[Ardour-Users] USB C Guitar Interface Recommendations?

[Martin Lynch]

Firstly, sincere thanks for all the excellent replies, and for helping
clarify my thinking on the USB-C form factor versus the USB protocol itself
- great stuff, and much appreciated! I looked into USB interfaces a great
many years ago, and seem to recall determining they weren't sufficient at
that time. I'm hoping that's changed (and it sounds like it has).

I didn't do a good job of explaining what I'm hoping to accomplish: I've
been using Ardour for nearly a decade now via my M-Audio FireWire Solo,
often directly recording guitars, but also mic-ing cabs, recording vocals,
etc. I'd like to try using Ardour on my Pixelbook, and while there are
various hacks to get Linux on a Pixelbook (like Crouton), I'm awaiting the
official release (Crostini - coming with Chrome OS v69 in a couple of
weeks, as I understand it). Since the Pixelbook doesn't have a FireWire
port (and FireWire --> USB doesn't seem to be a thing), I need an audio
interface. The Pixelbook only has USB-C, so that's where my search began -
with the plug. My latency on my Linux box as reported by JACK in settings
is 2.7ms, which is great, and very important when playing guitar against a
recorded track while hearing a bit of the live amp (typically a Marshall
that's way, way too loud...in a good way!). I'm hoping to avoid any major
latency increases (while guessing that the containers used by Crostini may
themselves introduce latency - this may yet prove to be a failed
experiment).

Also hoping to get feedback on good USB interfaces in terms of the DAC
(appreciate the feedback on the RME HDSPe AIO, Ralf, but looks to me like
that's a PCI card, which won't work with a Pixelbook - or am I looking at
the wrong model?).

>...while Linux apps are running on the Pixelbook in Chrome OS via
crostini, sound support does not exist for them as of yet

Thanks - I wasn't aware that Crostini lacks sound support thus far - I see
from the Chromium bug report that it's scheduled for V70, so looks like
I'll have to wait a bit longer (which gives me some more time to research
interfaces and decide if this is a good idea!).

>Perhaps a pixelbook _is_ like a "real" laptop.

Yes, it is: Intel Kaby Lake i5, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD all inside a pretty
amazing package. It's not a $200 Chromebook incapable of doing anything
else - it's a full-on laptop, with perhaps the best keyboard I've ever
used. I'll stop gushing here...

>Not really much benefit from 3 vs 2.

Good to know - thank you.

Interesting discussion re: power supply - I'm hoping not to require one and
am guessing (read: hoping) the Pixelbook has enough juice - I currently
power a secondary monitor via a USB-C connection only.

Thanks again for all the feedback and discussion - as always, learning tons
from this mailing list.

Kindest regards,

Martin


On Wed, 22 Aug 2018 at 15:09, Paul Davis <paul at linuxaudiosystems.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 2:55 PM, Martin Lynch <
> martin.lynch.toronto at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Wondering if anyone is using, and can recommend, a USB C guitar
>> interface?
>>
>> I presently use an M-Audio FireWire Solo, however with Linux soon coming
>> to my Pixelbook (which has 2 USB C ports only), I thought I'd try running
>> Ardour on that. Is USB C sufficient for guitar recording with minimal
>> latency? Or is this a bad idea?
>>
>
> You should avoid device-specific interfaces wherever possible. Just get a
> regular USB based audio interface, and add whatever electronics you need
> between your guitar and its input ports.
>
> Most USB interfaces these days Just Work on Linux, thanks to the
> requirement that they also Just Work on iPads, where manufacturers cannot
> provide device drivers but must rely (as effectively they do on Linux) on
> the common USB audio driver that comes with the system.
>
>
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