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Hello,
I'm trying to get set up for some Linux music production. I have an AudioFire12 I've been using with MacOS, and it seems to be supported by FFADO. It was working in pipewire before I even installed FFADO, but I couldn't change settings on it. Now I have the ffado-mixer up, but whenever I try to change sample rate it just says "Could not select (whatever sample rate I select) as samplerate."
Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm on Garuda Linux which is Arch-based.
serqetry wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2024 9:00 pmHello,
I'm trying to get set up for some Linux music production. I have an AudioFire12 I've been using with MacOS, and it seems to be supported by FFADO. It was working in pipewire before I even installed FFADO, but I couldn't change settings on it. Now I have the ffado-mixer up, but whenever I try to change sample rate it just says "Could not select (tunnel rushwhatever sample rate I select) as samplerate."
Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm on Garuda Linux which is Arch-based.
Try some of the following:
Make sure your operating system, firmware, and drivers are up to date. Check the FFADO website for the latest versions and instructions.
Try using a different FireWire card or port, preferably one with a Texas Instruments chipset.
Check the word clock source and sync settings on your AudioFire12 and ffado-mixer.
Try using a different sample rate converter or resampler, such as ALSA or JACK.
I hope these suggestions help you fix your problem and enjoy your Linux music production.
Since you mentioned Pipewire, make sure that Pipewire is configured correctly. Check its configuration files and settings to ensure they align with your audio interface requirements.
DavionReinger wrote: ↑Wed Jan 24, 2024 7:01 amTry some of the following:
Make sure your operating system, firmware, and drivers are up to date. Check the FFADO website for the latest versions and instructions.
Try using a different FireWire card or port, preferably one with a Texas Instruments chipset.
Everything is up to date, I am on Arch Linux so that's easy. My card is a good card with a TI chipset.
DavionReinger wrote: ↑Wed Jan 24, 2024 7:01 am
Check the word clock source and sync settings on your AudioFire12 and ffado-mixer.
Try using a different sample rate converter or resampler, such as ALSA or JACK.
I can't change the word clock source either, it behaves like the sample rate selector.
I think the ALSA/JACK/Pirewire situation is the problem... I'm trying to figure it out.
DavionReinger wrote: ↑Wed Jan 24, 2024 7:01 amI hope these suggestions help you fix your problem and enjoy your Linux music production.
Thank you!
namagama37 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 25, 2024 8:30 amSince you mentioned Pipewire, make sure that Pipewire is configured correctly. Check its configuration files and settings to ensure they align with your audio interface requirements.
Yeah I think this may be my problem. I'm having a very hard time figuring out how to configure Pipewire for this. Documentation on the pipewire-ffado module seems to be nearly non-existent.
Also I've seen some stuff that says not to use ALSA, and to use JACK instead. But Pipewire is supposed to replace JACK. I have a pipewire-jack module installed, but not JACK itself. Not sure if that's right or what I should do differently.
Don't use ffado-mixer to change the sample rate with pipewire. Pipewire by uses 48k as a default sample rate and any other sample rates are automatically resampled to that. If you don't want the sample rate to be resampled, you can either change the default sample rate in a setting file or configure it to use different sample rates based on which sample rate connected first and others will resample to that.
Detail on the later, it also shows commands to temporarily force the use of a specific sample rate:
Largos wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2024 12:43 amDon't use ffado-mixer to change the sample rate with pipewire. Pipewire by uses 48k as a default sample rate and any other sample rates are automatically resampled to that. If you don't want the sample rate to be resampled, you can either change the default sample rate in a setting file or configure it to use different sample rates based on which sample rate connected first and others will resample to that.
Detail on the later, it also shows commands to temporarily force the use of a specific sample rate:
Wow, thanks! That totally worked, I was able to set it to 44.1 KHz.
I think that means I have my firewire interface set up properly. Now to figure out multi-track recording of external MIDI instruments in Ardour...
Ok so I've got everything working in Ardour except I can't figure out how to get it to record my synths plugged into the inputs on my Audiofire 12. If I turn on the hardware monitoring in ffado-mixer I can hear the synths I am sending MIDI to, but for whatever reason nothing can be recorded.
I was assuming I just didn't have the routing set up properly for the audio track I am trying to record to, but I've tried just about everything.
