Assigning multiple sound card inputs to different input channels

[Trakzuk Radio]

Right. Tray again. I have a PC with 1 internal sound card and 3 external USB sound cards. Mix Bus 5 can see all the input devices in the 'Audio/Midi Setup' window, but selecting any one of them simply causes the one selected to be applied to all 4 input channels. I need to assign each one of the sound cards to each one of the input channels on the mixer.

[Dingo]

To do that you would need to create an aggregate audio device.
I am not a win user, but I believe it is not possible within the Windows world, only in OSX and Linux.
As commented by JamieLang in your other thread about this, to use multi mics in Windows you need a multi channel audio interface.
There are many such devices around at very reasonable prices.

[doncolga]

To do that you would need to create an aggregate audio device.
I am not a win user, but I believe it is not possible within the Windows world, only in OSX and Linux.

This is my understanding too. I've got a very well respected engineer friend who is on Windows and Studio One, and he said this is the one reason why he may consider Mac at some point because Windows currently does not allow for it.

[Trakzuk Radio]

That makes Mix Bus 5 redundant then. Why have multiple input channels that cannot be assigned to multiple inputs?

[Sthauge]

I'm just using two audio interfaces as input to Mixbus32C using Zita-ajbridge on Linux. Every input and output from both interfaces are available to connect to whatever channel I want to connect it to. There is a short delay on the interface that are connected through the bridge though, but it's so short that most will have problem hearing it. Anyway it's easy to align the tracks in Mixbus. I also record on the audio interface that are connected through the bridge, so I have a backup of the tracks if I'm not pleased with the tracks that are recorded directly in Mixbus32C. @X42 have done some work on the Zita-ajbridge, so may be he have some comments on the use and quality of the bridge.

[doncolga]

That makes Mix Bus 5 redundant then. Why have multiple input channels that cannot be assigned to multiple inputs?

Because MixBus works well in environments that do support this. Just looks like Windows does not at the moment.

[loderunner]

A quick search brought some articles to light that cover your problem. It seems to depend on the driver of your devices. Did you try the ASIO4All driver? It can make one ASIO device from several WDM devices.

[durutti]

I'm just using two audio interfaces as input to Mixbus32C using Zita-ajbridge on Linux. Every input and output from both interfaces are available to connect to whatever channel I want to connect it to. There is a short delay on the interface that are connected through the bridge though, but it's so short that most will have problem hearing it. Anyway it's easy to align the tracks in Mixbus. I also record on the audio interface that are connected through the bridge, so I have a backup of the tracks if I'm not pleased with the tracks that are recorded directly in Mixbus32C. @X42 have done some work on the Zita-ajbridge, so may be he have some comments on the use and quality of the bridge.

can you provide an how to set this up.

[Sthauge]

can you provide an how to set this up.

No problem.

See my signature for my system details.

Install zita-ajbridge from the repositories.

I have one Zoom L12 that are capable to act as an audio interface AND a recorder(12 channels + 2 master out) simultaneously. This show up in Jack(QjackCtl) advanced setup as hw:L12,0

My Zoom H6(6 channels) audio interface or field recorder shows up in QjackCtl advanced setup as hw:H6,0

I can select only one of them as my audio interface. In this case I use the H6 as primary interface and bridging in the L12.

Here's the main setup tab in QjackCtl:

   

I will only record in this session so I use the default frames 1024 and periods 4

The advanced tab look like this with the H6 as primary device, remember to define the input and output channels correctly:

   

In the option tab I put in the command to start Zita bridge after jack have started and it looks like this:

   

The start command in detail:

zita-a2j -j L12 -d hw:L12,0 -r 48000 -p 512 -n 4 -c 14 &

Where:
-j L12 (my name to the audio interface)
-d hw:L12,0 (reference to the physical ALSA device)
-r 48000 (Sample rate - same as primary device)
-p 512 (frames - should be half of primary audio interface)
-n 4 (periods)
-c 14 & (number of channels)

Start jack and then mixbus. In mixbus you now see this routing grids:

   

   

This should be it.

[V.G.]

To do that you would need to create an aggregate audio device.
I am not a win user, but I believe it is not possible within the Windows world, only in OSX and Linux.

This is my understanding too. I've got a very well respected engineer friend who is on Windows and Studio One, and he said this is the one reason why he may consider Mac at some point because Windows currently does not allow for it.

This is true, but my Aggregate Device (Built-in Digital Out + Built-in Line Out), which I use in LPX, does not work in Mixbus and I can hear one thing, either Digital or Line Out. Creating a new AD did nothing.
Unfortunately for me there are more disappointments from using MB than the joy of tone.

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