LinuxMusicians

I'm afraid I'm struggling with recording from an external USB Audio Interface. The interface in question is in a small Berhinger Mixer, which has a USB Interface. When I plug that into my Ubuntu Laptop it is recognised as an audio interface and I then stop Jack and change the audio interface that iJack's running on, from the internal sound card to the USB Interface. I then go to record audio in Audacity and it refuses to record from anything other then the internal sound card. As I've nothing plugged into the line in of the laptop it's recording from the internal mic.

Audacity has a drop down menu for the audio source, where you can select between Alsa and Jack and neither one makes any difference to the source of the audio recording. I could understand if I was recording silence, that I didn't have things connected in Jack correctly but recording from an interface that Jack is not even meant to be using is not something I understand.

I'm probably missing something obvious, but I can't find out what it is. Any hints would be very gratefully received.

There is a drop-down selector in the Audacity toolbar where you can set the audio input and output devices. (See here for a screenshot: https://alansanderson.band/2017/09/04/f ... me-studio/. the link is for a Scarlett device but the drop-down selector interface should be the same.)

Thank you for your response, and the link to your article.

I didn't make my point clearly. I have tried using the drop down in Audacity. I tried stopping Jack and restarting it on the USB Interface. I was not aware of the 'Input' and 'Output' options on the 'Advanced' tab but have now tried using those. In all cases any settings are ignored and Audacity records from the internal Soundcard regardless of 'Input', 'Output', 'Interface' or Dropdown settings. So I have enabled and selected the device but the underlying system just uses the internal sound card.

I should possibly remove Jack from the system, or try a fresh install of the Distro and see does this work when there is no Jack managing the interface to audio hardware.

Yes, the example from my article was using Audacity without JACK. I'm not sure that I've ever tried to use Audacity with JACK.

I can record from my 204HD using Jack in Audacity. Just to let you know it's possible.

I've finally stumbled upon a solution, prior to re-installing a distro. I HAVE TO boot my laptop with the USB device connected for this to work. That might have been the problem up till now. Once you start Audactiy don't select 'Jack' simply use 'ALSA'. Once 'Alsa' is selected and the machine was booted with the USB device connected it shows up as an audio source.

Ardour seems to be tightly coupled to Jack so can't use that at all to record from an external sound device.

Given that Linux's more capable audio Software tools rely on Jack, and my internal sound card isn't the best, and Jack only works with the internal sound card this doesn't appear to be a viable solution.

Ardour can run on ALSA. Does your USB device work with ALSA? It sounds like it does if you can get Audacity to see it.