Subject: [linux-audio-dev] Soundcards: USB, Firewire, PCI, PCMCIA
From: Richard W.E. Furse (richard_AT_muse.demon.co.uk)
Date: Mon Jan 21 2002 - 03:38:29 EET
Hmm, I've got my hands somewhat dirty with this, although not from a
particularly Linux-friendly viewpoint. My requirement was/is a four channel
card for use with Ambisonic recording and a laptop (and ideally with my
current desktop too). Stages I've been through:
1. M-Audio Quattro (USB): Got excited for the first time. Bought one. Didn't
work. Apparently the early ones with "Mac version" on the box really mean
it - it's not just a driver issue. While talking to support folk etc it
emerged that the card is high latency (I don't have numbers), though they
were hoping to fix this to an extent. Further, it turns out that 4x16x44.1
is about the limit that USB can take - you can't do 4x24x44.1 for instance,
simply because USB doesn't have the bandwidth. Also, I couldn't find any
hint of a decent recording level control for use in ASIO mode (bad with only
16bit) although to be fair I never had the thing working properly. Took it
back.
2. MOTU Firewire thing: Got fed up and eventually foolish enough to go for
this. Did some research and it seemed that although this card is "firewire
compatible", it only really works with Macs. Possibly with some firewire
cards on some PCs/laptops, but not all and getting hold of this information
proved difficult. And the card is *expensive*! Eventually got disheartened
and decided that until this was all cleared up I'd just buy a cheap
four-input card for my desktop to tide me over and forget the laptop. Then I
found...
3. Echo/Event Layla/Mona: These PCI cards have been around for a while. I've
just bought a Mona. This has four inputs with preamps/phantom power, six
outputs, and a host of digital ins/outs. The Layla is even better (although
I don't think it has the preamps/phantom power). I talk to the Mona through
ASIO although I found an incompatibility/bug in Steinberg's ASIO SDK -
luckily this comes in source form so it's fixable. Comments: the digital
engineering seems very poor - this "plug and play" card had an IRQ conflict
with my existing audio card, an old Gina by... Echo/Event. This resulted in
all sorts of odd Windoze crashes, mostly resulting in bluescreen. It seems
that neither of their cards bother to do the plug and play "negotiate"
thing. Problem was fixed eventually by moving the cards to different slots
on the motherboard (eek). The Mona "monitor" program (will the volume
sliders/monitors) is of a far lower grade than the one for my Gina card and
the graphical volume monitors on the rack and the software do some odd
things when both playing and recording. Apparently this is a temporary
program while they develop a Java version, though the idea of running a JVM
within a single CPU box doing low-latency audio fills me with dread. Luckily
you can switch the monitor program off without breaking anything
(apparently). Having said this, now that I've dealt with these issues the
card is working very nicely! And why did I go for this card in the first
place? Because they've just brought out a PCMCIA card that talks to the
external breakout box (where the A/D/A converters are). I've not seen this
yet and I have an instinctive distrust now for the quality of the control
logic involved, but I'm trusting that this can be made to work!
I'm not aware of any likelihood of *any* of these cards (or my old Gina)
being supported on Linux any time soon, although few technical teams I've
spoken to don't seem unfriendly - it seems more a matter of resource.
Comments from ALSA/OSS folk appreciated...
--Richard
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-linux-audio-dev_AT_music.columbia.edu
> [mailto:owner-linux-audio-dev_AT_music.columbia.edu]On Behalf Of Brad
> Bowman
> Sent: 18 January 2002 03:16
> To: linux-audio-dev
> Subject: [linux-audio-dev] USB Souncards
>
>
> I was planning to get a new sound card to use now
> with my current fragile laptop and future whizz-bang
> desktop. As they only have USB in common I thought
> that might be best although hints in the earlier
> usb audio thread have worried me. If I'm paying
> a premium price for poor performance then I might
> just wait until I'm in a position to get a nice
> desktop.
>
> So, in short, what are the issues with USB sound cards
> under Linux? In particular, does it effect latency and
> realtime reliability?
[...]
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