Hi everybody! well… first to the problem then to the question:
i use an old laptop with firewire port and i would like very much use it to record live performances, say 8-16 channels and i actually have a saffire pro 40 which is perfect for that but ffado don’t seem like its stable enough to keep up with that interface so im facing the eventual problem of “having to record on Windows” for which i wont have drivers issues and then take the session back to Ubuntu… that leads to the next questions:
have anybody here used a saffire pro 40 with ffado being fully functional? including ADAT?
whats my best open source DAW option to record from Windows and then bring the recording back to Linux? i know its not Ardour.
is there any way to convert or export sessions between that open source DAW in Win. and Ardour?
(and last… a little out of context) anybody know of a 8+ channel USB interface able to work in Linux? this question sounds stupid but really… it isn’t… most laptops available today are lacking FW or even Express Card options, but they all come with USB 2.0 for sure, and in my country is even harder to find a good FW or Express Card Laptop (thinking… RME pci express interfaces for the future)
@fernesto: when moving data between two DAWs, the long standard mechanism is to do a “stem export” (1 file per track) and import those into the new DAW. unless there is a conversion app that knows both formats, this is always the best thing to do. I don’t believe there is any conversion app for Traverso because its user base is so small.
Questions about FFADO would probably do better in the FFADO forums and/or mailing lists at ffado.org.
8 channels over USB requires USB2.0. There are very few USB2.0 class compliant audio interfaces available at present. You would do much better to direct questions like to a wider audience, for example via the Linux Audio Users mailing list. The number of people who read/respond on these forums is fairly limited. Someone on LAU may be aware of the 1 (maybe 2) multichannel USB2 interface that is actually class compliant and thus works (reasonably well, anyway) on Linux.
A long time back I suggested that the Traverso guys adopt the Ardour session format. This would increase their potential userbase in my opinion. They were open to the idea, but unfortunately I didn’t have time to contribute changes towards that end, and I don’t think anyone there chose to do it. As a user of their software, you might want to remind them of that possibility.
Mixbus is going to be released on Windows “soon”. This will allow you to create and edit Ardour-compatible sessions on Windows.
Seriously? i actually have Mixbus 2.04, will that version be available for users like me as a free update from Mixbus 2? or a new paid release? (please the 1st one… heh…) using that i wouldn’t need any other Daw to record on PC so taking the session back to Ubuntu would be very easy.
I’ve never used Traverso, but i’ve been considering it just for this purpose. I’m very into Linux Audio, and definetly won’t leave this OS/DAW combination but Mixbus on Win is a great help in this particular case, i hope you guys get more sales and keep supporting Ardour, its all evolving pretty fast and pretty well lately.
Thank you very much for your responses both Paul and Ben, i appreciate it.