M-Audio USB Mobile Pre

[rictus007]

I don't know if this is the correct forum...if not sorry...

I use M-Audio ubs mobile pre to make some recordings for a online radio station...maybe will start using it to make some recordings for my webpage.

I'm just trying to completely migrate to Ubuntu but I need drivers for my M-Audio usb mobile pre.... anyone have any idea? I contact the people of M-audio and said that they don't make drivers for linux.

[thornomad]

I second that inquiry. I use it with my Mac (no drivers needed) ... am setting up a Ubuntu-Home as quickly as I can and would love to be working solely on that. Is it possible ?

[soze]

I use the m-audio mobilepre usb on my Ubuntu box without any problems (or drivers).
It's a class-compliant USB audio device and works right out of the box.

[rictus007]

Wow...That's great. I invest so much time trying to find the drivers, that I actually never thougth that it will be plug and play. By the way what software you are using to record. I was thinking to use audacity but the beta version...and I'm having some problems with it.

[soze]

Wow...That's great. I invest so much time trying to find the drivers, that I actually never thougth that it will be plug and play. By the way what software you are using to record. I was thinking to use audacity but the beta version...and I'm having some problems with it.

I use the released (1.2.4) version of Audacity without any problems.

[mctk]

All too easy.

Just a note, I found that these settings made it so that it would automatically take over as sound card if plugged in and release back to the built-in card if removed:

Preferences->sound

[Devices tab]
Sound Events -> USB audio
Music and Movies ->USB audio

[Sounds tab]
Default sound card -> (your built in card)

My love for ubuntu grows.

[thommango]

Wow, I gotta try that. On XP, I can't even get the mobile-pre to work unless it's from a fresh restart. Whenver it's unplugged and plugged back in, it fails. And whenever the compy goes to sleep, when it wakes up, the device fails. I look forward to giving it a try.

[isaacj87]

My ubuntu box isn't finding my mobilepre....

[paulg]

Not all versions are usb audio class compliant. Older versions do not work without the firmware loader: http://usb-midi-fw.sourceforge.net/.
I think newer versions are silver and a dark gray and older versions are silver and blue. Mine is silver and blue and will not work without the loader (and occasionally with the loader...). Don't take that as a guarantee that all silver and gray versions are class compliant - I just know that the look was updated sometime after I purchased mine (I have had mine since 2003). Also note that mine will not work in Windows or MacOS without the drivers installed first.

I've been using the firmware loaders for a while - I think since Hoary. It's been finicky since Dapper at best and often only working immediately after a reboot. I've narrowed it down to probably being udev rules but I haven't had the time to figure it out and the problems seem to only occur when I unplug the card so I'm pretty sure it's a udev device assignment issue.

edit: if anyone cares here's the output from 'lsusb'

Bus 002 Device 010: ID 0763:2804 Midiman

Where 0763 is the vendor ID and 2804 the product ID. If you have a newer device I'd be interested in hearing what your product ID is.

Currently I can't get the card to load at all with my usual tricks... Also the loader creates a udev rule so I don't know...?

edit2: ok rebooted and now it works. Does this even make sense? The product ID changed? Here's the new output...

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0763:200f Midiman

[ynottony]

Trying to determine if my Mobile Pre is class compliant and will work in Ubuntu Feisty Fawn?

I have M-Audio USB Mobile Pre, version 200F, Firmware: version 1.03. (May 2006), which I have used on another Windows computer.

Ubuntu is not detecting it.

Under Sound Devices everything is set to Auto-Detect, with the exception of Sound Capture, which is set to: ALSA - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture.

Default Mixer Tracks is set to: Intel 82801BA-ICH2 (Alsa mixer)

If it is not class compliant, would appreciate a recommendation for one that is. Thanks.

Tony Brigmon

[edeltrauddd]

hello,

my m-audio mobile pre is version 1.03 firmware AE75 and date 04-2004.
its as far as i know one of the older models and NOT class compilant.
i do need a driver for windows, but ubuntu got no problems with it. it works without any tweaking.

my only problem with ubuntu and mobilepre: with jack there are random xruns also with high latency.

ubuntu, yeah

[soze]

I've had no problem with either Edgy or Feisty detecting mine.
It's the "silver and grey" model and

/proc/asound/cards shows it as:

M Audio MobilePre at usb-0000:00:10.4-2.4, full speed

The label on the bottom says: Ver: 200F Firmware: V1.03 Date: 08-2006

[paulg]

Here's (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=466667&highlight=MobilePre) how I finally got my non-compliant card (purchased in 2003) with Feisty.

~pAul.

[toobaz]

I got a brand new mobilepre, and have a question: since I see it only has two channels (mono), how are the 6 inputs (2 XLR, 2 1/4 lines, 1 "stereo mic") managed? In which channel can I find each?

I mean: if I play 2 mic, 2 instruments and a stereo mic all together, are they automatically mixed?!

Thank you.

Pietro Battiston

[paulg]

Pietro,

Yes, they are all mixed. I have never tried it but you should be able to use all at once. The 'left' channel (or channel 1) will be XLR-1, 1/4"-1 and the left channel of the stereo mic. The 'right' channel (or channel 2) will be XLR-2, 1/4"-2 and the right channel of the stereo mic. All inputs will be put through preamp 1 or 2 respectively, which could be really tricky to balance the gain on different types of inputs. In theory it's possible but would be difficult unless you have an external mixer to adjust the input levels independently of the preamp gain.

paul.

