USB audio mixers

Tim ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au
Thu Nov 18 19:00:18 UTC 2010


Tim:
>> Given a decent mixer, and something that's compatible, it ought to be a
>> big improvement on my sound card for capturing analogue audio, and more
>> useful than getting another sound card.  But I've yet to see a device
>> saying it'll supports anything other than Windows or Mac.


Marcus D. Leech:
> I use one of these on my F12 system--works just fine but it's not
> full-duplex:
> 
> http://us.store.creative.com/Sound-Blaster-XFi-Surround-5.1/M/B0017QQQAE.htm
> 
> Which is fine for my 96KHz capture application.

Though, still "just" a sound card.  The advantages of using a real mixer
are many:

A sound card generally only has one or two inputs, and they only cope
with a narrow range of signal levels, impedances, unbalanced audio, and
have DC voltages on those shitty 3.5mm sockets.  Not to mention that the
technical specifications for the inputs and outputs are usually NOT
detailed anywhere.  Even outboard USB sound cards can still have noise
issues, since they're usually still powered by the PC.

A mixer usually has many inputs, that can be used simultaneously, or
separately (and only require setting up the once).  The inputs usually
can cope with a very wide range of signal levels, and can be adjusted to
suit, so you can put exactly the right signal level into the computer,
in the first place.  Have more sensible impedances, sometimes they're
selectable.  Support unbalanced and balanced audio, and have decent
connectors.  And you can connect decent microphones instead of those $5
computer crappies.

The hard part is finding out which mixers present themselves as a
standard USB audio device, so you can just plug it in and have it work.
Since nothing I've looked at, so far, gives any useful information, it's
down to (a) asking if anybody's got experience, or (b) lugging a laptop
into a music store that's prepared to risk letting me test it.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
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