L12 is more than I need, however the L8 uses lower quality preamps :\

Another option I'm considering is the Zoom F6 Field Recorder, but this has just a single unbalanced 3.5mm jack output for monitoring.

Maybe a Focusrite Clarett 4Pre? or a Motu 4Pre? Not sure if they're will work either... Any hint on this direction will be very appreciated..
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Loki Harfagr
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Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by Loki Harfagr »

You may have a look on the Tascam TEAC-US-4x4HR in case it suits your needs.
I have one of which I find hunkydory, I tried it in despair after vain attempts on a Focusrite 4i4 3dgen which was very correct on WindowsOS but to my surpise and dismay a PITAPoS on Linux.

Note that it's still in the same range of Hi quality low-budget so don't expect an Antelope or RME class preamps but that's not so far away ;)

On some kernels I found it sometimes "capricious" and had to unplug-unpower then poweron-replug the card on some sleep wakeup or reboots but since latest kernels 5.10.16+ and atm 5.11.6 I've not seen this flubber anymore (not yet ;)
tvaz
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Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by tvaz »

Thanks @Loki Harfagr and others on this thread.
I've finally decided to get a Zoom F6 field recorder and use it as my audio interface. So far it's working perfectly. After a year of Motu annoyances I'm really impressed by the fact that I'm now using something which works as it should :-)

All USB functions work out of the box: 32bit on stereo and multi-track interfaces mode, 24bit on multi-track mode with 2 extra inputs as loopback. Preamps sound really good, clear, low noise.

However, no MIDI and (very) limited outputs: a 3.5mm headphone and a noisy 3.5mm unbalanced line out.

All in all, this interface meets my needs and I'm willing to keep it for a long time.

Tested on Debian GNU/Linux Bullseye, kernel 5.12-rc6
trosendal
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:03 pm

Re: Anyone using Zoom LiveTrak L-12

Post by trosendal »

I see several of you are successfully using a zoom livetrack on linux. I have a zoo livetrack L-8 which does not have the 'class compliant' switch on the back that several have mentioned in this tread but does allow me to switch the audio interface setting on the front panel to 'IOS' which the manual claims should be used for any class compliant device. I am using fedora 34 which uses pipewire and so far I have not been able to get the L-8 to work as an audio interface on my machine. Does anyone have any ideas? or has someone else used this device as an audio interface on fedora with pipewire? Here are a few results of queries about the device:


When I run:

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lsusb
I get:

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Bus 001 Device 016: ID 1686:0515 ZOOM Corporation L-8
but I cannot find it as an audio input device. And:

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pactl list sources
gives me this:

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Source #65583
	State: SUSPENDED
	Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor
	Description: Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
	Driver: PipeWire
	Sample Specification: s32le 2ch 48000Hz
	Channel Map: front-left,front-right
	Owner Module: 4294967295
	Mute: no
	Volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
	        balance 0.00
	Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
	Monitor of Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
	Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
	Flags: HARDWARE DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
	Properties:
		object.path = "alsa:pcm:0:front:0:playback"
		api.alsa.path = "front:0"
		api.alsa.pcm.card = "0"
		api.alsa.pcm.stream = "playback"
		audio.channels = "2"
		audio.position = "FL,FR"
		device.routes = "2"
		alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
		device.api = "alsa"
		device.class = "sound"
		alsa.class = "generic"
		alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
		alsa.name = "ALC257 Analog"
		alsa.id = "ALC257 Analog"
		alsa.subdevice = "0"
		alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
		alsa.device = "0"
		alsa.card = "0"
		alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
		alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xe8248000 irq 160"
		alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
		device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
		device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
		card.profile.device = "8"
		device.id = "42"
		factory.name = "api.alsa.pcm.sink"
		priority.driver = "1009"
		priority.session = "1009"
		media.class = "Audio/Sink"
		node.nick = "HDA Intel PCH"
		node.name = "alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo"
		device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
		device.icon_name = "audio-card-analog"
		node.pause-on-idle = "false"
		factory.id = "18"
		client.id = "32"
		node.driver = "true"
		factory.mode = "merge"
		audio.adapt.follower = ""
		library.name = "audioconvert/libspa-audioconvert"
		object.id = "47"
		node.max-latency = "8192/48000"
	Formats:
		pcm

