hi!
I’ve been looking at mixers for our practice room, something along the line of a Mackie ProFX12v2 and the like. You know the basic live mixer: plug a bass/guitar/voices/drum in a few ports and jack that into a laptop through USB.
(Not an actual Mackie ProFX, that’s all Wikipedia commons had on hand… )
I’ve read in another post (multitrack recording hardware) that USB is limited to 4-track recording. Is that still accurate in the days of USB-2? How about USB-3? That’s with latency with USB setups, a problem? That post, it must be said like many hardware commendations on the forum, are starting to show their age so I wonder if it’s still accurate.
Note that I don’t mind 4-track, as long as it works reliably: it’s a good start. I feel bad treating Ardour as a vulgar 4-track recorder, but I think it’s actually a great start to do simple demos and check your stuff before a real recording session. Plus once you got multitrack in, even if it’s just a few like this, you can start bouncing around stuff and do interesting things already.
My problem is I can’t find recent advice on a good mixer that would be compatible with Linux, let alone Ardour. I would assume that if it works in ALSA, it works in Ardour, and that’s what the requirements docs say, but I’m not sure where to go next. It seems that low-end Behringer mixers like the Q802USB are supported by ALSA but what about the beffier stuff like the 12-port Xenix X1222USB? How do I find out if a mixer is “class-compliant”? Manufacturers websites aren’t exactly clear on that…
I see a bunch of setups using Firewire, but that’s not really possible from some random used laptop I’m going to live in that crummy room. Besides, it’s becoming less and less common…
(Not the actual band, but notice: no mixer!!)
What kind of mixer would you use for a simple, semi-portable recording setup like this? My specs is more or less:
- at least 6xXLR in, the more the merrier
- preferably USB out, must work in Linux
- at least 4x channels out
- sliders! i want sliders!
- preferably less than 800$USD
By the way, it’s been years since I’ve last used Ardour and I’m really glad to see you folks are around. I recorded demos and mastered albums on this thing, and I’m really grateful to have such professional software available on Linux, and as free software. Kudos to everyone who’s still around rocking it hard.