Recommended USB Audio/Midi Interfaces for Ardour?

@josander Except that newer Ultralite AVBs are shipped with 1.3.5+637 and seem uncapable to downgrade. I’m running 1.3.4+558 and sometimes run into the shifting outputs issue but it’s otherwise pretty stable. I’m following this topic : https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18046

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When I was using Linux I had good results with my Sound Devices USBPre2. It’s more expensive than your budget, but has excellent preamps and is a sort of Swiss Army knife for audio. A recent kernel update reportedly made it unusable in Linux, but it’s possible that a subsequent update has fixed it; I no longer use Linux so can’t verify.

I also had good luck with a Mackie Onyx Blackjack.

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The Roland Rubix 24 is another device that some on linuxmusicians.com have said works well on Linux, but I have no firsthand experience with it.

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@baptiste thanks for the head-up about the MOTU devices. While I’m not totally averse to mucking about with different versions of this or that firmware or kernel, I’m thinking at this point I have the luxury of dodging that entirely.

@GuntherT Interesting, I’ve noticed that Behringer often has relatively low ratings on a lot of their devices, so I sorta started filtering them out. But perhaps I should look more closely at the reviews to see what people are complaining about - since my devices are unlikely to undergo a lot of physical abuse, that might be a direction I can go. Also, I haven’t noodled around on linuxmusicians.com yet, so that’s obviously my next go-to.

@Bhurley I don’t mind forking over a few extra shekels for a device if it provides sufficient justification. I’ll put your suggestions on my List-Of-Things-To-Compare!

Thanks to everyone for their input. I feel more prepared now. I’m always open to more suggestions or info, of course.

Oh, and once I get something, I’ll be sure to post here about my experience. :smiley:

@baptiste Thanks for warning me! I’m looking for a new interface this days and after some checking, I was really considering this one.

So here’s where I’m at, feedback (especially warnings of devices being not so good) is super appriceiated. It looks like there are quite a few small boxes that would be a good entry point so I can try something before forking over significant cash. By and large, it sounds like Native Instruments has good reviews and possibly plays nice with Alsa/Jack, so I sorta put that brand at the top of my list. For now, if I try to cross-compare 2-in-2-out devices with USB (or the closest variant), I can gauge my next steps. Of course, if I am barking up the wrong tree, please someone stop me!

I’ll include links from a music vendor I’ve used before, but I have no vested interest in where I buy it. Heck, if I could get it from a local music store to support local businesses, that’d be the way I go. Price is not a factor in this list.

In No Particular Order

  1. Native Instruments Komplete Audio 2 Details [This one’s big brother was well received by someone else on this forum]
  2. Steinberg UR22MKII Details
  3. M-Audio AIR192X4 Details
  4. PreSonus AUDIOBOX96-USB Details
  5. Behringer U-Phoria UMC204HD Details
  6. iConnectivity ConnectAudio2/4 Details This one specifies Linux in its description!

I am sure there are dozens more to look at, but I am going to search for each one of these devices to see if anyone, anywhere, has discussed their viability in a Linux/Jack/Ardour environment. I’ll report back with any useful findings.

I actually have one of these but bought it only as an interface for playback of my MIDI keyboard (which is also Native Instruments); I’ve never actually tried plugging microphones into it to evaluate how it sounds. At its price point I’m skeptical that the preamps and converters are high quality, but it might be good enough for your purposes. Are you sure this is class-compliant and will work on Linux? It’s plug-and-play on Mac, but for Windows I had to download an ASIO driver. It’s possible that the only reason for that is the interface’s high default sampling rate.

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The native seems to work well on linux

http://linuxmao.org/Native+Instruments+Komplete+Audio+6

How about focusrite @irelandm ?

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I’ve been having good luck with this: https://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/zedi-10fx/

It’s a 4+6 channel mixer with a 4 channel USB audio interface, for bedroom recordings with Ardour I think it’s great. The advantage is you get a whole mixer for only a little more €€€ than an interface.

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@Bhurley windows has complete support only for USB 1 Class Audio. win10 has a USB 2 Class driver but it does not have the complete spec implemented. This is why you need a driver on win10 for Class Compliant USB devices, a driver is needed if the device is USB 2 Class compliant. microsof recommends that vendors create their own drivers for USB 2 Class audio devices, so I guess the native windows support is not going to get better any time soon.

Native Instruments says on their web site that Komplet Audio 1 / 2 / 6 mk2 are all Class Compliant. I just ordered Komplet Audio 6 mk2, I will report back how well the device works on Linux.

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I’ve seen sorta mixed reviews with the focurite products … they do have a fair number that seem to fit the bill, though. But yeah, the Komplete Audio 6 is already on my radar - in fact, all the reviews (both Linux and otherwise) seem to be favourable.

@samthursfield I hadn’t considered mixerboards with USB interface functionality, but that’s a pretty cool idea. Is this something you already have, or is it one you’ve had your eye on? I’d be curious to hear if anyone has had any issues with it (either Linux-related or otherwise).

@mhartzel yeah the Class Compliant stuff has been what I’ve been led to believe is the key concern - that and whether or not a device has hardware controls or if it requires some sorta weird software controller. Obviously I’d be much happier with hardware controls anyway. Anyhoo I’m extremely interested to see what your initial impressions are when pluggin’ that into your setup.

