# USB audio interface recomendation.



## protocelt (Mar 26, 2014)

I play guitar and like to record riffs here and there to incorporate into songs at some point in the future. I was using an internal M-Audio card for a couple years and it worked fine for non-professional recording on FreeBSD. It unfortunately died on me recently so I would like to replace it with a USB interface. I would assume most interfaces would be compatible with the USB audio driver for simple recording, but I really don't want to buy an interface to find it doesn't work so I'd like to know if anyone uses an interface for recording on FreeBSD in a similar fashion and what you use for the hardware. I'm not concerned with brand names as I already have a more or less complete studio setup using Windows  and decent recording hardware, but I use a fire-wire interface for that so it wont work with FreeBSD. I would rather not have to boot into Windows for something simple if I don't need to. Thanks ahead for your time/insight.


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## jjthomas (Mar 8, 2016)

Did you ever come up with FreeBSD suitable interface?  I'm using a ProSonus AudioBox 44VSL (USB).  Seems to work fine, but I can't seem to access the individual inputs and outputs.

Man page SND_UAUDIO(4)()
The PCM framework in FreeBSD currently doesn't support the full set of USB audio mixer controls.    Some mixer controls are only available as    _dev.pcm.%d.mixer_ sysctls.​
I'm not sure how that effects me.

`uname -a`

```
FreeBSD noisey.027esc.net 10.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 10.2-RELEASE #0 r286666: Wed Aug 12 15:26:37 UTC 2015 
root@releng1.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  amd64
```

relevant `dmesg`:

```
uaudio0: <AudioBox 44 VSL > on usbus1
uaudio0: Play: 96000 Hz, 4 ch, 32-bit S-LE PCM format, 2x8ms buffer.
uaudio0: Play: 88200 Hz, 4 ch, 32-bit S-LE PCM format, 2x8ms buffer.
uaudio0: Play: 48000 Hz, 4 ch, 32-bit S-LE PCM format, 2x8ms buffer.
uaudio0: Play: 44100 Hz, 4 ch, 32-bit S-LE PCM format, 2x8ms buffer.
uaudio0: Record: 96000 Hz, 4 ch, 32-bit S-LE PCM format, 2x8ms buffer.
uaudio0: Record: 88200 Hz, 4 ch, 32-bit S-LE PCM format, 2x8ms buffer.
uaudio0: Record: 48000 Hz, 4 ch, 32-bit S-LE PCM format, 2x8ms buffer.
uaudio0: Record: 44100 Hz, 4 ch, 32-bit S-LE PCM format, 2x8ms buffer.
uaudio0: MIDI sequencer.
```


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## protocelt (Mar 8, 2016)

Hi.

I haven't tried recording with an interface since making the original post so I'm really not sure what works or doesn't, sorry. Right now I use Windows for recording when I have the time. I do have a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6 USB 2.0 audio interface I am using for audio output on FreeBSD and it does work flawlessly for that.

Maybe try asking this on the freebsd-usb mailing list for a better/more thorough answer.


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## jjthomas (Mar 9, 2016)

Hello,

Pretty much the same here.  I'm trying to get to the point of using FreeBSD for simple projects.  But, I find when I get started on something more complicated, requiring more versatility, I boot into Windows.  Ardour (kinda) comes close to Sonar, but I have not been able to get it to compile under FreeBSD.  That will be a thread in another forum. 

Thank you.

-JJ


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## protocelt (Mar 9, 2016)

I've been meaning to try Ardour out but lack of recording inputs(right now) and Windows VST plugin support has prevented that so far. I have a lot of paid Windows VST plugins I use mainly in Cubase. I guess you can get Windows VST plugin support under Ardour using WINE though I'd rather not go that route.

As for having problems compiling Ardour, definitely start a new thread and I'll jump in and help if I can.


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