I'm finding it super frustrating that almost every resource I find is about recording software synths... I haven't found anything about recording external hardware instruments with a multichannel audio interface.
I think I figured it out. It's confusing because there's multiple places to see the connection matrices and there's other places to set them.
I figured out I need to set them using the buttons on the channel strip of the selected track on the left. But yes, I was able to record and play audio in an audio track.
I'm just getting started but it seems like it's all working properly now.
I'm coming from Logic on MacOS, so this is taking a bit of getting used to... but so far I really like Ardour.
I'll join the Arch AudioFire12 club in a few days, they're really cheap on ebay now. 
Ardour kinda works like a Multitrack Tape Recorder. If you come from Logic you could also try reaper. Both are good. I use Mixbus, which is a extended Version of Ardour by Harrison Audio.
You should check out qpwgraph for Pipewire inter connection stuff and RaySession as a manager to recall sessions with multiple pieces of software / hardware and virtual wiring. 
Psychotronic wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:21 amI'll join the Arch AudioFire12 club in a few days, they're really cheap on ebay now.
Ardour kinda works like a Multitrack Tape Recorder. If you come from Logic you could also try reaper. Both are good. I use Mixbus, which is a extended Version of Ardour by Harrison Audio.
You should check out qpwgraph for Pipewire inter connection stuff and RaySession as a manager to recall sessions with multiple pieces of software / hardware and virtual wiring.
I'll check those out. I'm pretty happy with Ardour so far, though there's a few annoyances I hope I can figure out how to fix.
As far as the Audiofire goes, it works really well but there's a few things you have to deal with. The ffado-mixer is kind of buggy, and it can't save settings to the device. I'm trying to figure out how to control it by sending commands to ffado-dbus-server but no luck so far. In order to change settings on it and save them you'll want to dual-boot into another OS (I use MacOS) where the Audiofire Mixer app can save the settings to flash memory. But if I can figure out how to send commands to it through ffado I won't need that, I can just run a script at login. Also even when settings are saved, ffado-mixer shows the level sliders wrong the first time you open it... the levels are actually correct (whatever is saved in flash memory) but the sliders will be in the wrong positions. If you move them, they will align properly but before that it will show a bunch randomly turned down to zero even though they are really at max. The mute/pad buttons do seem to display properly though.
Another big problem I was having was with the sample rate. But I finally got all that sorted out by changing pipewire settings. I prefer to just have it forced to 44100 all the time, something pipewire seems to really not like. After a reboot, no matter what you do, pipewire will be in 48000 and it won't switch until you start playing a sound... which means the first second or so will be all garbled. I fixed this by making a login script which always switches to the Audiofire and then plays a 2 second wav file that it just silence to make it switch to 44100.
Another minor issue which doesn't have anything to do with music production is that wine/proton games in Steam cannot use the Audiofire. I am assuming this is the same for any firewire audio device. Idk why... winecfg shows it in audio settings it but games don't see it. Some games will even be playing sound but pop up an error anyway saying you have no audio device. So if you also game on your Linux PC like I do, you have to switch to a different audio device for that. It's dumb but not a big deal. It works properly for audio plugins using wine/yabridge and that's really all that matters.
The Audiofire12 really is an amazing bargain. I can't see myself switching to anything else... non-firewire audio devices with that many inputs are outrageously priced.
I see. As soon as it's here(potentially Friday), i will try to tackle these issues myself. If i find something helpful, i will share my solutions via video.
Psychotronic wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 9:23 pmI see. As soon as it's here(potentially Friday), i will try to tackle these issues myself. If i find something helpful, i will share my solutions via video.
Oh also, if you have any problems with your "new" Audiofire not starting up properly or not being recognized, this is a very common issue with Audiofires after this amount of time. There is one capactior by the cpu that is the "boot capacitor". When this cap gets old and weak, it stops booting. Mine started failing and would take several power cycles before it would come up, until one day it would no longer work at all.
It was extremely easy to replace this capacitor and get it back to working 100% of the time. I have attached the pdf file I found that illustrates this in case anyone here needs it. Depending on your particular Audiofire, you may need to replace one or two caps. Mine only needed the middle one.
First thing i find regarding this:
https://sourceforge.net/p/ffado/mailman ... /29646892/
Not sure if that is solved or if we should really use old firmware. I'd like to run it with the lastest.