#fossrecordingstudio — Public Fediverse posts

@elementary Hi! I recently installed your OS on an old A1224 model iMac for the purposes of audio recording. I'm typing from it right now, and it's working well so far, but I have a couple questions. The two big ones are as follows:

• The external drives I use for saving project files and holding media don't mount automatically when the computer boots, and aren't even detected unless I unplug them and plug them back in, after which I still have to open them in Files to mount them properly. I have a feeling this is due to the external USB hub I'm using, which is large enough to require it's own power source. If detection of the SSDs is based around them powering on alongside the computer, that'd be an issue since the drives are constantly powered from the wall. I'll plug them in directly and restart the computer to test this if that works, but if I quit out now I'll lose what I've typed. lol

• I use a Behringer U-phoria UMC1820 interface for recording, and that causes issues that aren't unique to Elementary, but are harder to troubleshoot on it. Due to the way it informs Linux (PulseAudio or PipeWire, whichever part of the chain it directly talks to) of it's inputs and outputs, it causes oddly specific issues. I think it's best if I detail how this issue behaved on Linux Mint, the previous distro I used for recording, and then how Elementary differs slightly.
  Mint succeeds in detecting the UMC1820 and lets it be selected in it's sound settings. However, due to the interface itself labeling all of it's ins and outs as "auxiliary" something, the computer has no clear "left" and "right" channels to use as defaults. Mint assumes that the first two "aux" outs are the default left and right, which is correct, and aside from a couple bugs I couldn't get around in specific software, it still works as normal.
  Elementary detects the interface but doesn't list it as an option in it's sound settings, I can only imagine because there are technically no default outputs to… list. I was only able to make it output through the device by installing PulseAudio Volume Control and selecting it there, resulting in NO options being selected in the dedicated sound settings, and the options in the upper right corner of the screen incorrectly stating I was outputting through the built-in speakers.
  I was worried it would switch back once I rebooted, and thankfully this isn't the case, but I thought you should be made aware of this issue so that maybe, if nothing else, the weird interface could at least be shown under sound settings proper. I've given up on trying to "label" the correct outputs as "left" and "right" instead of aux 0 or 1 or whatever, that's likely a PulseAudio issue and a lost cause.

Daunting as that second one is to explain, I promise it's not a huge deal and I AM able to record and play back sound regardless. It just would have been really confused and concerned if I hadn't had prior experience with Mint, and knew that I could likely fix the issue by using other Pulse tools.

Thank you for making software that's ethical and anti-LLM. I thought the whole FOSS scene would be more against AI slop, but it's hard to find an OS that stands against that tech-bro garbage, let alone software to use on it. I appreciate it so very much.