Tue Jun 30, 2020 3:02 pm
A few years later, and I may, thanks to lockdown, have some more time to play with the notion of sound production on Pi model B, which could be any of the 2/3/4 generation, all of which I have used for in-the-box mixing/mastering (using Ardour, of course!) though not recording, or (due to lack of any decent multi-channel audio interface that will work with a Pi) mixing with one of my nice old modular analog consoles.
Why would I want to do this?
Because the Pi is cheap, energy-efficient, and thus environmentally friendly, and silent. It's also not too bad in the RFI/EMC department, and just dandy in a nice metal case-come-heatsink, which keeps it good and running at consistent clock rate , which is important for sound production! (Monster heatsinks are your friend!)
I have managed to mix 8tk at 24/96, 16tk at 24/48, and 24tk
In so many ways the Pi is a great machine, but there are some gotchas so...
Why not to do this?
Well, i don't know if these problems are surmountable or not, but, yhe USB sound drivers for the most common cheap-but-reasonable USB interfaces (Line6 Toneport/Pod type things) don't seem to be included in the pre-built kernels for some reason. And when I say "some reason" I mean perhaps a "good reason", i.e. that there is some problem with running certain types of USB device with a Pi. Who would I ask who might know why, for example, I can't just plug and go with a Toneport UX2, Toneport UX8, Guitarport, Pod, PodXTLive, PodX3, PodX3Pro (all of which I have kicking around...) or any other Line6 device?
I have rolled kernels with these devices enabled, but with limited success. Playback works most of the time, with the occasionally mysterious complete system freeze. Recording (Obviously just as a simple USB audio interface, and without any modelling software for the 'port series) is just a no-go though.
*It is as though* the SOC (or it's "BLOB") just switches off some fairly short time after recording is started. it doesn't power down, just doesn't do anything. Is this a bug or a feature? How can I find out? (Oh, I get a similar thing with a cheap as Technika USB webcam btw.. which works fine with the x86 boxes I've plugged it into, but not any of the Pis, for Some Reason..)
I have all this stuff (except the driver for UX8, which is one of the too-many projects I have on) working on other Debian intel/AMD, both 32 and 64 bit based platforms, PCs and Laptops, with "almost no" problems, (and those depending on the specific hardware of the PC/laptop, with the latter usually giving a few more problems.) but many problems with the Pi, which is a shame, as I far prefer, for power consumption(green)/
TCO/noise level reasons, to use a Pi for most things these days. I think everything except sound production and CAD now.
So, who is the Pi USB hardware/blob expert? Shall we fix this??
First identify the problem, then try to find a way to solve it. Anyone?