Fast Track Pro and Ubuntu NOT compatible

Last update on my odyssey. I don’t know how and if it’s possible to contact the people in charge here and/or at ALSA soundcard matrix.
After having did everything possible, I’ve got to the conclusion that the M-Audio Fast Track Pro and Linux Ubuntu 12.04 LTS are NOT compatible.
At least with a configuration like mine, or:
Ubuntu Version 12.04 (precise) 32 bit
Kernel Linux 3.13.0-101-generic
Intel Core2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz × 2
HDA Intel integrated soundcard

So I’m selling my card and getting one of those suggested in the Requirements page. Hoping all the saints that it will work.

The Focusrite Scarlett 2i4’s feature set is comparable to the M-Audio Fast Track Pro and is known to work well with Linux, FYI.

Hallo Gunther.
Well I saw two suggested by Ardour, in the main page: the Roland and the Presonus. I’ll go for one of them hoping that it will work. If not, I’ll have to go recording with Cubase in… windows. That’s like having stomach disease. But if there’s no other way…

You could run Ardour on Windows and use the Fast Track Pro. Be aware the internal DSP of the Presonus 1818VSL won’t function on Linux. The Roland is discontinued, but you may be able to find a used one on eBay. The requirements page is outdated. There are more options out there, especially if you are just looking for a 2-in/2-out device.

Well Gunther, I want to find a card to work with Linux right because I don’t want to have anything to do with windows. Otherwise I would kept the Fast Track that works perfectly on Cubase.
Any suggestion about new card that works out of the box? 2-in/2-out is ok, I could even use 1-in/1-out since I record alone with just one instrument at time.

I think I’ll go for the Roland-Edirol-Cakewalk UA. I don’t want any risk. I wnat to have a “it does” soundcard, not “it should”. Too many problems with my previous one, I don’t want to go through that again.
Also. My laptop has several usb 1 and 1 usb 2 since it’s probably 8-9 years old. So a card of that time it would be perfect. Once you can record at 48000 or also 44100, that’s cd quality, it’s quite enough.

Known to work: Focusrite Scarlett 2i4; Native Instruments Komplete 6; Alesis iO2 Express; Mackie Onyx Blackjack; Sound Devices USBPre 2.

There are more options. Behringer, Presonus, M-Audio, Tascam, Zoom, Steinberg, Roland, RME, MOTU, and Audient all make class-compliant devices, but some of them require software that doesn’t run on Linux to access all the features. It’s a personal deal-breaker for me if there is no means to direct monitor in mono and blend the signal between the DAW and hardware. I hate having sound in only one headphone while trying to record, and I prefer the blend knob on the hardware after I have the gain properly set versus trying to boost or cut the return signal from the DAW software. Maybe some of the ones I didn’t mention default to mono monitoring or there is means to toggle that function and/or set the levels that isn’t obvious. You could always check a device’s manual online before buying it if you are wondering what it can or can’t do.

The list above is for products that can be purchased new. There are a number of discontinued interfaces (mine included) that can be bought used online that function perfectly. The first two in the list seem to have the best “recommendations to complaints” ratio.

The Focusrite Scarlett range, in addition to being Class 2 compliant, are fully supported for internal routing and mixing with ALSA on Linux kernels from 3.19 (IIRC) onwards.

Unfortunately I gave up on Focusrite after both my 18i20 and its replacement both had at least one really badly noisy channel, but you might have better luck as I’ve not seen other similar complaints about their kit.

@anahata

“The Focusrite Scarlett range, in addition to being Class 2 compliant, are fully supported for internal routing and mixing with ALSA on Linux kernels from 3.19 (IIRC) onwards.”

Currently, this is only true for the first generation of Scarlett devices. The internal routing does not work with ALSA on second generation models. See:

https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15810&start=15

This does not affect the 2i4 since it has no internal routing.

Well, that’s a shame. Apologies for my out-of-date information and thanks for the correction!

On the other hand, the 2nd generation Scarlett range (well, at least my 18i8) performs much better on USB while recording: I use an old Lenovo S10-2 Netbook (dual core 32bit Atom, 2x1.6GHz, SSD) and I can record multiple channels (I tested up to 8) without overruns for longer periods (I recorded a live concert for over 2 hours) using Ardour 5.4. I think it depends on your use case: I focus on recording and I don’t really need to change the mix. Using Focusrite Control on Windows I defined one headphone output for playback from Ardour (output 3/4) and the other for monitoring the inputs.

Arnd what sysop do you have on the netbook?

openSUSE 13.2 32bit (i586) but with a current Linux kernel 4.8.7 (from openSUSE’s kernel stable repository)

I just downloaded KXStudio 14.04, I want to see if it works. It has the low latency kernel already in it.

I am using a M-Audio Fast Track Pron with Linux Mint 17 - I thought Ubuntu and Mint used the same kernel but I am not sure. I installed qjackclt as an interface to setup JACK (avoiding ALSA- I think - I am new to this too) - It took some time to figure out qjackclt and how to direct the signal but its working as of this morning. In jackclt - try every input and output option, restart JACK and try Ardour. I hope that helps
I also updated the M-Audio firmware - I did it with a Windows machine - I downloaded the latest Windows driver and the firmware update way part of it.
Good luck
Best
Chris

End of the story, just for an update. It was a hardware or a software problem connected to my Samsung. I’ve got a new laptop, Lenovo this time, downloaded and installed Ubuntu Studio and everything seems to work perfectly.