Re: Live recording

[Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com>]

Jeremy Nicoll <jn.ml.dbn.25@letterboxes.org> writes:

> On Mon, 7 Aug 2017, at 23:41, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
>
>> Fascinating...!  But now I got very interested in the multi channel audio
>> interface you suggest...  Before looking for one to buy, I'd like to
>> better
>> know and understand how it works...  
>
> They're just boxes which can have more than two mics (or line-level signals
> eg from instruments) plugged into them.  Inside there's multiple analogue-
> to-digital converters.  The digital data from all of these is then sent along
> the USB connection to the computer.  Some interfaces might send all the
> channels so they arrive in a single file on the computer, which then contains
> multiple separate channels, others may directly generate separate files on
> the computer.
>
> It's unimportant which you get because a file containing multiple channels
> can be split into separate files (with eg sox), or a set of files can be
> combined (with eg sox).
>
>
> I can't advise you on what to buy...  because I suspect you're going to spend
> a great deal less than I did when I last bought one...  That was a Tascam
> box:
>
> http://tascam.com/product/us-2000/
>
> which you'll see can handle 16 separate inputs at once...  There's a more
> recent version of that these days...  A box like that is aimed at people used
> to using professional audio equipment.


Your explanation is just what I was looking for...  Very simple and clear.
Here:

 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14950823/sox-exe-mixing-mono-vocals-with-stereo-music

it is shown how to operate with sox the way you said.


> There will be lower-spec interfaces around too, but you obviously need to
> find one that's known to work with linux.  You also probably don't want one
> with eg XLR sockets for mics.


Yes, as far as I understand this is probably the main problem: find something
that works with Linux...

Thanks indeed,

Cheers,

Rodolfo