Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[Jean-Michel Pouré]

> I am looking for a cheap two channels USB audio card, with two XLR
> entries and preamp. This is for an Internet Podcast. Of course, I need
> good Alsa support.

I lost hours connecting on Websites to look for information.
Can anyone help me, this would be very nice.

Is there a single fully-supported card answering my needs?

Thank you in advance,
Jean-Michel


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Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[Bill Unruh]

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On Sat, 27 Jan 2007, Jean-Michel Pouré wrote:

>> I am looking for a cheap two channels USB audio card, with two XLR
>> entries and preamp. This is for an Internet Podcast. Of course, I need
>> good Alsa support.

Not sure what you want-- that may be why you get no response. By two
channels in, do you mean a single stereo channel in? What do you mean by
"two xlr entries" or "preamp"? sound cards tend not to be mixer boards, and
especially not cheap mixer boards. Why not buy a cheap usb soundcard (I
like the maudio transit-- under $100-- it has a standard stereo in) and add a preamp if that is really
what you need.

Why do you need XLR connectors and a preamp for Internet Podcast?
>
> I lost hours connecting on Websites to look for information.
> Can anyone help me, this would be very nice.
>
> Is there a single fully-supported card answering my needs?
>
> Thank you in advance,
> Jean-Michel
>
>
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-- 
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Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[John Rigg]

On Sat, Jan 27, 2007 at 02:30:31PM -0800, Bill Unruh wrote:
> On Sat, 27 Jan 2007, Jean-Michel Pouré wrote:
> 
> >>I am looking for a cheap two channels USB audio card, with two XLR
> >>entries and preamp. This is for an Internet Podcast. Of course, I need
> >>good Alsa support.
> 
> Not sure what you want-- that may be why you get no response. By two
> channels in, do you mean a single stereo channel in? What do you mean by
> "two xlr entries" or "preamp"? sound cards tend not to be mixer boards, and
> especially not cheap mixer boards. 

Well, a USB audio interface hardly qualifies as a sound card, either.
There are quite a few USB and Firewire interfaces that have preamps
with XLR inputs, largely because that's what microphones (in a broadcast
or recording context) use.

Finding such a device that works with Linux could be a challenge though.
I got the impression from a quick look at the M-Audio web site that
most of their USB devices listed on the ALSA matrix have been
discontinued. Is a Firewire device with jackd and libfreebob not
an option?

John

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Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[Robert Emil Berge]

On Sat, 27 Jan 2007 22:15:31 +0100
Jean-Michel Pouré <jmpoure@free.fr> wrote:

> > I am looking for a cheap two channels USB audio card, with two XLR
> > entries and preamp. This is for an Internet Podcast. Of course, I need
> > good Alsa support.

I have an Edirol UA-25. I don't know if it's fully supported, but as far
as I can tell, it works perfectly. It records and plays in all the bitrates etc.
it's supposed to, and the MIDI interface works as well.
That doesn't mean that every Linux program works well with it, since some of them
e.g. Audacity seems to assume that it should have mixer controls, which
it doesn't have, since those are on the box. But I've used it with Jack, Ardour and
Rosegarden without any problems at all.

I've also tested the M-Audio MobilePre, and it also seemed to work well. It has
mixer controls and knobs on the box, which is kind of confusing. I haven't tested
it a lot though. There's some info about needing to load firmware to the MobilePre,
but I didn't need to do that. I think they come in different versions without
changing the name. But there is a firmware loader for it if it's needed, but
if they keep changing it without letting people know about it, I wouldn't
bet on buying one without testing it first.

> 
> I lost hours connecting on Websites to look for information.
> Can anyone help me, this would be very nice.
> 
> Is there a single fully-supported card answering my needs?
> 
> Thank you in advance,
> Jean-Michel
> 
> 
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Re: Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[Jean-Michel Pouré]

Thank you for your answers:

> Not sure what you want-- that may be why you get no response. By two
> channels in, do you mean a single stereo channel in? What do you mean
> by
> "two xlr entries" or "preamp"? sound cards tend not to be mixer
> boards, and
> especially not cheap mixer boards. Why not buy a cheap usb soundcard
> (I
> like the maudio transit-- under $100-- it has a standard stereo in)
> and add a preamp if that is really
> what you need.
> 
> Why do you need XLR connectors and a preamp for Internet Podcast? 

I need a professionnal voice microphone, like in a normal radio.
Therefore, I need XLR entries.

> I have an Edirol UA-25. I don't know if it's fully supported, but as
> far
> as I can tell, it works perfectly. It records and plays in all the
> bitrates etc.
> it's supposed to, and the MIDI interface works as well.
> That doesn't mean that every Linux program works well with it, since
> some of them
> e.g. Audacity seems to assume that it should have mixer controls,
> which
> it doesn't have, since those are on the box. But I've used it with
> Jack, Ardour and
> Rosegarden without any problems at all.

I phone people using SIP protocol.
The SIP phone (Twinkle) needs a mixer.

At the same time, I record my voice at high rate.
Then I mix the result in Audacity, but I will soon switch to Ardour.

This is only ONE need, I have other needs ...
I also produce short films shot in DV.
I need to record voices with good quality.

> I've also tested the M-Audio MobilePre, and it also seemed to work
> well. It has
> mixer controls and knobs on the box, which is kind of confusing. I
> haven't tested
> it a lot though. There's some info about needing to load firmware to
> the MobilePre,
> but I didn't need to do that. I think they come in different versions
> without
> changing the name. But there is a firmware loader for it if it's
> needed, but
> if they keep changing it without letting people know about it, I
> wouldn't
> bet on buying one without testing it first.
> 

Th M-audio Pre is a suitable solution.

