Re: [PLUG] Need recommendations for USB sound card

[Isaac Bennetch <bennetch@gmail.com>]

Hi Bhaskar,

On 1/23/2011 7:07 PM, K.S. Bhaskar wrote:
> (Although I did audio for my college campus TV station, I am
> unfortunately a complete newbie when it comes to audio with computers.)

And while I work in TV and know both audio and Linux quite well, I've 
never done more with Linux+audio than get music to play through my 
speakers. The software I use for audio is for Mac or Windows. Especially 
for the creation part, he might have trouble finding suitable Linux 
counterparts. For a high school student to do a multichannel mixdown, I 
suspect Audacity would be sufficient, but don't actually use it for that 
myself.

> One of my sons (who is in high school) wants to synthesize, record and
> mix music.  Does anyone have any recommendations for a decent (not too
> expensive) USB 2.0 sound "card" that works well with Linux?  It probably
> needs 3-4 inputs, and appropriate outputs.

It's much better to have more inputs than you think you'll need, so this 
seems like a good idea. Michael is very right about the m-audio gear; 
many of their offerings are targeted at the home recording market and 
have quite good quality for the price. Again, I can't speak directly to 
the Linux driver support, but suspect that it's possible.

> Also, if he wants to access a MIDI keyboard, does he need anything more
> than a USB MIDI cable?  In other words, does he need to check about
> drivers for MIDI instruments or is the MIDI interface standard enough to
> not require device drivers?

I believe It Just Works(tm). MIDI data is pretty standard and you 
shouldn't need any special drivers to make it work. Your sound card will 
provide a generic MIDI device and the recording program will know what 
to do with it.

> He is also concerned about latency of USB 2.0.  I have said that in my
> opinion, he shouldn't need to worry for audio - only when / if he gets
> to video does he need to worry about interfaces like Firewire (which his
> laptop doesn't have - it has an eSATA connector, and an HDMI connector,
> but no Firewire).

This is sort of a valid concern, depending on factors like how many 
channels he plans on using at once and how high of quality he needs. USB 
latency can be a problem, but I doubt he'll have a problem. We do a 
multichannel recording with an eight channel PCI device (actually 
several of them together, but that's really besides the point), but I'd 
be just as happy with Firewire for that, but not USB.

I wouldn't plan on using any other USB devices while recording (as in, 
not even connected), but plenty of other people in the world record in 
their basements over USB. I'm not saying it's ideal, but if he really 
enjoys it and wants to upgrade his system in a few years, then you can 
look at what needs to be improved. As long as he's not listening back to 
himself live (and I can't think of why he'd need to), a bit of latency 
won't kill him either. Worst case scenario I see is that his timing is 
off in the final multichannel project, and then it's a simple matter to 
slide various tracks a bit until they match.

A good quality microphone, preamp, and knowing how to use them properly 
will go a long way toward making the recordings sound better.

Hope this helps (and feel free to have him hit me up off-list if he'd 
like to chat more)

~isaac
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