alesis io4

Installation & Configuration Linux
#1

Hello everyone,

i’m setting up a very-cheap entry level “recording studio” with my band.

Since now we have been recording with the behringer xenyx 1024 USB (obviusly with Ardour) and everything works fine till we have to record drums.

For the drums we use a 4 mic settings but since we have only a 2 channel input (left and right) we can’t work on every single microphone at once and getting a good sound gets very complicated.

So we thought to buy an Alesis io4.

It looks like this sound card is working with jack and ardour (but i’m not 100% sure) and i’m also asking this:
if i’m recording (for example) drums (with 4 mic) can the drummer listen in headphone to himself and a previous record of bass guitar?

I’m asking this because i’ve read somewhere that the alesis io4 dose not work as a full-duplex audio interface.

Last question:

if you think that the alesis sucks do you have any suggestion on how we can solve our problem?

Thanks!

bye, sankaRap.

#2

The io4 will do 4 channels only in 16-bit mode. 24-bit mode is limited to channels 1 and 2.

It appears to be full-duplex in either mode, provided that the driver can handle it.

See if this works:

Configure Ardour for hardware monitoring. This way, you won’t be hearing the recorded drum tracks as well, and dealing with the additional latency inherent in software monitoring.

Patch Ardour’s main mix to hardware 1 & 2, set the io4’s PHONES switch to MAIN, and use the MIX knob to blend between inputs and the mix.

No guarantees, but this seems to be the most logical answer.