Rodolfo Medina wrote: > .... I want to buy one of those multichannel > soundcards... Do you think this one could be all right...? > > > https://www.strumentimusicali.net/product_info.php/products_id/51790/behringer-umc404hd.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAuP7UBRDiARIsAFpxiRKgsptPW1qxkEw793ahs684ltlhyh5dcIgzLJXtDh39CZA8IEX3qgIaAnquEALw_wcB > > Rodolfo
I looked around a bit, and the UMC404HD seems to be 'class compliant' which means that the linux USB audio drivers can access the most important functions. Behringer is definitely on the low-cost end of things, but a lot of their hardware seems to be of decent quality. A useful feature of this card is hardware monitoring, so that you can listen to the audio during recording without a time lag. Now that you've described your application (recording piano, possibly with vocals) I think -- unless you're especially comfortable and patient with low-level commands such as ecasound provides -- you may like to run some kind of multitrack recorder or DAW application. This will let you adjust volume levels and add various plugins to the different tracks. It's also common to duplicate a mono signal to stereo and adjust the position right or left in a stereo mix (e.g. panning). Someone already mentioned Audacity, which is quite easy to use. More sophisticated software lets you apply effects in realtime, so it's easier to diddle with parameters. For professional quality with all possible features, there is Ardour. Another very well developed application is Qtractor. I'll also shamelessly mention a lightweight DAW called Nama that provides the most important functions for recording and mixing. It's an application layer driven by text commands, hotkeys and/or a simple GUI that runs Ecasound to provide the signal processing. The debianized version is slightly out of date, but you can at least get an idea of what it looks like. One of several unusual features is a preset system that lets you set plugin defaults, re-use chains of plugins, and create templates for groups of tracks or entire projects. I'm the biased author ;-) For hardware or software questions you cannot answer by reading the docs or doing a web search, I'll refer you to the many experts on the Linux Audio Users mailing list (LAU). cheers, -- Joel Roth