Question about Alesis Multimix16 FW with Ardour

Please forgive me ahead of time, I’m very uneducated tech wise.

My band is about to be demoing, and a friend of ours is going to lend us his Alesis Multimix 16 which is FIREWIRE.

We would love to record the full drum set, guitar, vocals, and bass all in one simultaneous take.

That would be about 10 to 11 tracks all at once. Can Ardour do that?

Thanks!

Thanks for such a quick response! I just have a standard MacBook from 2007, but I’ve cleared a bunch of free space on it. I’m going to give it a roll.

Thanks again, stoked.

@melkhorn
You are in the OS X forum, so FFADO doens’t matter there;)

@ryan
Yes Ardour can do many more than 16 tracks provided your equipment is up for it. From the sounds of it your interface is, so as long as your computer you are using is up to the task then you shouldn’t have a problem. If you do feel free to ask, there is likely something that can be adjusted to allow you to do it without a problem(For instance longer buffer settings/times on Jack).

  Seablade

For the record I have tracked much larger shows without a problem onto my laptop with a SSD, so it all depends on your computer equipment.

The simple answer is yes, Ardour can certainly do that.

The real question is if your friend’s Alesis Multimix 16 is up to the task, audio-wise and with respect to FFADO compatibility.

I’m not familiar with the unit, but a quick scan of the information on the Alesis site says it can send 18 direct outs on firewire, so that seems to be adequate. It does only have 8 mic pres though, so you’d have to come up with a few more (to drive line inputs on the Multimix) to reach your target of 11.

As far as FFADO goes, it’s listed on the FFADO site as “reported to work” probably meaning the developers haven’t had an actual unit to test/verify, but that other people have had success with it.

So, it looks like the basics are in order. You should give it a shot and report back to us:)

Good luck,!