[PlanetCCRMA] laptop audio interface suggestions

[Lamar Owen]

On Saturday 30 January 2010 12:17:36 pm francis keyes wrote:
>  I need something that can record 4 balanced,
>  analog inputs at 24 bits, 96kHz.  I had my eye on the M-Audio Fast Track
>  Ultra but apparently it doesn't work with Linux. (are there any USB 2.0
>  audio interfaces that do work?).  Anyways, any suggestions would be very
>  much appreciated.

I know it's not exactly what you're after, since it's 48k/24bits only, but 
I've had good results with my Tascam US-428, once I got all the driver and 
firmware issues sorted out and got the hotplug scripts working.

Another one, although it's only 2 active analog inputs, but can do 24/96 is 
the US-144, but there are some hoops you have to jump through to get it 
working.

I was able to get everything you might want using an M-Audio Delta 1010LT in 
my laptop's docking station (half-length PCI card slot in the dock).  But 
there I ran into problems with IRQ sharing between the dock's PCI slot and the 
laptop's built-in nVidia video; I simply was not able to get the Delta off of 
the same IRQ that the nVidia card used, and that caused audible artifacts when 
an ALSA xrun occurred.  Haven't tried it recently, since I've been using OS X 
and Mixbus with the US-428 and US-144 to overdub and mix.

If you have a PCMCIA/Cardbus slot, look into an older Echo Layla24, for which 
a PCMCIA/Cardbus card was available.  The Layla20 and Layla24 are well-
supported in Linux.