Current status of soundcards and usb interfaces

Building Zynthian
1

I am looking to put together a diy Zynthian using stuff I already own but just need a soundcard and possibly a touch screen for my Raspberry Pi 4. I’ve been reading info on wiki as well as this forum but it seems lots of info might be outdated.

For example this page mentions USB interfaces have latency issues:
https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Unofficial_hardware

but this page mentions some should work out of the box:
https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Zynthian_Hardware

I am considering using a USB Interface over a Pi Hat because it can serve more functions, have externally controlled gain, etc., support midi in and out, and can be repurposed for other uses and projects. If they lack in some ways though I might be more inclined to go with a hat.

My questions before I start buying stuff:

  1. Have USB interfaces improved or do they still have latency issues?

  2. With USB Interfaces such as the Steinberg UR22MK2, do the audio in, audio out, midi in, and midi out ports all work within Zynthian?

  3. Has anyone tested the Steinberg UR22C model? I only see reference to the MK2 but the C has several improvements.

Thanks for any input.

2

It’s considerably improved. But you get overhead. if it’s really important to you then an audio card is probably a better bet. Depends obviously on what you are trying to achieve. But you can pick up a USB input output ( Behringer 202?) for not much and with the introduction of the USB hotplug feature you could use this with an audio card if you got one later.

If they don’t it will get fixed pretty quickly by somebody round here, but as with any endevour of this sort it needs somebody with the box to champion the connection.
If you can be that person so much the better.

If the device adheres to modern best practice, then once connected, it will probably just work…

Not played with one myself.

3

My rc505 MK2 appears to use a pretty recent Steinberg chip with 8 channels… It works very well on zynthian… I think it would work just fine

4

My current advise for buying a USB soundcard is to consider the Tascam US-16x08 which provides 16 audio inputs and 8 audio outputs. Each input has DSP that provides compression and 4-band equalisation without loading the CPU.

5

Thanks everyone, picked up a brand new in box but “used” Behringer UMC202HD on FB marketplace. Noticed there wasn’t an option for this device specifically in the webconf settings but there was one for the 4 channel version which seems to work so far (at least for audio out). Still need to test audio in and the MIDI.

I will mess around with this connected to a computer monitor, mouse, and keyboard before deciding if I want a screen and physical controls. But who am I kidding, I am going to want a screen and controls…

6

Any special configuration needed for the rc 505 mk2? I wanna try mine on it tomorrow.

7

I had to specify its asound name but thats about it, I can check it out for you if you dont know how…

The 505 mk2 is a trip you’ll love it, best thing about it is that it has an audio interface, most disappointing thing about it is all your inputs are always loopable, you can’t really just make one mic a straight through