I was wondering about the new TASCAM US-122L.
It is very cheap (159 €) and quite popular.
Do you think it is supported by Alsa?

More generaly, are there established standards in audio?
What are theses acronyms: ASIO, ASIO2, GSIF2, WDM, CoreAudio, CoreMIDI,
kernel streaming, etc...

I will create a page on the unofficial Alsa wiki.

> Well, a USB audio interface hardly qualifies as a sound card, either.
> There are quite a few USB and Firewire interfaces that have preamps
> with XLR inputs, largely because that's what microphones (in a
> broadcast
> or recording context) use.
> 
> Finding such a device that works with Linux could be a challenge
> though.
> I got the impression from a quick look at the M-Audio web site that
> most of their USB devices listed on the ALSA matrix have been
> discontinued. Is a Firewire device with jackd and libfreebob not
> an option?

If there is a cheap (< 200€) Firewire card with two XLR entries, please
let me know. I am interested.

Kind regards,
Jean-Michel Pouré



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Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[Pieter Palmers]

Jean-Michel Pouré wrote:

>> Finding such a device that works with Linux could be a challenge
>> though.
>> I got the impression from a quick look at the M-Audio web site that
>> most of their USB devices listed on the ALSA matrix have been
>> discontinued. Is a Firewire device with jackd and libfreebob not
>> an option?
> 
> If there is a cheap (< 200€) Firewire card with two XLR entries, please
> let me know. I am interested.
> 
I don't think we can at this moment deliver what you want with FreeBoB. 
The ALSA support is not ready yet.

Pieter Palmers
FreeBoB developer

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Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[Michael Gerdau]

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> > Why do you need XLR connectors and a preamp for Internet Podcast? 
> 
> I need a professionnal voice microphone, like in a normal radio.
> Therefore, I need XLR entries.

<disclaimer>
I'm not trying to be picky, just precise.
</disclaimer>

Whether or not a mic is "a professionnal voice microphone" has nothing
to do with it having XLR plugs or something else as such (you can
have them with "normal" stereo plugs as well from a "quality of
signal" POV). Many such microphones allow you to choose the plug,
or at least that is the result of scanning my own mics.

However I do agree that most higher quality mics I have come across
are equipped with XLR plugs by default (though they can be refitted)
which makes XLR kind of the canonical choice in studio environments.

[recording sip phone and for DV video]
> I need to record voices with good quality.

From this I deduce you don't require long cables with your mic which
implies you don't need balanced cables (at all cost).

Nothing wrong with using XLR, but from what you write not a "must have"
type of requirement.

> More generaly, are there established standards in audio?
> What are theses acronyms: ASIO, ASIO2, GSIF2, WDM, CoreAudio, CoreMIDI,
> kernel streaming, etc...

Have you tried google and/or wikipedia ?

Best,
Michael
-- 
 Vote against SPAM - see http://www.politik-digital.de/spam/
 Michael Gerdau       email: mgd@technosis.de
 GPG-keys available on request or at public keyserver

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Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[Jean-Michel Pouré]

Le dimanche 28 janvier 2007 à 18:03 +0100, Michael Gerdau a écrit :
> Nothing wrong with using XLR, but from what you write not a "must
> have"
> type of requirement. 

I record my voice at high quality (outgoing) and record the SIP voice
(incoming) with low quality. 


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Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[John Rigg]

On Sun, Jan 28, 2007 at 06:03:08PM +0100, Michael Gerdau wrote:
> > I need to record voices with good quality.
> 
> From this I deduce you don't require long cables with your mic which
> implies you don't need balanced cables (at all cost).
> 
> Nothing wrong with using XLR, but from what you write not a "must have"
> type of requirement.

Any mic that needs 48V phantom power needs a balanced cable
in order to work. XLR inputs are the de facto standard on
phantom capable mic preamps.

John

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Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[Matthias Koenig]

John Rigg <aldev@sound-man.co.uk> writes:
> Finding such a device that works with Linux could be a challenge though.
> I got the impression from a quick look at the M-Audio web site that
> most of their USB devices listed on the ALSA matrix have been
> discontinued.

In theory, every USB device that is class compliant should work 
out of the box.
The ALSA soundcard matrix is pretty much out of date, it seems to be
not maintained anymore.

Matthias


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Re: [Alsa-user] Cheap USB audio card with phantom

[Matthias Koenig]

Jean-Michel Pouré <jmpoure@free.fr> writes:

> Le lundi 29 janvier 2007 à 14:46 +0100, Matthias Koenig a écrit :
>> 
>> In theory, every USB device that is class compliant should work 
>> out of the box. 
>
> How can I know if a USB card is USB device compliant?

Well, it *should* be stated by the vendor.
Take e.g. the M-Audio Fast Track Pro device:
On the webpage
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrackPro-main.html
you can find the following:

              	I/O	Bit Depth	Sample Rate (kHz)
With Drivers 	4 x 4	16              44.1/48
 	        2 x 4 	24              44.1/48
 	2-in OR 2-out 	24              88.2/96
Class compliant	2x4	16              44.1/48

means the device is only class compliant for the 2x4 mode with
16 bits and 44.1/48 kHz.

If you can not find such information on the product page, you will 
have to ask the vendor (or just try it :-)

> For example, when it is written "MacOsX compliant", does it mean there
> are chances that the device is supported?

This could mean anything, one step to find out is to check if there are
separate drivers needed for OSX. If not, there are chances that it's
class compliant, but this is only a hint. You'll have to double check
this. 

Matthias


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