Current Audio Gear - Linux Support State

This page is meant to give a quick, user-friendly overview of current pro and semi-pro audio interfaces.

It should reflect the linux driver support state of the ALSA and FFADO projects with a recent >= 2.6.39 stable kernel.

Product Page - Behringer

• Supported (USB1.1 audio class compliant device)

• Featurelist

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Product Page - Yamaha

• Audio-out works, audio in not tested, USB version unknown

• http://usa.yamaha.com/products/music-production/interfaces/audiogram/audiogram3/?mode=model

• Product Page - NI

• supported
• (source: NI - Linux Hardware and ALSA - Vendor Matrix : NI )

• Show Setup Image

• todo

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• Product Page - UsbPre2

• Supported in usb 1.1 mode at 48kHz, 2 channels
• Any news about USB-audio-2.0 mode ??

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• Product Page - Focusrite

• unknown
  • contacted Focusrite, they say it's class-compliant and should work. untested thus far.
    (comment: emrum) “class-compliant” ?? to what exactly ? usb1.0 usb2.0 (see above)? does it work completely or partly only ?
  • Contacted Focusrite: “Our Scarlett USB 2.0 interfaces can work as class compliant devices so it should be possible to use them on Linux using a USB audio class driver.” also: “Unfortunately there are no plans for us to develop dedicated Linux drivers but we are usually able to offer some help to developers that would like to develop drivers if they get in touch. This has been done in the past for our FireWire interfaces by FFADO - we helped make it possible for the drivers to be developed.”
  • I've 8i6 and doesn't work on linux (kernel 3.0.0-14). Visible in lsusb as ID 1235:8002 Novation EMS but not in aplay -l.

• Show Setup Image

• 18 In, 6 OUT Channels
• 6 Analog 1/4“ TRS Inputs
• 2 Analog XLR/TRS Inputs
• 1 ADAT Input
• SPDIF I/O
• 2 Analog 1/4” TRS Outputs
• 1 Headphone Stereo 1/4“ Output
• MIDI I/O
• 24-bit/96 kHz
• DSP Mixer/Router Zero-Latency

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Product Page - M-Audio

• Basic support as of ALSA 1.0.23, improved support as of ALSA 1.0.24

• simultaneous 8 x 8 24-bit/96kHz audio
• DSP technology > flexible channel routing, monitor sub-mixing and effects processing
• 4 preamps

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Product Page - Focusrite

• Supported.

• Key features
• Specifications

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Product Page - Focusrite

• Supported, except for the DSP part.

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Product Page - Motu

• unknown

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Product Page - Roland

• doesn't work; (not yet); recognized in lsusb; does't work yet with WineAsio; works in Virtualbox (Win XP + Asio4all);

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Product Page - Roland

• unknown

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Product Page - Presonus

• unknown

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Product Page - M-Audio

• Works with FFADO using the old stack, full feature support except ffado mixer.

• 2 XLR/TRS Octane Preamped Inputs with Phantom Power Switch
• 2 Analog TRS Inputs
• 8 Analog TRS Outputs
• MIDI I/O
• SPDIF I/O
• 2 Headphone Stereo Outputs
• Works as Standalone device as A/D - D/A Spdif Converter

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Product Page - tc electronic

• unknown

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Product Page - Cakewalk (=Edirol, =Roloand)

• Supported as of ALSA 1.0.22

• after a couple hours of use the USB led on the front goes off and stops working. Works again after switching off-on.
• driver developer thinks its hardware/firmware

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Product Page - Cakewalk (=Edirol, =Roloand)

• full support by FFADO project

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Product Page - Cakewalk (=Edirol, =Roloand)

• supported by ALSA

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Product Page - Echo Audio - AudioFire4

• full support by ffado project ( http://www.ffado.org/?q=node/69 )

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Product Page - LexiconPro

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Product Page - LexiconPro

• Supported

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Product Page - Tascam

• not yet supported -

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Product Page - Tascam

CAN BE MADE TO WORK! At least with Ardour, ALSA, and JackAudio. I haven't tested in PulseAudio because I disabled that for other reasons. Here are the steps:

