LinuxMusicians

I am seeking an audio interface for the Raspberry Pi Zero W.

While 24-32 bits preferred, 16 bits is OK though. Only a single stereo input is needed. (Linux compatible, of course.)

Any suggestions?

I've got an old R. Pi ver B+ which I like very, very much. Take it w/ me to friends who do not have a Media Center (using Kodi), use it as a classic gaming powerhouse (Retropie), etc. However, I could not get my external USB audio device (Behringer 404) to play nice with it. Must be some power issue. Jack stops working when I start audio software. Even though I use the supplied external power adapter for the audio device...

It does work w/ those worthless cheap usb audio thingies like this one though:


There are special audio addons for the Pi too. They can get pretty expensive and, of course, only work in combination w/ a Pi (i.e. cannot be used as a general audio device for any computer). Like this one but I don't think that's what you mean:


I'd really like to hear what you used in the end!

Thanks Linuxmusician01, but sadly I don't think either of those devices will work for me. The first USB stick won't work since I need stereo input, yet the microphone input is mono, not stereo.

The second one would be ideal, but it is audio output only, there isn't even a mono microphone input.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts.

Since I posted yesterday, I did find this device on Amazon:



It looks like a lot of soldering will be required, not the least of which is to solder on a GPIO header. and maybe even RCA female connectors:



It does claim to have a stereo input though: "...Stereo input and output, including a microhpone input (microphone supplied)..."

Besides the soldering needed to make this work, it looks like the documentation is atrocious. In the Amazon comments, I see that some people have gotten it to work and confirm it works on the Raspberry Pi Zero W, and yet there are others, including a long-time embedded engineer haven't:

[quote=Jordan]No support for this besides the forum, which is like listening to crickets chirp

March 28, 2019
Verified Purchase

It looks like a really nice board, and the price is right. I especially like the off board RCA jacks. However I while I am a Raspberry pi newbie, I do have some experience with software. I am also a professional embedded hardware engineer (26 years now), but still I was not able to make this work.

The software says it's set up, but it will not get recognized by the Pi. Flatmax did try to help me once to no avail. The setup guide is not easy to follow or understand, and the software from the website is not good.

Maybe someday the setup guide will not say things like "Download and install the attached deb file" with no other explanation. Maybe someday I'll be able to get this thing working. I wish I could rate this higher but as it is, it's just not ready for most people.[/quote]

So, I'm still looking. I don't need an internal solution like this audio injector above. That USB stick form factor is perfectly fine with me. But I definitely need a stereo input. A single mono microphone input won't do.

Let me know if you have any other ideas! Thanks!

Thanks Linuxmusician01, but sadly I don't think either of those devices will work for me. The first USB stick won't work since I need stereo input, yet the microphone input is mono, not stereo.

The second one would be ideal, but it is audio output only, there isn't even a mono microphone input.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts.

Since I posted yesterday, I did find this device on Amazon:



It looks like a lot of soldering will be required, not the least of which is to solder on a GPIO header. and maybe even RCA female connectors:



It does claim to have a stereo input though: "...Stereo input and output, including a microhpone input (microphone supplied)..."

Besides the soldering needed to make this work, it looks like the documentation is atrocious. In the Amazon comments, I see that some people have gotten it to work and confirm it works on the Raspberry Pi Zero W, and yet there are others, including a long-time embedded engineer haven't:

[quote=Jordan]No support for this besides the forum, which is like listening to crickets chirp

March 28, 2019
Verified Purchase

It looks like a really nice board, and the price is right. I especially like the off board RCA jacks. However I while I am a Raspberry pi newbie, I do have some experience with software. I am also a professional embedded hardware engineer (26 years now), but still I was not able to make this work.

The software says it's set up, but it will not get recognized by the Pi. Flatmax did try to help me once to no avail. The setup guide is not easy to follow or understand, and the software from the website is not good.

Maybe someday the setup guide will not say things like "Download and install the attached deb file" with no other explanation. Maybe someday I'll be able to get this thing working. I wish I could rate this higher but as it is, it's just not ready for most people.[/quote]

So, I'm still looking. I don't need an internal solution like this audio injector above. That USB stick form factor is perfectly fine with me. But I definitely need a stereo input. A single mono microphone input won't do.

Let me know if you have any other ideas! Thanks!

I have a raspberry pi 3B+, my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 works ok with it. Admittedly I haven't really done much with it, but I got Jack and Rakarrack working at 48kHz, 3 periods/buffer, 256 frames/period without xruns.

Michael Willis wrote:I have a raspberry pi 3B+, my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 works ok with it. Admittedly I haven't really done much with it, but I got Jack and Rakarrack working at 48kHz, 3 periods/buffer, 256 frames/period without xruns.

Do you use the official Raspberry Pi power supply?

I have used the larger version of the Audioinjector HAT with a Pi3. Super stable, introduces almost no latency of it's own and is stable with small buffer sizes, cheap. Sound quality and noise floor is just OK. I did not have to do any soldering, it's possible the pi Zero version can also be purchased already assembled. There is a forum here: http://www.flatmax.org/phpbb/index.php

I'm using a Behringer XR18 now. Latency is not as good but still totally stable and solid. Sounds better. As a standard compliant USB device it just worked out of the box.

My use case is some fairly demanding Pure Data patches with JACK, running headless with no monitor/computer keyboard/mouse. I do have a USB keyboard controller(M Audio Keystation), control surface (Behringer BCF 2000), and Xbox controller connected. The keyboard and xbox controller are powered by the USB bus, the mixer and control surface have their own power supplies. I have a heavier duty (3 amp) power supply.

Losing the video output is a big power saver in my experience.