Re: looking for a debian compatible usb audio interface
Bernard wrote:
> My purpose is to digitalize vinyl records. Using my default audio card
> gave poor results. On an audio forum, it was stated that I couldn't
> expect good results unless I use a usb audio interface. Lots of them on
> the market, but I'd be interrested to hear someone saying that it works
> with Linux and give good results for my purpose.
Picking a good usb audio device for linux is a bit more complicated than
it should be. In principle there is a common usb-audio standard and all
audio cards complying with the standard will work for linux or any other
OS 'out of the box', ie. with no need for a driver. In my experience,
however, there are many high end audio cards that are not compatible
with the standard and require proprietary standards that are only
available for the two most common _commercial_ OSes.
(I assume that part of the problem is that virus scanners and the like
that suddenly use a lot of cpu/disk activity break the timing on lesser
OSes which is crucial for audio. The workaround of the hardware
manufacturers is to supply their own proprietary drivers and not to rely
on the capabilities of the OS).
So you have to find a model that works without a driver (or has a linux
driver) and fits within your requirements for sound quality. There is a
list of supported hardware somewhere on the pages of the alsa project
[3]. It is not so useful for usb devices, though, and I found it better
to just check, if a particular usb card works without a driver.
Please go and complain to manufacturers that produce devices that are
not standard compliant. Only if their support gets nagged by many linux
users, they will become interested in exploiting that market share.
FWIW, I have a 'Terratec usb phase 26' [1] and a V-Dac [2]. Both work
out of the box on debian lenny. Both have much better sound quality than
mass market built in devices. The quality of the V-Dac matches that of
the best CD players available from high end audio companies at a much
lower price (ca. 270 Euro).
The Terratec has a lower sound quality compared to the V-DAC, but
records as well as play back and is much cheaper. (IMHO good value for
money.)
I am still looking for a sound card with better recording quality than
the terratec (and linux support!), but the terratec is certainly more
than adequate to record records for use on mp3 players and the like. On
expensive audio equipment it is just not as good as the v-dac.
Of course that is all just MHO and I am not affiliated with any of those
companies. ;-)
Cheers,
Johannes
[1] http://www.thomann.de/de/terratec_phase_26_usb_se.htm
[2] http://www.musicalfidelity.com/products/vseries/vdac.html
[3] http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main
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