Which audio interface for me?

Can anyone suggest an audio interface for me? I am a singer and like to record as a hobby. I will only ever be recording 2 instruments at a time (max). Mostly, I will be recording one instrument at a time.

I think the Delta 1010 would be overkill but how about the Delta 44?

I previously had the M-Audio 2497 but hated constantly having to fiddle at the back of the PC (liked the results tho).

I have also been looking at some USB 2.0 interfaces that include pre-amps. These seem excellently compact, portable and cost-effective with all the ins and outs that I want. Finding compatibility information for linux and USB 2.0 interfaces is proving to be a mission impossible though :frowning:

Anyone have a USB 2.0 interface working? Is it necessary to use USB2.0 for an audio interface (as opposed to USB 1.0)?

I am running Ubuntu Feisty Faun on the following system:

  • ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Mobo
  • AMD x64 3800+,
  • 2GB RAM,
  • 2x250GB SATA HDD
  • 512MB nVidia 7600GS GFX

Any help would be hugely appreciated,

Thanks in advance,

Dom

I’ve heard mostly negative things on USB interfaces. If you have any firewire ports, you may want to check out the Presonus Firebox.

I’m just pasting a summary of it’s features:

24-bit/96kHz FireWire recording interface

2 front panel inputs with preamps and 48V phantom power

2 balanced TRS line inputs

6 balanced TRS analog outs

MIDI I/O

S/PDIF I/O

Recording and playback through 6 inputs and 8 outputs simultaneously

Stereo headphone output

Volume control

From what I’ve read, the support seems good using the freebob/ffado drivers. However, I’d research a bit more on that aswell as some testimonials/reviews before shelling out $299.99, which for all it’s features seems like a decent price…

If you don’t have a mixer or some preamps and don’t want to spend money on them I would probably stay away from the Delta 44. I have one and it works great, but it is not an all in one solution. Also there’s the portability factor which may or may not be an issue. The price is right though…

Anyway, Good Luck
-J.D.

Thank you J.D. I think the Presonus is a little above my price range (it’s nearly $400 here in the UK) but you’re right, firewire is the way to go.

I’ve found an M-Audio Firewire Solo brand new for nearly half the price of the Presonus (on offer, it usually retails for close to the price). Gonna search around for anyone’s experience with that box on Linux.

Anyone know that it will work/not work?

…edit…
On further investigation, I see that it is on the list of supported devices on the FreeBoB site. Gonna take the plunge unless anyone can warn me against getting the M-Audio device?

…edit 2!..
On even further investigation I see that the firebox comes with Class A preamps (the Solo has no preamps) and is also reported to be working with FreeBoB. It’s clearly a better device right. I guess I could afford it. Man I love shopping!

So, anyone using the PreSonus Firebox with there Linux/Ardour setup?

Thank you again,

Dominic

After shopping around I found a 2nd hand firebox on amazon bundled with 6 CDs of orchestral samples for £159 (previous cheapest price for the FB was £189).

Thank you for the advice, my fingers are now crossed!

Dominic

No prob. I hope that works out for ya. I’m looking into purchasing a firepod (the big brother of the firebox) when I can save up enough. Anyway, I’m crossing my fingers too… I’d really hate to have given you advice that wastes your time and money. If you search for “firebox” in the ardour search field, there are a couple posts verifying that they are functional. But some features MAY not be. Hoping for the best.

-J.D.

I own a presonus Firepod and it works great under linux, real easy to install and the only thing that doesn’t appear to work is digital I/O but everything else is great here. I use FreeBoB, haven’t test FFADO yet.

Anyone know if FFADO’s ready to use?

i´ve tried two usb devices and both worked absolutely fine.
i´ve just bought the lexicon omega, which is quite cheap and is working just great.
features:
-2 mic inputs with switchable phantom power
-4 line inputs
-2 line outputs
-1 spdif in/out
-1 headphone out
-all inputs can be assignes to two stereo busses

a friend metered the quality of the inputs and found them comparable to his motu.

Hi,

I cannot find a presonus Firepod in the ALSA soundcard matrix. Which driver is related to this device?

-Erdie

according to this tutorial http://www.lukemacneil.com/tutorials/configuring-a-presonus-firepod-for-pro-audio-in-gentoo-2.html
and to a post on the linuxaudio mailing list it runs as expected with freebob.

Anyone know if FFADO’s ready to use?

not yet (see my ffado? post). if you are prepared to muck around with custom svn jack versions etc then you can use it, but i couldn’t get any outputs on my focusrite with it (only tried it on one system so far though), so i don’t think it is feature complete in that regard yet. you can however (and i’m still experimenting with this) continue to use freebob (and keep the same version of jack etc) for the audio in/out, and use ffado’s dbus interfaces to control other parts of the interface (i need to use it to disable the ‘hardware mixing’ feature, and i can use it to enable phantom power etc. not sure what the firebox would use it for though).

porl

I’m a big fan of my Delta 1010LT, I don’t think they’re that expensive these days, sound great and work perfectly under Linux… If you can swing getting one then you’ll have a system that you can further expand upon in the future…