My first post: I’m very happy i got me a Zynthian, and very impressed with the work put up by developers. I have read many threads on the forum and played a lot with the machine.
Case: I would like (as probably several others) to have more inputs available. I tried my Tascam US-16x08, but for some reason it is noisy (and if i remember correctly - has always been). So any recommendations for something close to 4x4 USB soundcard that woks well with Zynthian (hopefully running stable Oram) and have balanced ins and outs would be highly appreciated?
Additional fumblings:
I will probably be working with midi-keyboard, piano (mic) straight to the soundcard and vocal (mic) and bass through a Boss 505 and then to the Soundcard the Zynthian. I’ve made the following schematics of some kind of setup, maybe this is readable. I do not posess a great knowledge about power and noise, but i find that if i’m careful routing my cables and use balanced cables wherever there is balanced ins/outs i get decent results - hence the routing on the drawing. Any thoughts on this use/setup is welcome!
In time i hope to use SooperLooper and ditch the 505, but i’m not ready for that (and i feel that maybe that’s the case for SooperLooper as well - but i’m ready to take all the blame)
EDIT: powerlines are red 220V, orange 9-18V, purple lines are Data-signal, and green lines Audio
The warmest of welcomes to the gang, @core.east. This is the place to be, where all the cool kids hang out… and @wyleu!
I do hope there is a PSU between your 220V and your zynthian!!!
I am interested and a little worried about your experience with the Tascam. Santa is bringing one to me this Christmas which I had an opportunity to test before she wrapped it and put it under the tree. I didn’t find it excessively noisy - no worse than the Behringer UMC1820 that I have. What kind of noise do you experience in what part of the chain?
FYI, the Tascam 16x08 will be fully integrated into zynthian mainstream very soon (after I get it in my hands) including full control of the DSP (eq & compressor on every input) so you may wish to revisit your existing hardware to examine whether there is a resolveable cause of your noise.
Focusrite make very good devices at a fair price. I do not own one but have heard good recommendations from professionals that I trust in the audio and education sectors.
Motu are usually a safe bet and if you have the cash, RME are excellent. We have also used Yellowtec at the UK broadcaster I worked for. These were for the less important installations but still part of the production chain, i.e. not just for monitoring.
@riban Thx for the suggestions. Its noisy even without being connected, so no fault on tne Zynthian there. I would like to find out why of course. Maybe i gave it to little amp when i tried. I had only 900mA, and it wants 1A (says the manual). I’m going out to ski, but i will try and follow up with maybe a recording of the noise?
hmm… I guess it is about time to make the i2s and i2c connections to the soundcard isolated, as well as the power supply.
I’m working on a soundcard with 8i 8o with these features. Schematic and board are finished, now it is time to make PCB and bake on some chicken feed. … ok, plus a square saucer…
I’m ignorant to whatever i2s and i2c’s are, but after a google i understand maybe 4%
But my noise issue with the Tascam is unrelated to Zynthian anyway. I actually experience extremely satisfiyng low noise levels when using the internal ADAC (if thats what it is called).
I will have two invest more time with my Tascam us16x08 and hopefully for @riban my issues are not common for the Tascam. @fussl Well if you are close to the finishline with your soundcard and it is not to demanding to build one i could easily see myself trying that. If parts are obtainable from somewhere…
But if i choose/need to go shopping - which i both really like and dislike - i will follow recommendations from Riban or other recomendations if they are coming!
I have had my 16x08 for a few years now, and it has been used to record podcasts, interviews, and even audio commentary for a commercial DVD/BD release. For sure I haven’t heard any noise problems with it, even using high sensitivity condenser mics such as the AKG C3000, Røde NT, and AT4040. I highly recommend it.
I thought you might do this when you first mentioned what Santa was bringing you, I like your choice of hardware.
It gives me a good idea for my stage setup, the possibility to remote control my IEM for my Behringer XR18 via Zynthian, IPhone remote is not 100% reliable, I will watch your development with great interest.
@riban I think i saw that you had a branch that was named something with Tascam us16x08, is that the 1259_us16x08 under Zynthian-ui in webconf? Is that the one i should use when experimenting with my Tascam?
The following is not really a question or anything more than just a note on where things are right now with my Tascam us-16x08 and Zynthian:
Right now i cant make it work. I have tried both the “generic usb device” and “costum device” (in the soundcard choise dialog) but i get the ERROR Audio/Media screen (webconf working) when booting. Two days ago (before my crash and fresh install*) i had it working on “Custom Device”.
I have very low noise on the tascam without the USB connected to the Zynthian, but considerable noise level when connected (though not working). But after a reroute of the USB cable the noise level is the same very axeptable low as when not physically connected. I did not think USB cables where sensitive like that, but it seems so.
i tried the feature/Hotplug_audio. Booting to error, webconf NOT working. Therefore the fresh install
So it sounds like you have found a way to use the US-16x08 without excessive noise. That is good news.
That branch is where my 16x08 goodness lies. I can’t remember if I have later changes. I will check tomorrow. I will also merge latest vangelis into the dev branch but I am not doing anything with it until I have the device in my hands… After 25th December.
Great. Maybe your Santa deal will have ripples that will make a merry christmas at my place too
I do not fully understand the implications of “merge latest vangelis into the dev branch”, but i think that tomorrow i should choose the Vangelis version in Repositories and then i will find the 1259_us16x08 under zynthian_ui?
No - the opposite. I need to ensure that all the recent changes in the main testing branch (vangelis) are merged into my development branch (1259_us16x08). This should mean that the dev branch will work like vangelis but with the additional tascam goodness. This is now done. You could try using this dev branch which should work but without an actual soundcard, I won’t be doing any more work on it until Christmas. You could wait until this gets merged into vangelis which may happen over the festive season.
I am glad that this will help others. I had hoped it would. I see a big box under our tree so anticipate a fun Christmas day.
I choose Custom repositories and then the 1259_us16x08 in both zynthian_ui and webconf
And now i’m booting to Error Software.
I’m not really in a hurry, there is snow outside and i have plans for that
What i would do later today maybe, since i do not have webconf working, is to make another fresh install, and maybe then try to be patient and await the holy christmas and see what it brings.
I really appreciate the responses and the efficiency here in this community, but there is no hurry. I’m fine using the IO’s on the machine for now
I just merged the Tascam US-16x08 branch into vangelis so anyone with this soundcard can now use the testing (vangelis) branch. I will delete the 1259_us16x08 branches from github soon because we now have full integration of this USB audio device with control of its compressors and eq all in the Audio Levels screen. Each control may be MIDI mapped, etc.
We could use the LV2 plugin that allows the DSP to be controlled from a processor in the chain but, although this may seem logical I think it may be suboptimal.