@bradhurley that’s an interesting observation, the concern about the microphone sound quality. I would have thought that the quality of the microphone would have been maybe a little more critical, so I wasn’t going to worry about that (we have access to quite a few different microphones, so I will be able to fiddle about until I find one we really like). And the thing with microphones is you can’t go wrong with a good quality microphone anyway, so I’m not averse to buying a new one if none sound the way we like. I guess what I might wanna do is see if I can find audio reviews of the same microphone vs different interfaces. If you decide to plug in a mic to check it’s sound, let me know your impressions!

In this case I was referring to the quality of the preamps and converters in the Native Instruments interfaces. You’re right that having a good microphone (and finding the best placement for it) is the most important factor, but preamps and converters also have a role to play. The main issue you’re likely to encounter with poor preamps is noise, but if your music isn’t quiet or you don’t have moments of silence in your music it might not be an issue. Preamps can be “transparent” or “colored,” in terms of the extent to which they affect the sound, but as long as you like what you’re hearing that’s all that matters. Good converters (analog to digital and digital to analog) can also make a difference but the converters in most interfaces today are good enough unless you have really high standards or demanding clients (or work in classical music or distribute for audiophiles).

Using good mics and positioning them properly will make a lot more difference to your sound than the preamps and converters; it’s just that once you have invested in good mics you can get the very best from them by optimizing the rest of the signal chain. That can come later, though, and might not even be necessary.

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I use Fedora, Ardour and loads of other plugins. For midi in, I use M-Audio 2 in 4 out. For audio, I use Beringher Xenyx 1832 which has USB audio.

Both have never let me down in 4 years of use - and are completely plug and play with Linux (as is nearly all Beringher stuff I am told). It is a super way to go in my opinion.

I mostly record live guitar and saxophones, and use phantom mics, standard and a Rode USB mic as well. They all work perfectly.

For my setup, this is perfect, quiet, stable and rather cheap.

Win win.

Mike

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I bought it a few months ago and have already recorded some tracks successfully. No USB issues – seems to be fully class compliant. Build quality also good.

My only complaint is that routing to & from the computer can be tricky. You can choose one of 3 combos of inputs to send. The combos are: M1,M2,M3,M4 (the main inputs); M1,M2,L,R (2 inputs + main mix), or M1,M2,AUX,FX. A couple of times I’ve had the wrong settings and accidentally tracked my monitor mix.

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I have the smaller edition of your #5, the Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD. The only difference is that it does not have MIDI ports, only audio. So far I did not have any issues with it.

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Rubix 24 works perfectly. It’s well built and very silent. I can recommend it.

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Yep, I figured as much - I may not have conveyed very well that I was definitely pickin’ up what you were layin’ down, if you know what I mean. We have already experienced a little bit of the difference between preamps, but maybe our experience has been only with professional studio level stuff (hence the concern over the microphones themselves), so I wasn’t aware that these consumer-level made much of a difference. The noise floor or signal:noise hasn’t historically been much trouble for us, but it’s definitely on my radar now. For our mixes, most of her material is loud/rock but this latest bunch of material has been mostly just vocal/piano so I can imagine I might get annoyed. On the other hand, noise reduction in processing/post-processing seems pretty good these days, so, I dunno. This ongoing conversation has really highlighted the point that we need to decide if we are going to go in this direction (home-recording) permanently and if I want to make the kind of investment needed to get the sound we want. I was sorta hoping I could pick up enough fairly inexpensive gear to help me make that decision. The problem, of course, is if I pick up a bunch of garbage gear, the decision will end up being obvious, meanwhile giving an unfair bias against the home-solution. Ugh. I’m just overcomplicating it for myself, of course.

@Mickeyb Good to hear the Behringer gear is holding down the noise. I think most of the complaints about their gear that I’ve read is it’s just not built very physically robustly, but I doubt we are likely to abuse our hardware in that way these days.

@samthursfield Yeah, I noodled about on Long & McQuade’s catalogue, and there are a few similar mixer/interfaces out there. As far as routing goes, we are unlikely to use more than 3 tracks simultaneously that often, so I don’t feel like the sends will present much trouble. This is definitely an option for us.

@varaki we haven’t used MIDI much so far, but I know she would really like to have the option to try that going forward. Mostly we’ve just been recording the audio signal.

@lilith33 While I’ve seen the odd Rubix device, I haven’t put them on any of my short lists yet. I’ll add it so I can do some more comparisons.

Based on everyone’s input so far, I can tell there are a lot of options out there that cover a plethora of different use cases. I think I am leaning toward the Komplete Audio 6 now, but it’s only a lean so far, LOL. I can definitely see us opting for one of the mixer/interface combo units.

To add to the decision making

I recently bought an Audient iD4 and find it brilliant !
Excellent pre-amps electronics (coming from Audient’s analog professional mixers), low noise, direct-monitoring, two headphone ports (nice when working with another musician which seems to be your case), solid metalic contruction and quite inexpensive !

iD4 is 2 in/out, there’s obviously bigger options (iD8, 16, etc)

Cheers,

I got Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 mk2 yesterday. The short version of the story: the device works fully in Linux. Full report here:

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