2 soundcards to record 4 tracks. [SOLVED]

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English Guy
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2 soundcards to record 4 tracks. [SOLVED]

Post by English Guy »

Hi

I have some old 4 track cassette work I would love to remix & remaster. the problem is I neither have nor can afford a 4 track interface. I have an Alesis io2usb soundcard as well as a 24 bit capable soundblaster.

I have Googled but not found anything I can comprehend or use. Is there any way using alsa, jack, oss or even pulse I can simply record from all 4 tracks simultaneously using 2 inputs per card. It only has to be capable of the transfer. After that, of course, the resultant file can be used in the normal way.

thanks
Guy
Last edited by English Guy on Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2 soundcards to record 4 tracks.

Post by English Guy »

Since asking managed to find this:

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 27&t=56492

now have 4 inputs showing in qjackctl after running

Code: Select all

alsa_in -j on-board -d hw:0 -c 2 -p 4 -n 512 -r 48000
in a terminal. Have yet to be able to try it out with the 4 track.
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Re: 2 soundcards to record 4 tracks.

Post by English Guy »

Just managed to use this to record four simultaneous tracks in Ardour (Stereo drum machine, guitar Vocals)

The only other thing I needed to do was connect the on board soundcard to the system playback using qjackctl to get monitor (through the usb soundcard) while playing.
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Re: 2 soundcards to record 4 tracks. [SOLVED]

Post by varpa »

I'm not quite sure I understand your set up - you are using your regular soundcard for line in for 2 tracks and the other 2 tracks with the Alesis + alsa_in? If I were you I would think about recording 2 tracks at a time using your Alesis only with a regular Jack connection. That, is record in 2 passes, 2 tracks each time, though outputting into 4 tracks in a DAW. Ordinary soundcards typically have terrible A/D conversion and probably your Alesis is much better. You will have the problem of syncing the 2 pairs of tracks, but that is not so hard to do by sliding the tracks back and forth to line them up in a DAW.
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Re: 2 soundcards to record 4 tracks. [SOLVED]

Post by English Guy »

Hi
I set up jack for the alesis & then added the soundcard.

I would not relish trying to sync tracks after 2 passes. I do not think the cassette transport is that reliable & minor variations mean you could be on to a hiding to nowhere.

Ultimately 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating' & this worked.
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