Re: Multichannel audio listening
Joel Roth <joelz@pobox.com> writes:
> Rodolfo Medina wrote:
>> .... I want to buy one of those multichannel
>> soundcards... Do you think this one could be all right...?
>>
>>
>> https://www.strumentimusicali.net/product_info.php/products_id/51790/behringer-umc404hd.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAuP7UBRDiARIsAFpxiRKgsptPW1qxkEw793ahs684ltlhyh5dcIgzLJXtDh39CZA8IEX3qgIaAnquEALw_wcB
>>
>> Rodolfo
>
> I looked around a bit, and the UMC404HD seems to be 'class
> compliant' which means that the linux USB audio drivers can
> access the most important functions. Behringer is definitely
> on the low-cost end of things, but a lot of their hardware
> seems to be of decent quality.
>
> A useful feature of this card is hardware monitoring, so
> that you can listen to the audio during recording without a
> time lag.
>
> Now that you've described your application (recording piano,
> possibly with vocals) I think -- unless you're especially
> comfortable and patient with low-level commands such as
> ecasound provides -- you may like to run some kind of
> multitrack recorder or DAW application. This will let you
> adjust volume levels and add various plugins to the
> different tracks. It's also common to duplicate a mono
> signal to stereo and adjust the position right or left in a
> stereo mix (e.g. panning).
>
> Someone already mentioned Audacity, which is quite easy to
> use.
>
> More sophisticated software lets you apply effects in
> realtime, so it's easier to diddle with parameters.
>
> For professional quality with all possible features,
> there is Ardour. Another very well developed application is
> Qtractor.
>
> I'll also shamelessly mention a lightweight DAW called Nama
> that provides the most important functions for recording and
> mixing. It's an application layer driven by text commands,
> hotkeys and/or a simple GUI that runs Ecasound to provide
> the signal processing. The debianized version is slightly
> out of date, but you can at least get an idea of what it
> looks like. One of several unusual features is a preset
> system that lets you set plugin defaults, re-use chains of
> plugins, and create templates for groups of tracks or entire
> projects. I'm the biased author ;-)
>
> For hardware or software questions you cannot answer by
> reading the docs or doing a web search, I'll refer you to
> the many experts on the Linux Audio Users mailing list
> (LAU).
Many thanks... I just need at the moment a modest home made live recording, so
it's enough to me just a small USB one (stereo) channel sound card. I plug a
microphone into it and another couple of microphones in the built-in sound card
of the PC, through a special double mono cable. That way I get two different
audio files, one for the voice and the other for the piano. Then I merge them
together using Sox, so obtaining a 2-channel final remixed audio file, that can
be listen to from a normal stereo player. What I want now, and for what I
started the present thread, is, as I said, to keep those three channels
separated and listen to them through three different loudspeakers. Thanks to
the kind help from you listers, I understand that I need one of those
multichannel sound cards...
Regards
Rodolfo
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