I have avlinux with i think zero mods installed on my disk.
Our monastery has a brand new zoom h6 and an old focusrite scarlet 2port usbinterface.
I simply want a mic to work and hear myself after it goes through ardour and plugins etcbut nothing is working.
When I had a better compatible computer, I just plugged in the usb audio interface in and selected it directly with ardour. It was easy using the behringer cheapo model which I donated at the other monastery (in Myanmar).
I cannot get anything to show up in ardour interface except one time I briefly saw h6 but then got error messages. Focusrite never shows up.
Do I really need to use jack? I loaded JactCtrl watched a few vids, but there is no connections button . I only see a graph button where everyone else who makes videos shows the connections button (lower left).
How do I make this work? Or shall I install a different ubuntu? I have 30 gb reserved again for it.
I can make it work with the headset that came with my phone. That is what I’m using now, but we have good microphones of all sorts where I am.
BTW: never by a Lenovo amd chipped computer if you love linux.
The Zoom H6 is a field recorder. Do you have a mic handy that you can connect to the Scarlett via XLR?
I use Scarlett audio interfaces myself and they’re class compliant. If you connect yours, can you play music through it using VLC and so on? If so, close all programmes and open Ardour → go to the audio device settings → ensure that ALSA (forget JACK) and something akin to USB Device is selected as audio device.
The h6 can be used as an audio device. However, yes… it is mostly used for recording audio in nonstudio conditions. I could not get either to work. We have all the xlr toys here. Seinheiser condenser mic and at8030 and a sure condenser gooseneck and a few others.
Perhaps I should change linux distros? Perhaps av just makes things complicated. The only reason I have avlinux is to get ardour working and test an app I make in flutter on a DO server before releasing new versions.
I can try installing lubuntu. That was your first suggestion. Is that what you use?
I’m not sure switching distros would make a difference to be honest, AV Linux is very well regarded for all things audio. Can you use your USB interface for playback outwith Ardour? If so, it should be visible as a sectable device in Ardour’s audio device settings.
I used to use Lubuntu but switched to Mint some time last year. In both (and presumably all Linux distros), my Scarlett interfaces are plug and play on account of them being class compliant.
I think i might need to switch. I’ve used usb audio interfaces before without problems…
I’ll try to switch to mate. It has been the most reliable. I’ll see if it works.
No nothing works for playback except the internal computers speakers or headphone jack.
I want to show the studio guys how to do proper recording, but I cannot get the usb audio interfaces to work with my computer. Their computers are windows. They have never recorded with headphones on at the same time.
I’ll give a few more tries. Maybe grab the usb box overnight and play with it.
Maybe I need to choose it as and active sound device in mxlinux before it gets used?
Not sure.
I was able to get it to work by having the focusrite plugged in while booting.
Then I had a choice and it was obvious. I’m not sure the focusrite is so great. The microphone sounds hot if you want to put it 50% and hear your self, with the out put maxed. adding output gain in ardour also makes it sound hot.
I’d like to try to do this with the zoom.
I do best so far with my cheap headset that samsung gave me for my phone.
Just a follow-up. Although my computer is fairly new… it appears that I need to use the right usb port.
The h6 has usb interface mode with and without batteries. It seems to need to have the battery mode on for usb interface. It could be related to the other fact that…
I need to boot with the machine plugged in. I think i can solve that by resetting alsa in the command line. How is that command line done?
Even with plugging in on no-battery mode so that it is ready to go in the grub screen and then booting, it still does not show up on the device list.
H6 is very clean. It is not such a bad product for the price and what it does.
Our focusrite must be broken… it is hot if you turn up the input to a reasonable level. The output is cranked to 11 and I can barely hear myself without having a hot sound.
Another follow-up: Why battery mode is needed in USB Audio Interface connection.
(It is there for a reason)
It turns out that H6 zoom says that some usb ports do not give enough power (really bad design to have such requirements, that a battery pack can solve but all other usb interfaces can handle).
Link below.
that’s no surprise… it happens. If you have one, you’d better use an USB2 port rather than an USB3 one.
that also is a known problem with some USB audio interfaces. Unfortunately it is an hardware initialization problem, reloading ALSA after booting will not help.
There were some delays for recording so I could not get back to you.
yes… hot means distorted if you want to hear yourself at an acceptable level. (like input at 5 out of 11) with the output at 11. It could be my computer which does not have great compatibility (Lenovo amd). Or it could be a damaged focusrite that was donated to us. But since the zoom h6 works as expected set to 5 for recording levels and “coolness”, It is a focusrite problem. The zoom h6 is pretty nifty and can do a lot. I just wish I didn’t need batteries to plug it into a computer, but the above video says it is a known problem. It was bought new for the monastery.
I unplugged and replugged the zoom h6 and it was still working. I might have bad ports on my computer. The batteries were low at the time when I had problems and I do indeed need battery mode for it to work.
