Edirol UA-25
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\ The Edirol UA-25 is a good quality audio device, with great features:
- Variety of Input & Output options
- Balanced Input & Output
- Two Professional Grade Mic Preamps
- Built-in Analog Limiter
- Zero-Latency, Direct Monitoring
- USB Bus-Powered
- Phantom microphone power (48 volts)
- Full-duplex management
- MIDI I/O
Using a simple and powerful Terratec Aureon 5.1 USB card, it took me three days to understand the Edirol UA-25 logic. I hope that this little howto can guide you and save your time. The logic of the Edirol UA-25 is that it is operated by hands, directly on the device. There are some hardware limitations, but it is frankly a very nice tool.
\
The Editor UA-25 is fully supported by Alsa: the device is recognised
and you can play/record sound, in both normal and advanced mode.
Unfortunately, Alsa has little control over this device.
In fact, it is not a problem of operating systems (Linux / FreeBSD / Window\$), but rather a hardware issue. For example, Input level, Output level, mixing, even sample rate are done at hardware level, without software control. Some users may like this old-fashion way to manage sound cards, other may dislike it. Analyse your needs before purchasing this sound device.
Fortunately, Alsa offers a variety of features and plugins, which emulate at software level the missing features. This is the advantage of Alsa over other sound systems.
Contents
Understanding the Edirol UA-25 logic
At first, you should have a look at the back pane. Or look at the photo of the device. Try to locate three important buttons:
Advance button
On the back pane of the UA-25, there is a switch button called "ADVANCE", which controls the USB mode of the device. The switch has two values: ON and OFF:
- In advance mode (ADVANCE button ON), the UA-25 can record or play sound in native 24 bits, in either 44.100 Hz, 48.000 Hz or 96.000 Hz sample rates. You can choose sample rates using a button. At 96 Khz, the device is either capture or playback only. MIDI is enabled. Advance mode is recognised since Alsa 1.0.7.
- In normal mode (ADVANCE button OFF), the UA-25 is fully USB sound compliant. It records at the rate of 44.100 Hz, in 16 bits, and is full-duplex. MIDI is disabled.
Sample rates switch
On the back pane of the UA-25, there is a switch button called "SAMPLE RATE". The switch has three values: 44.1 Khz, 48 Khz and 96 Khz:
In Advance mode OFF, the device will always record/play natively at the rate of 44.1 Khz using 16 bits.
In Advance mode ON, the device will be able to record using 24 bits. Choose the sample rate using the SAMPLE RATE switch:
- 44.1 Khz: play and record at the same time,
- 48 Khz: play and record at the same time,
- 96 Khz: play OR record. Press the REC/PLAY button to choose.
REC/PLAY button
When in Advance mode ON, at 96 Khz, you can either play OR record. Press the REC/PLAY button to choose.
Cold/Hot reboot
Whenever you switch from ADVANCE ON to ADVANCE OFF, or change sample rates, you will either need to :
- cold reboot: Unplug the USB cord, plug it again. The hotplug mechanism will remove all snd modules and will reload them. Be warned : frequent plug/unplug may harm the device physical contacts.
- shutdown/reboot your computer: it is the recommended way, as it will not harm your device (or the USB cord). Your computer might not turn off the USB power unless you shut down completely. A good place to switch the Advance button is during the grub menu, if you are using grub, and if that fails, shut the computer off completely to switch the Advance button.
Lost?
To understand advance mode, sample rates and REC/PLAY, it is recommended
to use aplay and arecord in verbose (option -v) mode. This is what
we will do during the howto. This will clearly show you how the audio
devices plays and records sound.
Basic Alsa configuration
alsaconf is not required to use the Edirol UA-25. Hotplug is able to recognise the audio device. Just plug and play.
Assigning audio system rights
GNU/Linux is a secure system. To play sound, you need audio system rights. To query your systems rights:
$groups
my_username adm disk dialout fax cdrom floppy tape dip video plugdev powerdev scanner
In this example, I don't have enough rights to play/record sound. To assign rights:
Become root (system administrator):
$su
Password:
Enter the administrator password and then:
adduser my_username audio
Will add the user my_username (replace with your username) to the audio group. You should be able to play music.
