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I'm looking for an audio interface with about 8 inputs that serves as a mixer as well, so I could record several channels and play them back to a PA at the same time. An example would be the Behringer Xenix 802, although I'm not fixed on any particular number of inputs.

I would like to use it under Linux, on a Gentoo. I asked Behringer in an eMail and received the response "Officially none of the Behringer audio devices are supported under linux." So, which of them are supported unofficially, maybe with a community-contributed driver?

Or, more generally, what mixer audio interfaces work well under Linux? In other words, for which interfaces exist good drivers? It should run stable (hours without crashes or XRUNS) on a low latency (at most 64 samples) under JACK.

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  • I think the problem would more be if your software supports the hardware, not that the hardware supports the operating system. What software are you using? +1
    – Ben Franchuk
    Dec 4, 2013 at 21:13
  • @Ben, it is a question of ALSA kernel drivers, I assume. If there is a good driver, it doesn't really matter what software I use to access the device. Regardless, I'm using JACK.
    – Turion
    Dec 5, 2013 at 12:39
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    I'm very sorry and ashamed not to be able to give an answer on this. While I try very much to steer towards free software (or at least "liberal" like Reaper or Pianoteq), audio keeps forcing me back to running at least a Windows kernel. Because, for a sad fact, most interfaces I work with just don't run at all on Linux, even if someone coded up an ALSA driver at some point. The one interface I have succesfully got to work with JACK is my M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R. Which is out of production... — I suppose what we'd really need is some e.g. Arduino-based open-source–hardware project.
    – leftaroundabout
    Dec 6, 2013 at 0:30
  • The interface you mention seems to be hard to get, but maybe someone has made experiences with a successor? The open-source hardware project sounds like a great idea in principle. Does arduino have sound components?
    – Turion
    Dec 6, 2013 at 12:44
  • I'm not a regular linux user, but there's lots of (seemingly) useful information and interface suggestions here: wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/hardware#audio_interfaces
    – Felipe Vaz
    Apr 29, 2014 at 13:13

3 Answers 3

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Here are some interfaces that I had no problems getting up and running under Linux (Debian):

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  • Do you have any new experiences (with newer hardware) since this answer?
    – AstroFloyd
    Nov 19, 2023 at 7:23
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I myself went for a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 and I'm very happy with it.

Edit: The Scarlett is fantastic and the support is very good in an up-to-date kernel. With the 4.0.0 kernel, you can access the internal mixer directly (using alsamixer, for example) and use the sound card as a mixing console as well. The sound console is superb. I've used it with low latency (~2 ms with JACK) as well, no problems at all.

There are several different interfaces of the same series, and I'd expect the other ones to work equally well.

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  • 1
    I was wondering whether you'd have any new experiences (e.g. 4th generation) since this answer...
    – AstroFloyd
    Nov 19, 2023 at 7:22
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    I haven't bought any new hardware since. The Scarlett is still live and kicking, and doing a great job with all kernels. I sometimes even use it for video conferencing and get comments about the professional sound quality.
    – Turion
    Nov 20, 2023 at 8:42
  • It looks like linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20669 suggests that the Gen3 solo and i2i are class compliant, meaning that they should work on any system with working USB and without a Scarlett-specific driver. This link github.com/sadko4u/linux-scarlett-gen3 suggests that at least some of the other Gen3 models have a driver in the Linux kernel.
    – AstroFloyd
    Nov 25, 2023 at 9:17
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I've had the best luck with M-Audio USB interfaces. To get to your track count I would get an interface that supports ADAT lightpipe and use that to connect to a set of external preamps.

I haven't done any work in Linux for a couple of years, so I can't recommend a certain device.

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