On Sat, 2011-01-08 at 14:47 -0500, Mike Holstein wrote: > On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 12:58 PM, Thomas Orgis <[email protected]> > wrote: > Am Sat, 8 Jan 2011 11:34:59 -0500 > schrieb Mike Holstein <[email protected]>: > > > in my experience, USB devices can sometimes > > pick up as much electrical interference as internal sound > cards on laptops. > > > I have to spoil the specific take on USB interfaces: "Hey, I > hear it when you move the mouse!" That's what I got with > someone listening with headphones to the main output of my > Edirol FA-101. I'm glad that you don't get that on the > recordings (I _think_), just superimposed on the analog output > portion. > But still, I am mightily pi**ed about the lack of protection > from such issues (our dear friend Improper Grounding again, I > guess) even when shelling out several 100 € for the gear. > > Be it USB or any other digital interface, I guess you can have > luck and the bad sort of which. I do not see a technical > argument why a USB-connected device should suffer more than a > device connected via FireWire (both being bus-powered, > even) ... you can get bitten on both camps. For simple > recording tasks, I really like the io|2 -- no comparison in > bitchyness to the FireWire setup. I ended up angrily smashing > a dual socket mainboard with a hammer because it featured a > southbridge bug that just so might be the reason for reliable > FireWire audio being impossible -- even using a PCI controller > with a "good" FireWire chip. I strongly suspect that a USB > interface would have worked just fine. Perhaps not ultra sharp > latency, but without all the fuss. > > That being said, by current setup with ubuntu studio 10.04 and > the FA-101 on a custom PC worked without major hickup the last > few weeks ... but I very well remember having to reboot the > machine (or at least modprobe-cycle firewire) because the > firewire subsystem got stuck because of just another subtle > driver issue. The FA-101 is a rather old device, but still > tricky. No comparison to just having snd-usb-audio loaded and > off we go -- with the added plus that it works without JACK, > too. To be fair: USB interfaces may not like being put behind > a hub... so they're not _totally_ trivial;-) > > > Alrighty then, > > Thomas. > > PS: To be a bit more on topic again; I did not test the MIDI > performance of any of my USB or FireWire interfaces (uh, would > that work with the FA-101?). I am using an Alesis ControlPad > with in-built USB for triggering drums via MIDI ... but I > don't play seriously enough on that one to judge. > > -- > Ubuntu-Studio-users mailing list > [email protected] > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-users > > > > do dought USB should be easier than firewire, i just know that this > week i was preparing for an audio presentation at my LUG, and a simple > little grey ground lift added to the plug on the laptop quieted down > my firewire interface, and not the USB interface i wanted to use > (because of the size). i can only speak from experience, and i feel > that an external USB interface (something like a 2 channel interface > without preamps) is probably not a significant enough step up from an > internal interface. you can get some nice USB devices though. i really > like the ZOOM > H4 http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodid=1901 . > the preamps and onboard mics are very nice quality, and the standalone > recording feature could be nice. i dont think the quality of firewire > vs USB can be challenged. i have a presonus firepod that is literally > plug and play in ubuntu with ffado. the USB device i use needs the > madfuloader, and can be a little more challenging to get up and > running, this is again *in my experience. i have several texas > instruments firewire chipsets that i like to use, and are supported > well. i have a VIA chip set that is not bad either. when > trouble-shooting xruns on a firewire or USB device, i think its > helpful to look at the output of: > > > cat /proc/interrupts > > > running that in a terminal can help determine what devices share IRQ > values. i try and set my firewire card to its own IRQ in the bios > (when possible). ive found that using a different USB port on certain > laptops can really help isolate a USB audio device, and reduce xruns. > > > i didnt mean to step on any toes earlier about the quality of USB > devices. although, you might want to take into consideration that if > you were to visit a professional studio, the likely-hood of seeing a > USB interface in a rack somewhere, or in the signal path at all would > be rather unlikely.
FWIW you can make any USB jack head of the USB jacks by rtirq, e.g. change RTIRQ_NAME_LIST="rtc snd usb i8042" to RTIRQ_NAME_LIST="rtc snd usb3 i8042" -- Ubuntu-Studio-users mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-users