Naming the Edirol UA-25 device
If the UA-25 is the only device of your computer, you can address the
device using the plughw:0,0, but it is not very conveniant. We
recommand using the alphanumeric name of the device. To query the name
of your device, type:
$cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [UA25 ]: USB-Audio - EDIROL UA-25
Roland EDIROL UA-25 at usb-0000:00:0b.0-2, full speed
1 [Audio ]: USB-Audio - USB Audio
USB Audio at usb-0000:00:0b.1-4.4.3, full speed
Here, you should use plughw:UA25 rather than plughw:0,0
Testing sound output
Test the card output. This command plays a woman voice on 2 channels
("Front Right", "Front Left"):
speaker-test -c2 -D plughw:UA25 -twav
Playing sound
In the following example, Advance button is set to ON, and sample rate is 48 Khz. Do not forget to cold/hot reboot whenever you change settings.
To play a sound:
aplay -D plughw:UA25 foo.wav
For a better understanding, it is recommended to play in verbose mode:
aplay -v -D plughw:UA25 foo.wav
The following message is displayed:
Playing WAVE 'foobar.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Rate conversion PCM (48000, sformat=S24_3LE)
Its setup is:
stream : PLAYBACK
access : RW_INTERLEAVED
format : S16_LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 44100
exact rate : 44100 (44100/1)
msbits : 16
buffer_size : 22050
period_size : 5512
period_time : 125000
tick_time : 1000
tstamp_mode : NONE
period_step : 1
sleep_min : 0
avail_min : 5512
xfer_align : 5512
start_threshold : 22048
stop_threshold : 22050
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 6206523236469964800
Slave: Hardware PCM card 0 'UA-25' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
stream : PLAYBACK
access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format : S24_3LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 48000
exact rate : 48000 (48000/1)
msbits : 24
buffer_size : 24001
period_size : 6000
period_time : 125000
tick_time : 1000
tstamp_mode : NONE
period_step : 1
sleep_min : 0
avail_min : 6000
xfer_align : 6000
start_threshold : 24000
stop_threshold : 24001
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 6755680916032454656
The sound file is 44.100 Hz sample rate over 16 bits. Alsa converts it to 48.000 Hz over 24 bits ... and plays the sound.
When playing two sounds at the same time, an error message is displayed:
aplay: main:550: audio open error: Device or resource busy
Remember, in advance mode, the UA-25 is only half-duplex.
Recording sound
In this example, the UA-25 device is set to Advance ON and 96 Khz recording. REC button is pressed.
You can use arecord utility, which is part of Alsa package, to record
any sound from the microphone:
$arecord -r 96000 -f cd -t wav -D plughw:UA25 foobar.wav
For a better understanding, try the same command in verbose mode:
arecord -v -r 96000 -f cd -t wav -D plughw:UA25 foobar.wav
The resulting message:
Recording WAVE 'foobar.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 96000 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Linear conversion PCM (S24_3LE)
Its setup is:
stream : CAPTURE
access : RW_INTERLEAVED
format : S16_LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 96000
exact rate : 96000 (96000/1)
msbits : 16
buffer_size : 48000
period_size : 12000
period_time : 125000
tick_time : 1000
tstamp_mode : NONE
period_step : 1
sleep_min : 0
avail_min : 12000
xfer_align : 12000
start_threshold : 1
stop_threshold : 48000
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 6755399441055744000
Slave: Hardware PCM card 0 'UA-25' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
stream : CAPTURE
access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format : S24_3LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 96000
exact rate : 96000 (96000/1)
msbits : 24
buffer_size : 48000
period_size : 12000
period_time : 125000
tick_time : 1000
tstamp_mode : NONE
period_step : 1
sleep_min : 0
avail_min : 12000
xfer_align : 12000
start_threshold : 1
stop_threshold : 48000
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 6755399441055744000
The Edirol UA-25 is able to record in 24 bits, at the sample rate of 96 Khz.
