Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 & Other Scarlett Audio Mixers To Be Supported By Linux 6.8

[zx2c4]

When it comes to routing things I always used Ardour or Mixbus internal routing in the software. I no longer use my focusrite interface.

Problem with using ardour/mixbus/reaper/whatever internal routing is that the audio then round trips, so you lose "direct monitoring" zero latency, which can be nice when recording certain instruments. But also, control panel lets you do lots of interesting mixing and configuration things. At least on the Clarett+, there's no physical button to change between inst/line or to enable/disable air -- so I'm quite happy Geoffrey has been maintaining the first-rate control panel for Linux.

[bouquet]

My interest is piqued by this new generation of audio gear. I just retired my two old Echo Audiofire 12 because the last device with a 1394 firewire port finally died. That type of link was desirable BITD because one could (had to!) compile a custom RT kernel to minimize the delay from "punching in" when doing layered recordings. The USB devices had too much lag introduced for studio work. Paired with jackd and Ardour, I had 24 channels around the studio to capture different amps and instruments. It was cutting edge and cost only a contribution to the developers once per year.

I'm not in the audio engineering business any more. It's mostly just a hobby these days. I have noted that my default kernel has "PREEMPT_DYNAMIC" flag set so I wonder how it would do with the fancy new gear and USB-C/TB connection? Anyone have experience with the new type of gear who maybe also remembers the "good ol' days" of firewire?

[creative]

Problem with using ardour/mixbus/reaper/whatever internal routing is that the audio then round trips, so you lose "direct monitoring" zero latency, which can be nice when recording certain instruments. But also, control panel lets you do lots of interesting mixing and configuration things. At least on the Clarett+, there's no physical button to change between inst/line or to enable/disable air -- so I'm quite happy Geoffrey has been maintaining the first-rate control panel for Linux.

I don't do a whole lot of routing if ever. The only routing that I might end up doing is if I eventually get the equipment to do summing and then latency is not even going to matter. I use to do routing with hydrogen and it worked perfectly but hydrogen was the only thing I ever routed.

Anymore I just select the inputs I want to use which is always 1 and 2. I never record mono tracks. Even if I mic my accoustic guitar I do it with inputs 1 and 2. Everything is coming from the two channel buss of my mixer anyway.

I have tinkered with LMMS and think it's great software it's just that the only software I use anymore is for multitrack recording, I use very few plugins and very little software. I am literally using just qjackctl and mixbus32c, that's it. My computer is treated like a Tascam pretty much.

I literally use one piece of software. Also I have zero latency monitoring on my interface so that stuff doesn't matter anyway. I have a mix/direct usb knob equivalent. I don't have latency issues when recording.

I despise how they make interfaces these days that are expensive and don't include zero latency hardware monitoring, it's bad design, sloppy engineering and very disrespectful to musicians.

I have actually been thinking of getting an additional interface a Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD just to test it out. A lot of people gripe about Behringer for various reasons but from what I have read they are producing high quality stuff and not charging an arm and a leg.

I went with a expensive mixer cause I wanted to try out high end and so far I think I have made a good investment at least to find out. I do like the SSL SiX so far and it's not completely snake oil like people think, getting to try high end is at least worth to me so eventually I can walk away with my own experience/opinion after using something for awhile.

[zx2c4]

I don't do a whole lot of routing if ever. The only routing that I might end up doing is if I eventually get the equipment to do summing and then latency is not even going to matter. I use to do routing with hydrogen and it worked perfectly but hydrogen was the only thing I ever routed.

What I was referring to w.r.t. routing mostly regards direct monitoring. Here's what I'm talking about:

aa.jpg

I can drag those around however I want, or drag it into the mixer and then adjust those balances separately. IOW, there's a lot the hardware itself can do before (or instead of) sending samples to the computer.

I am literally using just qjackctl and mixbus32c, that's it. My computer is treated like a Tascam pretty much.

Wondering - if you're using mixbus32c, why not use Ardour, which it's based on? What proprietary features there do you like?

And if you do like proprietary stuff, why not REAPER or Bitwig or Studio One or Waveform or Renoise or Zrythm? (I'm using REAPER mostly these days.)

