[LAU] External USB 2 HD for real-time recording

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sat, 2013-03-09 at 10:32 -0800, Len Ovens wrote:
> On Sat, March 9, 2013 9:46 am, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> 
> > I only want to be able to play at least a stereo track (a temporary mix
> > of a production with much more tracks) and to record some tracks with
> > microphones for drums. Perhaps it's needed to use a mixer and to record
> > a stereo mix, I guess onboard surround devices can't record more than
> > stereo, especially in duplex mode.
> 
> The HDA standard (in as much as there is such a thing) is stereo in at
> 16bits, though some have 20bit. The 20 bits seems to be a waste of time
> as, in my experience, the s/n on even the line inputs is something like an
> old cassette recorder. On my desktop it is not even uniform from one
> channel to the other :P  I have my internal audio disabled in bios. I also
> have an old ensoniq 1370 which is much quieter than any internal audio I
> have heard. The ART dualUSBpre would be a better bet (or something
> similar)... it does have the USB problems but it is USB1.1 so bandwidth is
> low and for recording you may get away with quite a high latency anyway.
> It is very small to carry and USB powered. (remembering you also mentioned
> a mixer :) )
> 
> Outputs are mostly 24bit though and normally reasonable quality
> amplification.

Thank you :)

I disable onboard audio too, but I don't have the money for an USB
device yet. Analog mixers are still common here ;).

Regarding to the spin down issue I'm running

[rocketmouse at archlinux ~]$ cat /usr/local/sbin/no-spind
#!/bin/sh
# /usr/local/sbin/no-spind
count=0
echo 0 >/run/media/rocketmouse/u1.1tmp/.no-spind.counter
while lsusb -d 1058: >/dev/null; do
  sleep 300; ((count++))
  echo $count >/run/media/rocketmouse/u1.1tmp/.no-spind.counter
done
exit

at the moment. This is just a makeshift, since I need to manually mount
the partition and I need to start the scrip manually, each time USB was
disconnected.

Regards,
Ralf