Now, try to play the recorded sound at 96 Khz:
aplay -v -D plughw:UA25 foobar.wav
aplay: main:550: audio open error: No such file or directory
At 96.000 Hz, the audio device can play OR record, but not both. Now, switch the PLAY button. Unplug the USB cord and plug it again. This should initialize Alsa if you are using Udev and hotplug.
Re-try to play the sound:
aplay -v -D plughw:UA25 foobar.wav
This results in:
Playing WAVE 'foobar.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 96000 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Linear conversion PCM (S24_3LE)
Its setup is:
stream : PLAYBACK
access : RW_INTERLEAVED
format : S16_LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 96000
exact rate : 96000 (96000/1)
msbits : 16
buffer_size : 48000
period_size : 12000
period_time : 125000
tick_time : 1000
tstamp_mode : NONE
period_step : 1
sleep_min : 0
avail_min : 12000
xfer_align : 12000
start_threshold : 48000
stop_threshold : 48000
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 6755399441055744000
Slave: Hardware PCM card 0 'UA-25' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
stream : PLAYBACK
access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format : S24_3LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 96000
exact rate : 96000 (96000/1)
msbits : 24
buffer_size : 48000
period_size : 12000
period_time : 125000
tick_time : 1000
tstamp_mode : NONE
period_step : 1
sleep_min : 0
avail_min : 12000
xfer_align : 12000
start_threshold : 48000
stop_threshold : 48000
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 6755399441055744000
It works! Remember, at 96.000 Khz, you can either play OR record, but not both.
Advanced Alsa configuration
The recommended settings in this HOWTO are now:
- Advance mode : ON
- Sample rate : 44,1 Khz
This will record/play sound in 24 bits, at the frequency of 44.100 Hz.
Full-duplex mode
The Edirol UA-25 is a half-duplex device, which means that it cannot play several sounds simultaneously. Fortunately, Alsa is able to play and record in full-duplex over a half-duplex device. This Alsa feature is provided by the asym (i.e. full-duplex) plugin, which is able to combine the dmix (i.e. play) and dsnoop (i.e. record) plug-ins.
The dmix and dsnoop interfaces are already provided by Alsa.
Add the following text to you .asoundrc file:
#This PCM combining the dmix and dsnoop slaves
pcm.asymed {
type asym
playback.pcm "dmix"
capture.pcm "dsnoop"
}
#This PCM should be able to convert recording rates automatically
pcm.pasymed {
type plug
slave.pcm "asymed"
}
To record a sound in full-duplex mode:
arecord -f cd -t wav -D pasymed foobar.wav
To play a sound in full-duplex mode:
aplay -D pasymed foobar.wav
Custom softvol PCM
$alsamixer -c 0 to use mixer settings on card 0 will return:
no mixer elems found
Unfortunately these is no software control over the hardware mixers on the device (like in any USB device), nothing will show up in mixer programs.
Fortunately, Alsa offers the softvol plugin to create a software volume control. We will also define this control as the default mixer.
Here is my first try:
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "softvol"
}
pcm.softvol {
type softvol
slave {
pcm "pasymed"
}
control {
name "SoftMaster"
card 0
}
}
Let us have a look at our software mixer:
$amixer
Simple mixer control 'SoftMaster',0
Capabilities: volume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: 0 - 255
Front Left: 255 [100%]
Front Right: 255 [100%]
Recording left and right input channels seperately
When recording from two mono inputs (Input 1/L and Input 2/R), the sound is mixed into a stereo stream at hardware level. Again, there is no software control over this audio device.
This is a problem when you only record from one mono microphone. The resulting stereo sound includes a muted channel with noise. At software level, you may downmix this sound to mono, but this degrades quality because of the muted channel with noise.
A simple solution is to record from left and right input channels seperately, as explained in the dsnoop howto.
pcm.record_left {
type dsnoop
ipc_key 234884
slave {
pcm "plughw:UA25"
channels 2
}
bindings.0 0
}
pcm.record_right {
type dsnoop
ipc_key 2241234
slave {
pcm "plughw:UA25"
channels 2
}
bindings.0 1
}
Digital signals
The same rules apply here. Alsa has very little control over the UA-25 hardware. Digital control is done using buttons on the front pane.