• Plug into an OSX machine, and use the included software (you don't have to install it and there are no drivers) to reset the device to factory. You can also do this on a Windows machine, but that involves installing drivers, so borrow a Macbook or something.
• Even after that, plugging it in will crash many variants of the 2.6 kernel. This is a kernel interrupt-handler bug. HOWEVER! You can upgrade Linux kernels without upgrading the entire GNU/Linux OS. Directions for Ubuntu are here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds Upgrade to version 3.1.5-generic, and restart the machine.
• Plug the US-800 into an open USB port. There will be MANY complaints in syslog. That's… marginally okay. Better than crashing, anyway. We'll fix it below.
• Launch JackAudio. Go into settings panel, create a new config, based on current actual configuration. THE RESULT WILL BE WRONG, but we'll fix it.
• On the lower right there will be dropdowns for numbers of inputs and outputs. It will probably default to either 2/2 or automatic/automatic. This is wrong. Set those manually to 8/2.
• Save those changes, then stop and restart JackAudio. This is ALSO important because I think we're working around an ALSA device scanner bug where it gets the numbers of inputs wrong. (Or the hardware is buggy and Windows and OSX patch around it. One of those.)
• Go back into settings, and on the lower right, near the number-of-inputs selectors, there will be device selectors for both input and output. Do NOT pick plughw, even tho' that should totally work. Click on the little down wedge icon that brings up the physical device names, and select “us800” for both inputs and outputs.
• Save changes, stop and restart JACK server. You should now have at least all six analogue inputs, and both outputs, at least in things that talk to JackAudio. I can't validate the digital inputs because I lack the hardware.

I tested mostly with 44.1khz but in testing other bitrates worked fine too! I can't get other 24-bit to work, though. But that's ok for me, I record at 16 bit.

• Claims to be a USB Audio 2.0 compliant device; locks Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lyyx) 2.6.32-35-generic shortly after plug-in. Survival time is longer in text console than in GUI. End up with BUG: soft lockup - CPU #0 stuck for 61s! [khubd:29] errors, and then lots of tasks are blocked for 2+ minutes (like kjournald and upowerd and rsyslogd and and and).
• Appears related to this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/576496 but the noacpi workaround DOES NOT WORK. :(
• Also seen here: http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1631488.html

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Product Page - Alesis io26

• unknown

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Product Page - Alesis io14

• state in September 2011:
• this works: playback, recording
• this does NOT work: direct hardware monitoring, mixer (=hardware-volume-control)
• source: ffado - io14
• some technical docu: http://subversion.ffado.org/wiki/Alesis

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Product Page - Alesis io2 Express

• WORKS completely! Tested under Linux Mint 12.

Note: The discontinued io2 (not express) had a different casing and offered digital audio out, but is probably otherwise identical and should work just as well.

• in/out MIDI connections
• 2-channel in / 2-channel out, 24-bit 48kHz audio
• hardware monitoring with full mix between direct signal or processed output
• switchable phantom power
• XLR Mic pres, Hi-Z instrument inputs, and inserts on each channel
• USB Bus Powered

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Product Page - Alesis io14

• WORKS completely: Tested under Ubuntu 9.04 on an eeePC using ALSA, Jack and Ardour. Also on Linux Mint KDE 12 with KXStudio.

Note: Audio seems to run only at 44.1kHz, not 48kHz. The io4 is essentially identical to the io2 express (above) but with two additional channels for 4-channel operation in 16-bit mode, and unlike the io2, the io4 is not bus powered.

