GR-55 with M-Audio FastTrack Pro in Linux

[Flesher]

I have a GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer with Roland Ready Strat; my computer is an AMD 955 X4 based; so it should be fast enough to do realtime recording in Linux with Ubuntu 10.04 realtime kernel; since I can't use the USB port in Linux yet (working on getting drivers for it), I was hoping on using the M-Audio FastTrack Pro, I also have an NTG-1 Rode Shutgun mic which requires phantom power; so I need something to interface with it also; I have read this thread and think that this will work in Linux http://www.joegiampaoli.com/blog/?p=462, but still need to know if it will work the GR-55; my question is has anyone tried this in Linux?

There are two parts of this, both require it to work in Linux:

Part 1 is it working with the GR-55, both MIDI interface and Audio DAW (can I plug the Outputs of the GR-55 (Guitar, Left or right) into the FastTrack to get Audio from the Guitar.

Part 2 is it working with the NTG-1 mic.

If there is a better piece of equipment out there that can do it; please let me know; I have not purchased this yet.

Thanks

[Flesher]

Is there anyone who uses the M-Audio FastTrack Pro in Linux?

[steevc]

Is there anyone who uses the M-Audio FastTrack Pro in Linux?

This guy does and has done a big write-up on getting it working

http://www.joegiampaoli.com/blog/?p=462

[Pablo]

Hi,

A friend of mine has this card in ubuntu 10.04 too, and it is supported out of the box at 16/48 (but not always in duplex mode, see below).

For 24/96 support in ubuntu 10.04, the easy way is to grab a a precompiled rt kernel following instructions here:

http://tangostudio.tuxfamily.org/en/kernel-rt

However, you should check your usb controller first, because there is an Intel chipset that prevents USB cards from working in duplex mode (capture and playback at the same time) even at 48 kHz (at 96 kHz you can't do duplex with this card in any case). My friend has this buggy chipset and he can record while monitoring via the m-audio itself. When he is done recording, he needs to restart jack in playback only mode (or use the onboard card for playback). This is a PITA. So check it:

What is the terminal output of "lspci |grep -i usb"?

As for the original questions, yes, you will be able to record the analog outputs of the GR-55 via the m-audio FastTrack Pro. I am not sure about MIDI. If the GR-55 comes with some kind of software to control the unit, it could work via wine but I don't know.

We did not test the phantom power but I can't see a reason why it shouldn't just work.

Cheers, Pablo

[RioExotics]

I use this card for years under Ubuntu and I get it to use DUPLEX. Once connected in Jack you have to choose different Input channels and Output channels. To achieve this first choose:
OUTPUT Device USB Audio #1 then
INPUT device Fasttrack Pro.
With the new low latency kernels from UBUNTU I get latency down to 11ms with this card on an Acer Aspire One Netbook for 250 Dollars, Not bad I might add. Good luck!

[RioExotics]

Correction:

INPUT: USB Audio #1 (on my machine hw 1,1)
OUTPUT USB Audio (on my machine hw 1,0)

I noticed whatever the number might be on your machine choose always the higher above 1,1 in my case)

[prokoudine]

...but still need to know if it will work the GR-55; my question is has anyone tried this in Linux?

Entirely unrelated, but just so you know it exists...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/