Digital In
To record from digital source, press the "DIGITAL IN" button on the front pane of the UA-25. This is simple as that! You can then record using any Alsa tool, on the pasymed or SoftMaster PCMs.
Digital Out
Here, the Edirol UA-25 is in Advance mode off. It provides 16 bits, 44.100 Hz digital output.
Let us try Alsa utility speaker-test:
speaker-test -c 2 -D softvol0 -twav
An optical cable is connected:
- from Edirol UA-25 Digital out
- to a Terratec USB Aureon MK-2 digital in.
In the mixer of the Terratec Aureon, I select Input 2 and check
IEC958 In.
I can record the digital stream using the following command:
arecord -v -f S16_LE -c 2 -D plughw:1,0 foobar.wav
I can record the digital out stream of the Edirol UA-25 without problem.
Low latency (to be written)
Investigating. To be written.
MIDI configuration
I don't use MIDI instruments. You are more than welcome to contribute this page.
OK.
For MIDI to work, the device has to be in advance mode.
If MIDI is working, you should see a "raw midi" device for the UA-25 in
/proc/asound/devices:
$ grep midi /proc/asound/devices
8: [ 0- 0]: raw midi
Also, /proc/asound/card0/midi0 should exist (assuming the UA-25 is the
0th audio device):
$ cat /proc/asound/card0/midi0
UA-25
Output 0
Tx bytes : 0
Input 0
Rx bytes : 0
MIDI ports
If the UA-25 is running in advance mode, aconnect should show one MIDI
input and one MIDI output port:
$ aconnect -il # list readable MIDI ports
client 16: 'UA-25' [type=kernel]
0 'UA-25 MIDI 1 '
$ aconnect -ol # list writable MIDI ports
client 16: 'UA-25' [type=kernel]
0 'UA-25 MIDI 1 '
If you prefer a graphical interface, check out aconnectgui. The
relevant information can also be found in /proc/asound/seq/clients.
Connecting an external MIDI controller
To connect an external MIDI controller (e.g. keyboard, faderbox,
stompbox, etc.), just plug its MIDI output into the "MIDI IN" socket on
the back of the UA-25, and use aconnect to connect it to whatever
software synth you want to interpret the MIDI data.
To connect my MIDI foot controller to PureData, aconnect shows me the
following (among other things):
$ aconnect -il
client 16: 'UA-25' [type=kernel]
0 'UA-25 MIDI 1 '
$ aconnect -ol
client 128: 'Pure Data' [type=user]
0 'Pure Data Midi-In 1'
To get MIDI data flowing from my foot controller into PureData, the
incantation I need is:
$ aconnect 16:0 128:0
Connecting an external MIDI synthesizer
I don't have one, but the process ought to be entirely analogous to that described in the preceding section. Feel free to contribute your own experiences.