• in/out MIDI connections
• 24-bit for 2-channel in and 2-channel out, 16-bit for four channel in and four channel out
• hardware monitoring with full mix between direct signal or processed output
• phantom power switchable for channels 1/2 and channels 3/4
• XLR, Hi-Z instrument inputs, and inserts on all four channels

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Product Page - Alesis

• Don't work at all with Ubuntu 11.10 Kernel 3.0.0-15-generic and Alesis Multimix 8 USB 2.0 FX - Ver1.0
• Only 2 channel in and 2 channel out with jack with Ubuntu 12.04 (mode USB 1.0)

Listed on lsusb (Ubuntu 12.04)

Bus 001 Device 007: ID 08bb:29b0 Texas Instruments Japan PCM2900B Audio CODEC

with aplay -l

carte 1: CODEC [USB Audio CODEC], périphérique 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Sous-périphériques: 1/1
  Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0

with cat /proc/asound/cards

 0 [....
 1 [CODEC          ]: USB-Audio - USB Audio CODEC
                      Burr-Brown from TI USB Audio CODEC at usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.1.4, full speed

Listed on lsusb (Ubuntu 11.10) without any info:

$ lsusb
  Bus 001 Device 005: ID 13b2:0030

Not listed on asound/cards

After upgrading USB IDS, it's recognized on the system (with name), but alsa snd-usb-audio don't take it

$ sudo update-usbids
$ lsusb -v
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 13b2:0030 Alesis Multimix 8
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x13b2 Alesis
  idProduct          0x0030 Multimix 8
  bcdDevice            1.00
  iManufacturer           1 Alesis
  iProduct                2 Alesis USB Audio Device
  iSerial                 3 no serial number
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength           66
    bNumInterfaces          2
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0x40
      (Missing must-be-set bit!)
      Self Powered
    MaxPower                0mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           0
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              0 
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       1
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              0 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x02  EP 2 OUT
        bmAttributes            5
          Transfer Type            Isochronous
          Synch Type               Asynchronous
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x009c  1x 156 bytes
        bInterval               1
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        1
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           0
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              0 
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        1
      bAlternateSetting       1
      bNumEndpoints           2
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              0 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            5
          Transfer Type            Isochronous
          Synch Type               Asynchronous
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               4
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x86  EP 6 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               1
 Device Qualifier (for other device speed):
  bLength                10
  bDescriptorType         6
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  bNumConfigurations      1
 Device Status:     0x0001
  Self Powered

$ dmesg
 [ 2207.960140] usb 2-2: new high speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd

Note: I've have an IntegratedMB and a IntegratedVGA-HDMI soundcards

& cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xfe024000 irq 16
 1 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
                      HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfdffc000 irq 19

$ cat /proc/asound/modules 
 0 snd_hda_intel
 1 snd_hda_intel

Even if i force loading snd-usb-audio, it's not listed on asound

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Product Page - Avid

• unknown

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Product Page - Echo Audio

• Supported

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Product Page - Focusrite

• Supported

• Key features
• Specifications

• ABC-PCB - Edel USB-to-I2S/SPDIF interface
• ExaDevices ExaU2I
• XMOS UsbAudio2mc

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• USB Audio-Device-Class 1.0 and 2.0 - Specification at usb.org
• USB MIDI-Device-Class 1.0 - Specification at usb.org

• Linux FFADO Documentation Page
• FireWire (IEEE-1394) Reference Platform 2.0 by apple.com
• IEEE-1394-2008-Standard Working Group at ieee.org
• FireWire Reference Tutorial and Design Guide at 1394ta.org
• Audio and Music Data Transmission Protocol 2.2 Rev1.0 (doc:2009013) at 1394ta.org

• FFADO - for FireWire Devices (IEEE-1394)
• ALSA - for PCI,ISA,USB-1,USB-2,USB-3(?) devices
• OSS - driver system (open sound system) by 4front technologies

• This page could also indicate, if a firmware is required for a device, if so.

This section lists hardware companies , which are known to either offer free, libre, open-source drivers for their hardware, OR provide enough information and specification for a developer to implement full device support .
Please add hardware companies - you know about - supporting FLOSS. Thank you.

• Focusrite.com - according to some web-messages, focusrite offers specification to FLOSS-developers willing to implement drivers
• EchoAudio.com