Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz
Wow!? How f'kin good does this thing look! I always lose my mind trying to work out how all the ALSA Mixer controls work for mine, I think its a Scarlet 6i6, hopefully this will work with it.
Focusrite should surely be sending you a free unit, bunch of Scroodge tight arses.
crustypants wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2023 2:35 pmWow!? How f'kin good does thing look! I always lose my mind trying to work out how all the ALSA Mixer controls work for mine, I think its a Scarlet 6i6, hopefully this will work with it.
Focusrite should surely be sending you a free unit, bunch of Scroodge tight arses.
Hey @crustypants!
Thanks for your support! If you've got a Scarlett Gen 2 6i6 and Gtk4 libraries (needs a relatively recent Linux distro), then yes, it should work!
The folks at Focusrite weren't aware of my work until a couple of weeks ago. It's understandable, given the size of their organization and the relatively smaller market share of Linux desktop audio. But things changed!
I started a fundraiser to acquire Gen 4 devices and the overwhelming response to that certainly got their attention! Read the whole Gen 4 fundraiser story here: viewtopic.php?t=26173 or jump to the exciting announcement here: viewtopic.php?p=160833#p160833 or tl;dr: Focusrite are now supporting me.
Between the support from them and the support from people like you, I've got interfaces coming out of my ears:
As a result of all this, there's now support for all the Clarett USB and Clarett+ interfaces (accepted upstream). And coming soon: Scarlett Gen 4, Vocaster, and even firmware updates directly from Linux!
Regards,
Geoffrey.
Haha, well I will eat my words then. Look at that pile of stuff!
Good on them, that's really good to hear, you deserve it mate, and thanks for making working on Linux a bit easier for us all. Legend.
Hi,
Just trying this, and it doesn't work for me. Looking at it, mine might be a 1st gen. Serial starts with S6 and it says 03/2014 on the bottom.
Is it likely to ever be supported, or should I just buy a Gen 2?
Hi,
First off, thank you @Geoffrey for your work on improving Scarlett support in Linux! Until now I've been booting into Windows any time I wanted to make music, but it looks like it's time to give it another shot under Linux!
For everyone's awareness, I've taken on the task of maintaining a Debian package for this GUI. The first packaged version (0.3.2-1) has been built and uploaded, and it's currently in the NEW queue (awaiting new package approval from the Debian powers that be).
Once the upload is approved, the alsa-scarlett-gui package will become available to install from the official Debian repositories, and in due course it should also migrate to Ubuntu and other derivatives. My aim is that this will greatly simplify the process of installing and upgrading the GUI for those struggling with building it from source.
I'll let you know once the package is available to install, and of course I'll welcome any reports of bugs when using this package.
@crustypants
I'm pretty sure that anything dated 2014 is going to be gen 1: the gen 2 models came out (IIRC) in 2015. What model do you have?
First of all, congratulations for the awesome work you did. The community owes you a lot, and specially because your work eventually attracted the attention of a major brand to the linux audio community.
Now sorry for what seems to be really a beginner question : I can't find where one can set the sample rate of the 18i20, using alsa-scarlett-gui. Is it hidden somewhere in the menus ? The GUI is so straightforward I doubt I missed it, so there must be something evident that I am totally missing.
Using kernel 6.1.64, with alsa-scarlett-gui 0.3.3 (released today)
@patrick
Now sorry for what seems to be really a beginner question : I can't find where one can set the sample rate of the 18i20, using alsa-scarlett-gui.
The hardware doesn't set the sample rate: rather, it uses (if supported) whatever rate is requested by the app / service which owns it (ALSA client, JACK or Pipewire daemon).
With JACK, one sets the sample rate on the command line (e.g., -r<samplerate>; on my machine the full command line is /usr/bin/jackd -dalsa -dhw:USB -r48000 -p 1024 -n3 -Xseq), or via the GUI app one uses to control it (qjackctl for me, maybe Ubuntu's StudioControls for others).
Thank you for this clarification. Indeed, I never gave it a second thought about it when recording / playing back from a computer.
Now what happens when the interface is in standalone mode ? The 18i20 is a great audio router / mixer and I have some use cases where it will not be attached to a computer. I this case, the hardware is responsible for setting the sample rate, isn't it ?
From my experiments, I discovered that I can set the sample rate using any application (recording a few samples is enough), this sample rate persists after I stop recording and release the hardware, even if I disconnect USB. The sample rate also seems to survive power cycling the 18i20. But at the moment I reattach the USB (probably at the moment the driver loads), the sample rate resets to 44100.
To know the sample rate, I used the ADAT output, plugged into the input of another interface (RME multiface). The RME control panel gives me the sample rate of the incoming clock source (ADAT in this case), I assume it is a clear indication of the 18i20 sample rate.
Once again, sorry if this question only demonstrates my lack of understanding of digital audio.
Hi Patrick,
patrick wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2023 7:42 amThank you for this clarification. Indeed, I never gave it a second thought about it when recording / playing back from a computer.
Now what happens when the interface is in standalone mode ? The 18i20 is a great audio router / mixer and I have some use cases where it will not be attached to a computer. I this case, the hardware is responsible for setting the sample rate, isn't it ?
In the sense that there is firmware which programs the hardware with a particular sample rate at boot, yes. But what is that particular sample rate? Your experiments match my experience:
patrick wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2023 7:42 amFrom my experiments, I discovered that I can set the sample rate using any application (recording a few samples is enough), this sample rate persists after I stop recording and release the hardware, even if I disconnect USB. The sample rate also seems to survive power cycling the 18i20. But at the moment I reattach the USB (probably at the moment the driver loads), the sample rate resets to 44100.
To know the sample rate, I used the ADAT output, plugged into the input of another interface (RME multiface). The RME control panel gives me the sample rate of the incoming clock source (ADAT in this case), I assume it is a clear indication of the 18i20 sample rate.
I.e. the hardware uses whatever sample rate is selected over USB, even after you unplug it, and even after you power cycle it.
What you observe with the sample rate resetting to 44.1KHz when you plug the USB cable back in is because that's what is selected over USB, probably by PulseAudio. Before PulseAudio (or whatever sound server you're using) gets to open the device though, the ALSA kernel driver goes through and selects every different sample rate (2 or 3 times), presumably to check that the device actually accepts each of the sample rates (and other parameters) that it says it supports.
Not at all!
I've added an FAQ.md to the alsa-scarlett-gui project, as the "where's the sample rate option?" is the most frequently asked question I think. https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa ... ter/FAQ.md
Regards,
Geoffrey.
Just bought myself a 3rd Gen 8i6, and planning to sell the 1st gen 6i6. This should be supported right? It says something about mass storage mode being enabled from the factory when I fire it up. Should pressing the Disable button sort it and get it going? I have Kernel 6.5.10-200.fc38.x86_64 if that helps?
Hi @crustypants,
crustypants wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2023 4:37 pmJust bought myself a 3rd Gen 8i6, and planning to sell the 1st gen 6i6. This should be supported right? It says something about mass storage mode being enabled from the factory when I fire it up. Should pressing the Disable button sort it and get it going? I have Kernel 6.5.10-200.fc38.x86_64 if that helps?
Yes, and yes. Hold the 48V button on while you power it on to disable MSD mode. See https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui/ for all the instructions on how to access all the features.
Regards,
Geoffrey.
@crustypants, I also updated https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa ... ter/FAQ.md with more info about MSD Mode.
Thank you mate, that sorted it, looks like it now works gave it a quick go! Will try and give it a proper test later.