Resulting .asoundrc file
For clarity, here is the resulting .asoundrc file:
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "softvol"
}
pcm.softvol {
type softvol
slave {
pcm "pasymed"
}
control {
name "SoftMaster"
card 0
}
}
#This PCM combining the dmix and dsnoop slaves
pcm.asymed {
type asym
playback.pcm "dmix"
capture.pcm "dsnoop"
}
#This PCM should be able to convert recording rates automatically
pcm.pasymed {
type plug
slave.pcm "asymed"
}
pcm.record_left {
type dsnoop
ipc_key 234884
slave {
pcm "plughw:UA25"
channels 2
}
bindings.0 0
}
pcm.record_right {
type dsnoop
ipc_key 2241234
slave {
pcm "plughw:UA25"
channels 2
}
bindings.0 1
}
Device information
The following section may help Alsa hackers:
cat/proc/bus/usb/devices
$cat/proc/bus/usb/devices
T: Bus=02 Lev=04 Prnt=06 Port=02 Cnt=01 Dev#= 7 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=00 Prot=ff MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0582 ProdID=0074 Rev= 1.07
S: Manufacturer=Roland
S: Product=EDIROL UA-25
C:* #Ifs= 3 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=480mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
I: If#= 0 Alt= 1 #EPs= 1 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
E: Ad=01(O) Atr=09(Isoc) MxPS= 320 Ivl=1ms
I: If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
I: If#= 1 Alt= 1 #EPs= 1 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
E: Ad=82(I) Atr=05(Isoc) MxPS= 320 Ivl=1ms
I: If#= 2 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=03 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
E: Ad=03(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 32 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=84(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 32 Ivl=0ms
I: If#= 2 Alt= 1 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=03 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
E: Ad=03(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 32 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=84(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 32 Ivl=1ms
cat /proc/asound/devices
$cat /proc/asound/devices
0: [ 0] : control
8: [ 0- 0]: raw midi
16: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
24: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture
33: : timer
cat /proc/asound/cards
$cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [UA25 ]: USB-Audio - UA-25
EDIROL UA-25 at usb-0000:00:0b.1-2.4.4.3, full speed
aplay -l
aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: UA25 [UA-25], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
$aplay -L
PCM list:
hw {
@args.0 CARD
@args.1 DEV
@args.2 SUBDEV
@args.CARD {
type string
default {
@func getenv
vars {
0 ALSA_PCM_CARD
1 ALSA_CARD
}
default {
@func refer
name 'defaults.pcm.card'
}
}
}
@args.DEV {
type integer
default {
@func igetenv
vars {
0 ALSA_PCM_DEVICE
}
default {
@func refer
name 'defaults.pcm.device'
}
}
}
@args.SUBDEV {
type integer
default {
@func refer
name 'defaults.pcm.subdevice'
}
}
type hw
card $CARD
device $DEV
subdevice $SUBDEV
}
plughw {
@args.0 CARD
@args.1 DEV
@args.2 SUBDEV
@args.CARD {
type string
default {
@func getenv
vars {
0 ALSA_PCM_CARD
1 ALSA_CARD
}
default {
@func refer
name 'defaults.pcm.card'
}
}
}
@args.DEV {
type integer
default {
@func igetenv
vars {
0 ALSA_PCM_DEVICE
}
default {
@func refer
name 'defaults.pcm.device'
}
}
}
@args.SUBDEV {
type integer
default {
@func refer
name 'defaults.pcm.subdevice'
}
}
type plug
slave.pcm {
type hw
card $CARD
device $DEV
subdevice $SUBDEV
}
}
plug {
@args.0 SLAVE
@args.SLAVE {
type string
}
type plug
slave.pcm $SLAVE
}
shm {
@args.0 SOCKET
@args.1 PCM
@args.SOCKET {
type string
}
@args.PCM {
type string
}
type shm
server $SOCKET
pcm $PCM
}
tee {
@args.0 SLAVE
@args.1 FILE
@args.2 FORMAT
@args.SLAVE {
type string
}
@args.FILE {
type string
}
@args.FORMAT {
type string
default raw
}
type file
slave.pcm $SLAVE
file $FILE
format $FORMAT
}
file {
@args.0 FILE
@args.1 FORMAT
@args.FILE {
type string
}
@args.FORMAT {
type string
default raw
}
type file
slave.pcm null
file $FILE
format $FORMAT
}
null {
type null
}
cards 'cards.pcm'
front 'cards.pcm.front'
rear 'cards.pcm.rear'
center_lfe 'cards.pcm.center_lfe'
side 'cards.pcm.side'
surround40 'cards.pcm.surround40'
surround41 'cards.pcm.surround41'
surround50 'cards.pcm.surround50'
surround51 'cards.pcm.surround51'
surround71 'cards.pcm.surround71'
iec958 'cards.pcm.iec958'
spdif 'cards.pcm.iec958'
modem 'cards.pcm.modem'
phoneline 'cards.pcm.phoneline'
dmix 'cards.pcm.dmix'
dsnoop 'cards.pcm.dsnoop'
See also
- vendor link: http://www.edirol.net/products/en/UA-25
Retrieved from "http://alsa.opensrc.org/Edirol_UA-25"