Roland System 8 USB audio interface

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Musicmaker
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Roland System 8 USB audio interface

Post by Musicmaker »

Not sure if many other synths with USB audio support it, but found it quite surrising that the Roland System-8 built in USB Audio interface works with Linux out of the box. (96 KHz, 2 channels)

Select in sound settings audio other input device than SYSTEM 8 (other it's busy)

arecord -l

card 1: SYSTEM8 [SYSTEM-8], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1

arecord --device=hw:1,0 test.mp3 -d 20 -c 2 -f FLOAT_LE -r 96

aplay test.mp3 (or set the device to play back the audio via the System-8)

So if you want to use it as your single audio interface to (fully digital) record sound from it and playback over the headphones on the System-8 then that should work.

Cheers.
j_e_f_f_g
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Re: Roland System 8 USB audio interface

Post by j_e_f_f_g »

Musicmaker wrote: Roland System-8 built in USB Audio interface works with Linux
Most USB Audio interfaces follow the "USB Class-compliant Audio" standard. This standard has been out for several years, and is now well-understood and supported by music manufacturers. Windows, Mac, and Linux support this standard. So, unless an interface is a very esoteric hardware design, any model manufactured within the last few years should work on Linux. (But USB2 only. Linux USB3 support still needs work for proper class-compliant audio support). A telltale sign that an interface is supported by Linux is if its literature mentions the phrases "no driver needed" or "Class-compliant mode".

Note that class-compliant mode supports only the most basic settings of the interface, such as setting the sample rate or turning channels on/off. But fancier interfaces may have settings that can only be accessed by proprietary usb commands, for example routing certain inputs to various outputs, DSP effects (Creative Labs is notorious for implementing a lot of their interface features in the software driver, and consequently those features don't work on Linux), etc. In this case, the interface will typically include a "software mixer" utility to control those extra settings. These programs are typically Mac/Windows only, and don't operate on Linux (not even WINE).

In conclusion, most all USB2 audio interfaces with basic features (such as 2 ins and 2 outs) manufactured recently will support Linux out-of-the-box. Any bundled software, especially any "control panel" made specifically for that interface, will probably not work.

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