USB mic/line-in on KDE Mint 17.3 "Rosa": how best to achieve that?
Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 6:49 pm
Hello all,
Laptops previously owned were once equipped with analogue holes: one headphones output and one mic/line input, next to each other. So if I wanted to record, say, a guitar in Audacity, I'd plug the guitar lead into my preamp and the preamp plug into my laptop's mic/line input. Done! But the current generation of laptops just carries one single headphone socket, plus up to 4 USB ports. No problem at all for my electric piano and 88 key MIDI controller. But playing and recording any of my electric string instruments via a USB port (preferably on Audacity) most definitely is, at the mo.
My equipment, at present:
- OS: Linux Mint 17.03 "Rosa", on a Lenovo G585 laptop (with SD card slot integrated);
- Audacity 2.0.5, on the same;
- A Zoom R16, almost exclusively in use as pre-amp;
- 3 electric string instruments, not necessarily all guitars.
As to Audacity: I experimented with LMMS and Ardour as well, but these were never really much to my liking.
Peripherals:
- Behringer UCG102 Guitar Link;
- Guitar Link (looks a bit like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-G ... =sr_1_4?ie)
- A standard XLR microphone.
As to UCG102: "Rosa" recognises it, but that's all can say. I have no idea how to make it work in Audacity.
As to Guitar Link: not sure it'll work at all, in Linux. I bought it on a whim, long ago.
If you have succeeded, somehow, in playing/recording electric guitar in KDE Mint "Rosa", with the Behringer Guitar Link, or with the other, guitar-lead-shaped one, I hope you will be so kind to explain to me how exactly you did it.
Furthermore, I used to have a USB audio adapter, but all it ever sent to my headphones was awful screeching. Unfortunately, I can't check what the brand is, since it disappeared, one day.
But I found this on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/External-Dev ... one-Plug-N
Anyone familiar with it? And if yes, would its microphone input accept electric guitars and standard XLR microphones, do you think?
Finally, what also came to my mind, as a possible solution, is a small USB mixer. However, what rather confuses me is the USB bit, actually.
I have been told that USB just powers the machine. Yet if I were to connect a microphone or an electric guitar to that mixer, I'd actually expect USB to convert analogue signal, from guitar or microphone, to digital data first. And then back again to audio Audacity is able to "read".
In the meanwhile, all I'm wishing for is some simple, straightforward connection between microphone/guitar & laptop USB port on the one hand, and between laptop USB port and Audacity on the other.
Veerstryngh Thynner
Laptops previously owned were once equipped with analogue holes: one headphones output and one mic/line input, next to each other. So if I wanted to record, say, a guitar in Audacity, I'd plug the guitar lead into my preamp and the preamp plug into my laptop's mic/line input. Done! But the current generation of laptops just carries one single headphone socket, plus up to 4 USB ports. No problem at all for my electric piano and 88 key MIDI controller. But playing and recording any of my electric string instruments via a USB port (preferably on Audacity) most definitely is, at the mo.
My equipment, at present:
- OS: Linux Mint 17.03 "Rosa", on a Lenovo G585 laptop (with SD card slot integrated);
- Audacity 2.0.5, on the same;
- A Zoom R16, almost exclusively in use as pre-amp;
- 3 electric string instruments, not necessarily all guitars.
As to Audacity: I experimented with LMMS and Ardour as well, but these were never really much to my liking.
Peripherals:
- Behringer UCG102 Guitar Link;
- Guitar Link (looks a bit like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-G ... =sr_1_4?ie)
- A standard XLR microphone.
As to UCG102: "Rosa" recognises it, but that's all can say. I have no idea how to make it work in Audacity.
As to Guitar Link: not sure it'll work at all, in Linux. I bought it on a whim, long ago.
If you have succeeded, somehow, in playing/recording electric guitar in KDE Mint "Rosa", with the Behringer Guitar Link, or with the other, guitar-lead-shaped one, I hope you will be so kind to explain to me how exactly you did it.
Furthermore, I used to have a USB audio adapter, but all it ever sent to my headphones was awful screeching. Unfortunately, I can't check what the brand is, since it disappeared, one day.
But I found this on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/External-Dev ... one-Plug-N
Anyone familiar with it? And if yes, would its microphone input accept electric guitars and standard XLR microphones, do you think?
Finally, what also came to my mind, as a possible solution, is a small USB mixer. However, what rather confuses me is the USB bit, actually.
I have been told that USB just powers the machine. Yet if I were to connect a microphone or an electric guitar to that mixer, I'd actually expect USB to convert analogue signal, from guitar or microphone, to digital data first. And then back again to audio Audacity is able to "read".
In the meanwhile, all I'm wishing for is some simple, straightforward connection between microphone/guitar & laptop USB port on the one hand, and between laptop USB port and Audacity on the other.
Veerstryngh Thynner