[evilkneedle]

So, I get a noise from the test in >prefereces>sound but nowhere else. I have tried everything in here and it still doesn't seem to help with my issue. can somebody save me?

[toobaz]

So, I get a noise from the test in >prefereces>sound but nowhere else. I have tried everything in here and it still doesn't seem to help with my issue. can somebody save me?

When did you buy your PreMobile?

Can you give us the output of "cat /proc/asound/cards"?

Where do you get your the noise (in the computer speakers or in the phones connected to the PreMobile)? What do you do exactly to get this noise?

I think it is just impossible to provide help to a question missing so much informations. Please read other posts of this thread to see how to recognise if you PreMobile is class-compliant or not.

Pietro

[J-Oh]

I have one MXL condenser mic, that connects to channel one, and when i try to record on adobe audition 1.5 it only records the right....do i have to get 2 mics?

[rictus007]

Well I had never use the software you are saying but.... that's how this device works. Each channel will be recorded either on the left side or the right side...With the idea that if you need real stereo sound that type of channel splitting is necessary. To overcome this you can make the recording on mono, mix them, and later export them to stereo. Normally the voice is recorded on mono, 'cause there's no need to record it on stereo....Other instrument...depend in what you want to do.

Responding on a simple sentence your question. You don't need other mic, just mix the audio on either side to the other or make recording on mono.

Audacity has a function to convert from stereo to mono on the fly...just one clic.

[J-Oh]

Thanks man, You are a lifesaver, lol....BTW does anyone know how to Mix on Cool Edit Pro? or Adobe Audition 2.0

[binger]

I have used Cool Edit Pro a bit and Adobe Audition a bit more. What is your issue?

-Brian

[toobaz]

I never used Cool Edit Pro nor Adobe Audition. If Audacity is not enough professional for you, try Jackd and Ardour (both - obviously - available in Ubuntu).

(Well, even if I had used Audition and Cool Edit, I wouldn't talk about them, at least not in this forum!)

Pietro

[fbusy]

I used cool edit pro and adobe audition over 1,000 times whats the damage? and btw i used madfuload to load the same audio card, i installed audition with wine and its amazing. you cant see the buttons but all the functions are available so its well worth it. ill be removing windows shortly thank gahh hhaa wooo

[honkzor]

I have just given Xubuntu a try for music making. Ridding XP on the music computer will make my home Microsoft free. But I have got problems with my MobilePre. The system detects it and I can select MobilePre in the mixer. I can only hear some noise but I can adjust the level of the noise with the mixer so it appears to work partly but no real sounds at all. Anyone have any suggestions?
Output of cat /proc/asound/cards:

0 [ICH ]: NFORCE - Intel ICH
Intel ICH with ALC655 at 0xfe02c000, irq 16
1 [MobilePre ]: USB-Audio - MobilePre
M Audio MobilePre at usb-0000:00:0b.0-3, full speed

[honkzor]

Got no response on this but I think I have fixed it myself, appears to be working fine now, at least for basic listening and recording. The problem was that my USB sound card was assigned index 1 but being the default catd it should be index 0 (makes sense?) Did it this way:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

Then under the line
# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0

I changed the index of USB Audio from -2 to 0 and then after a system restart it worked.

[djcd_thb]

I also just started to use MOBILEPRE USB and i am new to all of the recording stuff, so bare with me. I have a recording studio mic but when i plug it in onto channel one it only records to the left side and if on channel 2 it only records to the right side, now i did notice there are outputs on the back but i dont know what i would need to record both sides so if anyone can help i would really be thankfull.......
-CD

[toobaz]

What happens is normal: MIC inputs are mono (so that you can capture two mics at a time).

You can solve your problem in several ways:
1) hardware: buy an adaptor that takes your mic's input and gives a stereo, small jack output: then plug it in the "stereo mic" on the rear of the Mobile.
2) software: if you use the Gnome sound recorder, you could probably try setting "mono mix" as input, but I'm not sure since I can't test it at the moment
3) software: you can use another software to record, such Audacity or (more professional, more complicated) Ardour, to handle tracks
4) "post processing": record as usual, then use another program, such Audacity or sox (or many others), to move the mono track to stereo

All the apps I named are in Ubuntu package set and are well documented, Audacity in particular.

Good luck

Pietro

[EricSD]

Hi, I have bought the "Black and silver" M-Audio Mobile Pre, and I still have some problems.
Card works good and is been recognisez by my 64bit Gutsy out-of-the-box. The problems are others:

1) It's impossible use a mixer (except for alsamix) to control volumes.

2) Using Jack to route sound with Ardour and Hydrogen (for example) make a lot of XRUN. And after that the sound stop and I have to restart the driver. So far I worked with a SB Live!. It wasn't the best, but worked with a latency of 10ms. M-Audio should be better...

Anyone have these problems?

Thanks

Eric SD

[toobaz]

Unfortunately I also had lots of xruns, and unfortunately the only solution I found so far is using another distribution: 64studio works ok (notice I also tried Ubuntu Studio, but not latest version).

For what concerns volume controls, I also have the same problems as you (tought I had never noticed it! Instead, I noticed that I'm not able to record and hear at the same time, because if I deselect the "mute" switch, it stops recording... but this too is not a big problem with jack).

Pietro