[creative]

What I was referring to w.r.t. routing mostly regards direct monitoring. Here's what I'm talking about:

aa.jpg

I can drag those around however I want, or drag it into the mixer and then adjust those balances separately. IOW, there's a lot the hardware itself can do before (or instead of) sending samples to the computer.



Wondering - if you're using mixbus32c, why not use Ardour, which it's based on? What proprietary features there do you like?

And if you do like proprietary stuff, why not REAPER or Bitwig or Studio One or Waveform or Renoise or Zrythm? (I'm using REAPER mostly these days.)

Easily accessible low pass and high pass filtering, complex compression, surgical eq, mix busses for channel summing that can lead to a very fat and wide width in the stereo spectrum with simple effects like basic reverb 'whatever effect you use it sounds deeper and more expansive when plugins are placed in the mix busses', and lastly ultra fast workflow. Also they have greatly improved over the years. Basically the mixer panel offers a massive amount of tone shaping control with very little plug-ins added.

Also the XT plug-ins it comes with can be useful.

Now is it as good as the physical 32c console? I highly doubt it but it offers as much control or close to it. Nothing is ever going to replace large format consoles cause they have their own unique sound. Harrison, API, Neve, SSL, and Trident are going to blow DAW's out of the water cause of the nature of their color, it's literally the whole package of each console whichever it is that gives you a certain sound. DAW's can get as good mixes. They are just not going sound like those physical consoles if you want that specific said sound of a given console.

I absolutely cannot stress how valuable for my needs the 32c emulated filtering has been, it can take a lot of headache out of fiddling with eq plug-ins plus the eq section is easier to use but I'm still learning it. The dang thing is an engineering simulator and very useful for mixing. Just using it I have learned a lot, It's taking me a while but I'm getting the feeling my edge is finally getting closer to ooo and aww, not in the sense of what you might hear on the radio but independent experimental music. It's time consuming as hell but I really want to do some great stuff.

DAW's are sort of like guitar brands people have their preferences, it's personal, it's like a buffet picking out what you want to eat.

I actually struggle a lot with music, it's heart wrenching at times but something I feel I have to do.

That's about as earnest a response that I can give.

So to sum it up, Mixbus32c allows you to get a mix that is going to fit very nicely within the stereo spectrum provided you know where things need to sit and where frequencies need to be cut. It's literally sound engineering inside a computer made very accessible, the trick to it is getting behind the learning curve and pushing forward for yourself but once you start getting down the hotkeys and a better idea of what all of it's for? You realize it's a totally different animal from other daws. I personally don't buy into the "It sounds like a real console!" thing, what I can verify is that it allows you to control your sound like physical consoles can.

[creative]

My interest is piqued by this new generation of audio gear. I just retired my two old Echo Audiofire 12 because the last device with a 1394 firewire port finally died. That type of link was desirable BITD because one could (had to!) compile a custom RT kernel to minimize the delay from "punching in" when doing layered recordings. The USB devices had too much lag introduced for studio work. Paired with jackd and Ardour, I had 24 channels around the studio to capture different amps and instruments. It was cutting edge and cost only a contribution to the developers once per year.

I'm not in the audio engineering business any more. It's mostly just a hobby these days. I have noted that my default kernel has "PREEMPT_DYNAMIC" flag set so I wonder how it would do with the fancy new gear and USB-C/TB connection? Anyone have experience with the new type of gear who maybe also remembers the "good ol' days" of firewire?

i never used firewire but I can remember the good old days of my Maudio 24/96, Delta 44 and Delta 66 cards. I didn't start using USB until about 8 years ago. I thoroughly dislike the new usb-c to usb-a connectors. I liked the sturdy older usb-b connectors at the back of interfaces. I have not really built a RT kernel in years, so I can't tell you.

[creative]

I don't do a whole lot of routing if ever. The only routing that I might end up doing is if I eventually get the equipment to do summing and then latency is not even going to matter. I use to do routing with hydrogen and it worked perfectly but hydrogen was the only thing I ever routed.

