I have searched the forums and found a few posts on the above subject but I`m still not 100% sure so I have sorted a post of my own.
I am writing to ask if its possible to record multiple tracks at the same time to different tracks within audacity using a USB interface?
The interfaces that I have looked at are:
M Audio Fast track ultra
M Audio Fast track ultra 8R
Tascam US1800
I believe all these offer full duplex and all the inputs are output through the USB as separate tracks and its then up to the software to record these onto separate tracks.
I believe that they record the tracks separately (but at the same time) using most commercial software such as Pro tools, Logic, Sonar etc. but not sure if it would work with audacity so I would like to hear from anyone if they have used any USB interfaces to record the tracks into separate tracks within Audacity.
It may work with Audacity.
I don’t have any of those interfaces to check, but Audacity can record multiple tracks simultaneously provided that the hardware fulfils certain requirements.
The most important issues are:
Audacity does not ship with ASIO support, so the device must be used with Window drivers (WDM).
Audacity can only record from one device at a time.
Most multi-channel sound cards ship with both ASIO and WDM drivers, though for some devices the WDM drivers only have basic “2 in / 2 out” capability. In this case Audacity will only be able to record mono or stereo because that is all that is supported by the drivers.
Some multi-channel sound cards use pairs of stereo (2 channel) drivers rather than a proper multi-channel driver. In this case the interface will appear to Audacity as multiple stereo devices rather than a single multi-channel device. In this case Audacity will only be able to record from one of the stereo “devices” at a time.
Other considerations are that WDM drivers are usually less efficient than ASIO drivers, so there may be problems with clicks and bits missing from the recording.
So the short answer is, yes Audacity can record multiple channels simultaneously, but only if that is supported by the audio hardware and the audio drivers.
Please let us know how you get on as this information will be very useful for other users. We don’t have much information about which multi-track sound cards work well with Audacity.