I got the impression (after reading many forums related to Focusrite devices on Linux) that it seems generally possible to achieve anything with my Focusrite 6i6 with Ardour on Linux that I could do with it with Ardour on Windows. And recording, playing and monitoring Ardour seems possible with my pretty little red Focusrite.
But I’m still puzzled what the most practical way for creating a mix for recording and/or monitoring is? Do you use Qasmixer that has about 1 million buttons and sliders to do things no one knows what? Or do you use the alsamixer? Or pulse? Or Jack? Or what?
I would be very happy if somebody could enlighten me with his or her experiences of controling the Focusrite on Linux!
I’m not sure I understand: Ardour has its own built-in mixer if you need a “software mixer.” And the Focusrite has its own physical dial for monitoring (allowing you to shift the balance between analog input monitoring and monitoring the USB output from Ardour). Are you talking about an external control surface for mixing? Ardour supports a number of those as well.
Thanks for getting back, and sorry for being not too clear. I was refering to an alternative to the software mixer that actually comes with focusrite cards for windows. This mixer let’s me create one or more mixes (e.g. for recording or monitoring in Ardour) of the various audio sources in my system, and send them to the physical outputs of my focusrite. It looks like this:
From what I understand from different forums there are some linux substitutes for this software mixer. But I never manage to create different mixes that go into ardour or that come out of ardour. The QASmixer might do exactly what I want, but it has a trillion buttons and is very badly documented.
So I thought there might be other users who have already overcome the obstacles of configuring their focusrite on linux and might share their experiences.
Or is my understanding of what this software mixers do totally wrong?
Ah, okay. I’m not familiar with Focusrite interfaces so hopefully someone else will chime in here, but I think in general these interface-specific software mixers are mainly used for developing low- or zero-latency monitoring mixes to use while recording and overdubbing.