Anymore I just select the inputs I want to use which is always 1 and 2. I never record mono tracks. Even if I mic my accoustic guitar I do it with inputs 1 and 2. Everything is coming from the two channel buss of my mixer anyway.

I have tinkered with LMMS and think it's great software it's just that the only software I use anymore is for multitrack recording, I use very few plugins and very little software. I am literally using just qjackctl and mixbus32c, that's it. My computer is treated like a Tascam pretty much.

I literally use one piece of software. Also I have zero latency monitoring on my interface so that stuff doesn't matter anyway. I have a mix/direct usb knob equivalent. I don't have latency issues when recording.

I despise how they make interfaces these days that are expensive and don't include zero latency hardware monitoring, it's bad design, sloppy engineering and very disrespectful to musicians.

I have actually been thinking of getting an additional interface a Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD just to test it out. A lot of people gripe about Behringer for various reasons but from what I have read they are producing high quality stuff and not charging an arm and a leg.

I went with a expensive mixer cause I wanted to try out high end and so far I think I have made a good investment at least to find out. I do like the SSL SiX so far and it's not completely snake oil like people think, getting to try high end is at least worth to me so eventually I can walk away with my own experience/opinion after using something for awhile.

I just wanted to add something that I realized and why I have been struggling with mixes and it's a huge duh!!!! Like don't do that noob! In general its best to record mono sources in mono and stereo sources in stereo. I like the width and softness of vocals and guitars in stereo from a mono source but it causes issues in stereo imaging and when mixing in mono.

Don't do what I have been doing for a while, it's dumb. Hahahah!
I'm getting there, I'm getting there.

Recording all tracks in stereo creates an interesting effect and I have been working around it for awhile but it's less than ideal.

For the most part I have been ok due to recording mostly 3-6 track mixes at most but keep adding tracks and it hogs up the spectrum.

[daemonburrito]

My interest is piqued by this new generation of audio gear. I just retired my two old Echo Audiofire 12 because the last device with a 1394 firewire port finally died. That type of link was desirable BITD because one could (had to!) compile a custom RT kernel to minimize the delay from "punching in" when doing layered recordings. The USB devices had too much lag introduced for studio work. Paired with jackd and Ardour, I had 24 channels around the studio to capture different amps and instruments. It was cutting edge and cost only a contribution to the developers once per year.

I'm not in the audio engineering business any more. It's mostly just a hobby these days. I have noted that my default kernel has "PREEMPT_DYNAMIC" flag set so I wonder how it would do with the fancy new gear and USB-C/TB connection? Anyone have experience with the new type of gear who maybe also remembers the "good ol' days" of firewire?

Coming from early Tascam 122/144 gear (USB, 48k/24bit), to the first MOTU 896HD firewire (my first "pro" gear), to the sundry 192k/32bit (-capable, in practice, lower throughput/dynamic range is more practical, I run 96k in my home) USB 2/3 interfaces of the past decade with integrated mic pres, I was surprised that the latest generation doesn't offer much of an audio improvement. My Presonus 1810 is the same in its earlier USB 2 and USB 3 incarnations.

Most of the USB-C respins are the same story; identical analog hardware, same ADC/DAC and USB, and in practice you aren't going to fill up USB 3/TB3. Disappointing, but it leads to something else I learned over the past decade: this is the plateau for this gear, and it's actually pretty awesome. The next level is out of my price range (and desk space); it means separate mic pres (engineers I look up to see integrated preamps as an anti-pattern), separate components for the word clock, DAC(s)/ADC(s); extra DSP power and routing over ethernet, etc. The fancy internal routing options for direct monitoring advantage is negated when everything is discrete by necessity.

tldr; currently, except for the bus, my comparatively ancient 896HD's analog is the same or superior to the latest ~1000USD ~8in integrated interfaces. The USB C is nice for removing some cable clutter, but we aren't filling up TB3 (or TB4), or indeed USB 3.0. It's still awesome, though.

(Note for a related comment in this thread: while almost everything is using components that push UAC 2.0, in reality they all have "quirks" and bespoke routing and modes, necessitating drivers.)