It depends on what you need. A majority of the cheap USB interfaces are USB 1.x and only do 2 channels. USB 2.x only recently got an audio standard (< 5 years) and devices that are starting to use that. With USB 3.x already being out in the wild of sorts. IMO, if you need more than 2 channels, you're better off with a firewire device (for now). And yes, they cost a good chunk of money as many of them include microphone preamps. At $$$ per channel. Unless you already have gear than can deliver 5.1 input over optical cable, you're probably going to have to chunk out some change. Even at $50 a channel, 4x channels is $200-ish.
If you have line level inputs and don't need microphone preamps, you might have a few options. A used Delta 44 (PCI) runs about $100 USD on craigslist and is fairly well supported driver wise. Although pulse audio still kind of sucks at a default configuration for it. And various versions of alsamixer seem to disagree with the hardware specs more often than not. Bit it's 4 line level inputs and 4 line level outputs (24/96) on a budget and works fine under linux. But it depends on the budget. It's 1/4" connectors ONLY. Insert external microphone preamp(s), and external headphone preamp(s) to use it like most OTHER interfaces, plus cables and adapters and whatnot. If you don't already have a lot of that stuff. You're going to be looking at some $$$. Or squiggly LLL in your case. Not that I see how any of this is an alsa issue. Until you have questions on a specific device. There's other websites with forums that discuss various interfaces and whatnot. I have an M-Audio Mobile Pre (USB 1.x, 2 channels in, 2 channels out) and it works fine under linux with alsa (usb class compliant). I also have a Delta 44 and it works fine, with a little extra configuration in some cases. HTH, - James On 5/1/11, Graham Dicker <graham.dic...@antecor.com> wrote: > Dominique Michel wrote: > >> Le Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:28:47 +0100, >> Graham Dicker <graham.dic...@antecor.com> a écrit : >> >>> I have been recording for many years with a Yamaha digital 4 track >>> recorder. I would now like to switch to using my Suse Linux minitower >>> using Ardour. I am not sure though what kind of audio interface I >>> need to buy. Ideally I would like to have similar capability to what >>> I am used to with my 4 track i.e. up to four instruments being >>> recorded simultaneously, each on to it's own track. I understand that >>> an interface like the Yamaha Audiogram 6 will work but it's not clear >>> that I will be able to route each instrument on to it's own track. Is >>> that what it does? Or do I need something else? >> >> If the audiogram 6 is recognized by alsa, it will work. Beside ardour, >> you will need jack-audio-connection-kit (jack) and some alsa mixer like >> the alsamixer. jack have several GUI like qjackctl. with it, you can >> route the audio channels as you want to. >> >> Ciao, >> Dominique >> > Thank you for responding. I already have all the software working using the > motherboard audio interface and have been using it to record stuff for a few > months. But I can only do two mono tracks or one stereo track at a time - a > painfully slow process. I have looked around for an interface with more > inputs and find they vary from around £80 to £3000 or more. The Audiogram 6 > is within my budget, I don't want to spend more than that. The descriptions > on the vendor websites for this and similar units in this price bracket > don't mention simultaneous recording on multiple tracks and as far as I can > tell they are just a kind of mixer, and can only record one track at a time > (on any OS). Is that true? If so, what kind of interface do I need? > > Thank you > > Graham Dicker > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > WhatsUp Gold - Download Free Network Management Software > The most intuitive, comprehensive, and cost-effective network > management toolset available today. Delivers lowest initial > acquisition cost and overall TCO of any competing solution. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/whatsupgold-sd > _______________________________________________ > Alsa-user mailing list > Alsa-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WhatsUp Gold - Download Free Network Management Software The most intuitive, comprehensive, and cost-effective network management toolset available today. Delivers lowest initial acquisition cost and overall TCO of any competing solution. http://p.sf.net/sfu/whatsupgold-sd _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list Alsa-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
