[Electronics-Talk] looking for a mixer or audio interface that has multiple USB inputs and outputs and is blind friendly in Windows

[David Waybright]

Hopefully, I can clear up some miss understandings.

USB is not an audio standard so there are no USB mixers.  There are 2 main types of mixers for the computer. 1 would be a regular analog mixer that you plug into your mic jack on the computer and setup the computer to use the mic jack as your input into apps. The better solution is an audio interface that plugs into the USB port and is basically an analog audio breakout panel for all your inputs. An example of one is the Tascam 16x8 https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/US16x08--tascam-us-16x08-usb-audio-interface The nice thing about this unit is it has 1 USB connection to the computer for all your inputs but it also has 8 line outs. The front of the 1U Rack or Desktop unit has 8 XLR ports and 2 1/4 jacks along with 10 volume knobs for the inputs. It has software but I haven't used it directly. I've more indirectly used it. I don't think the software is important to the unit being functional. My suggestion is to try and download the Settings panel software and test run it before buying the unit. https://tascam.com/us/product/us-16x08/download

Thanks,


David Eugene Waybright
CompTIA A+, NET+, & Security+ Technician
Crestron Core Certified

IT Operations & Secure Infrastructure Specialist


Tesla Referral Code: https://ts.la/david55244 1,000 FREE Supercharger Miles & $100 OFF Solar!

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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2021 19:59:27 -0400
From: Valiant8086 <valiant8086 at gmail.com>
To: TechTalkChat at groups.io, all-audio at groups.io, blindtech at groups.io,
        main at TechTalk.groups.io, electronics-talk at nfbnet.org,
        blindtlk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Electronics-Talk] looking for a mixer or audio interface
        that has multiple USB inputs and outputs and is blind friendly in
        Windows
Message-ID: <0855bb49-feba-465a-dc16-3fc2190deaa4 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

Hi.

I just joined to ask around for help. I've been trying to get an answer
for about 4 days now. I called companies, asked Amazon product pages
using the question form, asked people on twitter and so on. I'm still
stabbing in the dark hoping I at least find somebody who knows the
perfect place to ask.


So I'm on the market for an audio interface or USB mixer. I need to be
able to use at least two stereo pairs of channels e.g. 4 in and 4 out.
Other than
that, 1 rode nt1a, and at least one line input. I need low noise because
I'm deaf and I have to rely on it just being quiet to start with no
adjustments
needed since I can't hear the floor noise anyway.

 ?need to be able to do mix minus for one USB pair so that team talk or
Skype etc can send to that pair and record from that pair which will not
have itself
in the mix. If I can get more than 4 tracks (2 channels) then I'd like
to, because it might be possible to have Team Talk and Skype/zoom/teams
listening
to each other without having echo on either one.

I've got 3 choices currently but interested in more. I'm trying not to
spend more than $300 or if so, close to it. The most important thing is
not having
the floor noise with pretty much any configuration. I'm trying to find
blind people who use these or have tried to use these. If anyone knows
of the best
place to post this let me know? My second biggest concern is how much
I'll be able to do with the computer. The audio interfaces have control
software,
if I'm able to tweak that then I'll be good. Hoping to find out how
accessible this stuff is without having to buy things first.

first choice, Audient Evo8. I have not been able to figure out if the 4
in 4 out USB interface can be routed about to do what I need, and I
don't know
how accessible Audient Control software is. I like the idea of having
the auto sens gain buttons I could press to automatically set gain
levels on specific
channels, because my ears don't hear distortion until well after people
with good hearing can pick it up. Apart from Accessibility, it's not
immediately
obvious that this device's USB channels can be configured in such a way
to allow for a mix minus. It has just enough physical connections, I
would have
liked to have a second set of line level inputs.

Second choice, Focusrite Scarlott 18i8. This one has a lot you can do
with the USB channels until I'm pretty sure I can do anything I want in
terms of
mix minus with it. Again though, it just barely has enough physical
connections, an extra line level pair would be nice. It seems I can also
expose the
tracks as wdm drivers so Gold Wave, Foobar2000 and any non daw audio
supporting applications, including Windows itself, can interact with
various aspects
of it. If the control software and app are not fully accessible though,
I'll probably not be able to set it up the way I need. Can anyone let me
know?


Third choice, Allen and Heath ZeDi10fx. I'm used to analogue mixers. It
seems like the 4 in 4 out USB interface can do multi mono (4) track or
stereo (2)
tracks. It sounds like I can direct channel 1/2 to recording software
and I don't need an actual daw for this, which Is good for me. It then
sounds like
3/4 USB channels can be configured in a few ways one of which includes
to have it listen to aux send or fx send. I could then use the fx send
or aux send
level knobs on each channel to choose whether they are to be heard on
aux send or on fx send. This way I can set up mix minus. However. I
believe that
even on the USB interface, aux send and fx send are mono, so I can't
figure out how team talk could end up getting a stereo representation of
the whole
mix not including itself. I'm told that physical fx send jacks are
always mono and I'm not sure about aux send ones. But the USB mode
switch on the ZeDi10fx
has one choice that says main mix 1/2 and aux send/fx send 3/4. I think
that means aux send will go on the left side of the second pair and fx
send will
go on the right side of it.

So to recap, I don't know if audient evo8 is capable of what I need with
the USB interface, or if it is accessible to configure it. I'm sure the
Focusrite
18i8 is capable of it, but I don't know if it is accessible on Windows
with screen readers and I like the physical design of it a little less
than the
evo8, plus it doesn't have auto sens gain. I'm less worried about
accessibility for ZeDi10 since it's mostly just an analogue mixer with
all the juicy
knobs but I can't quite figure out if it is technologically able to do
what I'm after.

New choices to check out are welcome. I might wind up having to buy a
bunch of mixers and interfaces on my credit card and return what doesn't
satisfy.
I know that I can also pair a mixer with a separate interface if it
comes to that, but that immediately jumps the price way over my budget
if my interface
must be able to satisfy the mix minus requirements. If I'm going to pay
for a good interface plus a mixer I might as well go for broke literally
and buy
the Zoom Live trak L8 or something along that line.


--
cheers:
Aaron Spears AKA Valiant8086 - General Partner Valiant Galaxy Associates. "We make *very good audiogames* for the blind comunity" http://valiantGalaxy.com