cheap usb-audio-interface

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Fri, 2011-01-07 at 11:33 -0200, Tim Cook wrote:
> On Fri, 2011-01-07 at 14:02 +0100, mentoj dija wrote:
> > hey there,
> > 
> > does somebody know a cheap, small usb-audio-interface, which works out 
> > of the box with Ubuntu? just with one or two mic-inputs and a 
> > headphone-out. maybe with midi-in and -out. very basic one!
> > 
> > i don't care if it is only available second hand on ebay...
> 
> Under a $100 USD - mine works great.
> 
> http://www.alesis.com/io2express 
> 
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Alesis-IO2-Express/dp/B003HR30FU
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Tim
> 
> 
> 

USB-MIDI has been proved a recipe for MIDI jitter. PCI Envy24 cards
(audio and MIDI) at Ebay do cost less than 30,-€, e.g. a TerraTec EWX
24/96, that has got no Mic input. Art pre-amps are very good and they
are very cheap and perhaps even a Behringer for less than 40,-€ might be
good enough, when in use with a cheap sound card.
Are you able to solder? If so and if 40,-€ are too expensive for you,
anyway a pre-amp shouldn't be an issue.
Is it a computer without PCI slots?

USB for MIDI only:

There's a Swissonic MIDI IO for less than 10,-€, that does pass the ALSA
latency test with best results. I do have one of those USB-MIDI devices,
but I'm anyway not fine with the jitter, other people might be fine with
a very good result by the ALSA MIDI latency test.

PCI cards MIDI:

You need a cable with opto-coupler. At Ebay (new, not secondhand) less
than 10,-€.

2 Cents,

Ralf