Source #48
	State: SUSPENDED
	Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
	Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
	Driver: PipeWire
	Sample Specification: s32le 2ch 48000Hz
	Channel Map: front-left,front-right
	Owner Module: 4294967295
	Mute: no
	Volume: front-left: 48287 /  74% / -7.96 dB,   front-right: 48287 /  74% / -7.96 dB
	        balance 0.00
	Base Volume: 13076 /  20% / -42.00 dB
	Monitor of Sink: n/a
	Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
	Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
	Properties:
		object.path = "alsa:pcm:0:front:0:capture"
		api.alsa.path = "front:0"
		api.alsa.pcm.card = "0"
		api.alsa.pcm.stream = "capture"
		audio.channels = "2"
		audio.position = "FL,FR"
		device.routes = "2"
		alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
		device.api = "alsa"
		device.class = "sound"
		alsa.class = "generic"
		alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
		alsa.name = "ALC257 Analog"
		alsa.id = "ALC257 Analog"
		alsa.subdevice = "0"
		alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
		alsa.device = "0"
		alsa.card = "0"
		alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
		alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xe8248000 irq 160"
		alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
		device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
		device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
		card.profile.device = "0"
		device.id = "42"
		factory.name = "api.alsa.pcm.source"
		priority.driver = "2009"
		priority.session = "2009"
		media.class = "Audio/Source"
		node.nick = "HDA Intel PCH"
		node.name = "alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo"
		device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
		device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone-analog"
		node.pause-on-idle = "false"
		factory.id = "18"
		client.id = "32"
		node.driver = "true"
		factory.mode = "split"
		audio.adapt.follower = ""
		library.name = "audioconvert/libspa-audioconvert"
		object.id = "48"
		node.max-latency = "8192/48000"
	Ports:
		analog-input-internal-mic: Internal Microphone (type: Mic, priority: 8900, availability group: Legacy 1, availability unknown)
		analog-input-mic: Microphone (type: Mic, priority: 8700, availability group: Legacy 2, not available)
	Active Port: analog-input-internal-mic
	Formats:
		pcm
and

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pactl list sinks
gives me this:

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Sink #47
	State: SUSPENDED
	Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
	Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
	Driver: PipeWire
	Sample Specification: s32le 2ch 48000Hz
	Channel Map: front-left,front-right
	Owner Module: 4294967295
	Mute: no
	Volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
	        balance 0.00
	Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
	Monitor Source: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor
	Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
	Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
	Properties:
		object.path = "alsa:pcm:0:front:0:playback"
		api.alsa.path = "front:0"
		api.alsa.pcm.card = "0"
		api.alsa.pcm.stream = "playback"
		audio.channels = "2"
		audio.position = "FL,FR"
		device.routes = "2"
		alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
		device.api = "alsa"
		device.class = "sound"
		alsa.class = "generic"
		alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
		alsa.name = "ALC257 Analog"
		alsa.id = "ALC257 Analog"
		alsa.subdevice = "0"
		alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
		alsa.device = "0"
		alsa.card = "0"
		alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
		alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xe8248000 irq 160"
		alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
		device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
		device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
		card.profile.device = "8"
		device.id = "42"
		factory.name = "api.alsa.pcm.sink"
		priority.driver = "1009"
		priority.session = "1009"
		media.class = "Audio/Sink"
		node.nick = "HDA Intel PCH"
		node.name = "alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo"
		device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
		device.icon_name = "audio-card-analog"
		node.pause-on-idle = "false"
		factory.id = "18"
		client.id = "32"
		node.driver = "true"
		factory.mode = "merge"
		audio.adapt.follower = ""
		library.name = "audioconvert/libspa-audioconvert"
		object.id = "47"
		node.max-latency = "8192/48000"
	Ports:
		analog-output-speaker: Speakers (type: Speaker, priority: 10000, availability group: Legacy 3, availability unknown)
		analog-output-headphones: Headphones (type: Headphones, priority: 9900, availability group: Legacy 4, not available)
	Active Port: analog-output-speaker
	Formats:
		pcm
and finally

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dmesg
gives me this just after I plug the device in:

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[53883.961290] usb 1-2: new high-speed USB device number 17 using xhci_hcd
[53884.088658] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1686, idProduct=0515, bcdDevice= 0.06
[53884.088673] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[53884.088678] usb 1-2: Product: L-8
[53884.088682] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: ZOOM Corporation
[53884.088686] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 5010C320088D00000000000000000000
[53887.746431] usb 1-2: USB disconnect, device number 17
[53888.178284] usb 1-2: new high-speed USB device number 18 using xhci_hcd
[53888.306821] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1686, idProduct=0515, bcdDevice= 0.06
[53888.306835] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[53888.306841] usb 1-2: Product: L-8
[53888.306845] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: ZOOM Corporation
[53888.306848] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 5010C320088D00000000000000000000
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