Does anyone have an audio interface they don't completely hate? I don't; please advise?

My 2i2 works fine. I've had it over a decade and used a ton of different distro. Never had any issues at all. Got a 4i4 a couple years ago. Works great for me on opensuse and fedora without issue.

MOTU M4 works flawlessly across multiple machines and distros. No config needed. I use it for day to day movie and tv watching and with numerous audio apps for audio IO.

The Behringer UMC1820 has two separate monitoring outputs, 8 in/out and digital in/out. It works out of the box (class compliant)

https://preview.redd.it/kcnmiub8u6rh1.png?width=552&format=png&auto=webp&s=a278834ae13292ff08ce3f66d859ce379685c519

to echo your Behringer comment, I use a UMC404 HD and don't have issues with it. (Mint and reaper). And it has four outputs + headphone jack

I use both Behringer UMC202HD and umc1820hd with Linux and both fire up perfectly without issue

I've had a Native instruments Komplete Audio 6 for decades now, in that time it hasn't even thought about not being compatible.

It does a couple of annoying things (like crackle with the main volume knob) I assume that they are no longer for sale though.

I never had problems with my 2nd gen focusrite.

Now I have a Motu M2 and it's working well.

I use a Steinberg UR22 and it works flawlessly since the day I got it

I use the Arturia Minifuse 2 and I absolutely love it. It has a hardware/software monitor blend knob and a separate speaker volume and headphone volume knob with 2 high quality inputs. It also has a USB hub port which I recently realised is excellent for plugging in my midi controller. It works quite seemlessly with Mixbus 12 on my Pop! _OS system.

I too would like to know. Just been using a boss rc-600 for my interface. It's technically an 8x8, but it's stuck at 44.1k. Was really the behringer units would work out of the box. My concern with devices is drivers being necessary for internal routing, that's what's nice about using the rc-600, all the internal routing is done via the device interface itself, not from a driver

Focusrite 18i8 3rd Gen

https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui

USBpre 2

I've got a third-gen 18i20 that's worked without issues for about a year. You have to install the third-party Linux drivers, but they work like a treat for me. Geoffrey Bennett is doing holy work. Before that I had a third-gen 8i6 that was 100% plug-and-play, no special drivers needed. Mostly various Ubuntu flavors, but also Mint, though Mint is built on Ubuntu. I will say Ubuntu Studio was definitely the easiest to get it up and running, I know a lot of people have very justified misgivings about Canonical but there's something to be said for a distro/flavor that's preconfigured for low-latency audio and external interfaces.

im currently in the transition to linux (few months into everyday driver/gaming) and am currently in the middle of figuring out the music production side of things. specifically, how to get audio in and out of my focusrite 18i20, get my synths connected (especially my elektron boxes via overbridge) and of course midi all over the place...

i didnt see any reason to use something other than pipewire, and found qpwgraph, which so far, seems exactly what i need... basically gives me a full patchbay for midi and audio across all my synths, controllers, daw, and system... theres a couple things lacking, like organization qol stuff, and the fact that i am currently trying to figure out what is what (it shows ALL i/o, so you get duplicates of stuff for headphone/monitor mixes, and other split signals - i think - so my focusrite has like 40ish ins and 40ish outs represented, most of which i would like to just hide) but otherwise, it seems to do what i need it too

edit: corrected pqwgraph to qpwgraph

My Scarlett 18i20 Gen4 works great with Linux. Even has an open source project dedicated to the software control side of the interface, including firmware updates fwiw.

I use the Motu Ultralite mk5 and it kicks. Not sure if you want that expensive but it's awesome

I just got my old Apogee Ensemble FireWire going, as a new Linux user, which isn’t “supported.”

I actually really like my Behringer umc 1820. It has zero features aside from the buttons and knobs on the front. Decent latency for midi drums, and stays out of my way. It still surprises me, I had Focusrite Clarett and MOTU before switching to Linux and the
Behringer just works. Sounds good and is definitely not what is holding me back lol

Digidesign digi002 rack as ADAT + Yamaha O2r and old Intel dp35dp motherboard with TI ieee1394 chip work perfectly for years. Had thoughts about rme hdsp as ADAT interface to use with modern motherboards but not sure if Debian works with it

I use an Antelope Audio Zen Tour and it works fine. I can't change the routing obviously but I dual boot windows and if I REALLY need to change the routing I boot into that and change it. Otherwise I get all the inputs and I have a Behringer ADA8200 and a Motu 828 MkII feeding the ADAT inputs and routing the TASCAM 8 outs on the Zen Tour as well.

I have a Tascam US-16x08 and it's great, once you install the tascam-gtk gui application that lets you enable/disable the computer audio function (it's enabled by default in windows, but some Linux distros have it off but don't expose that to the user for some reason)

I use a presonus audiobox itwo and it has been perfect on every OS I have tried it on. I used it on Fedora, Arch and now RHEL 9 and it works perfectly

I’ve had good luck with Scarlett. What are your other settings?

My RME hdspe AIO pro works like a charm, only down side is it won’t output any audio until I open the mixer software.

Universal Audio Volt works really really well on Linux.

Focusrite is either a hit or miss, if you get lucky, you will get one of the best price valued audio interfaces, but chances are high that you will get a not propperly working device.

I was lucky with my Focusrite 2nd gen

This...

https://solidstatelogic.com/products/ssl-2-plus-mkii

My Behringer UMC404hd has no trouble whatsoever in Linux. I use it for experimenting in the box on my own time.

I've also just accepted delivery of a used Zoom R16. The power supply was DOA, but when I connected it to my Parlour desktop it came straight up, all 8 inputs ready to rock, and the DAW control via MAckie Control UNiversal was quick & easy to get crackin' in Reaper.

Currently using an ex-office Dell Optiplex 9020(circa 2016) with quad core i5 @ 3.4GHz, , 16GB DDR3, 240GB SSD, running AVLinuxMXE.

I could manage it with a Raspberry Pi4b, but I don't need to.

My Zoom L20r works in Linux too, but the iPoop for control thing gets in the way of making the most of it as an audio interface...

I have Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 3rd gen, and it's rock solid. Although I must admit I haven't even tried using sampling rates beyond 48kHz.

I use a XR18 from Behringer. 

16i16 and UMC204HD doing well for me.

Focusrite Scarlett line generally works fine under Linux as they're USB compliant,there's also a driver made for them by someone.(Unfortunately I have the 1st Gen solo so I can't use that driver,but my friends have had luck with newer interfaces).

Audient IDxx Series also are USB compliant,and mixID is there for that to use it natively (I use an iD14MK2 specifically ,as i upgraded from the Scarlett solo gen 1).

What’s not working with your RME? I insisted on running PC mode in Linux instead of class compliant for my Babyface Pro Fs, so I started making a driver for it so that I can eventually port a rendition of TotalMix. It’s going well so far, low latency, 32/48 native, all channels available.

SSL 2 MkII, its pricey but its worth it.

I've been using a steinberg UR12 with fedora for the past year, and I don't remember setting anything up, I think it just worked.

No idea what’s going wrong for you. Never had an interface that didn’t work.

Linux still has all the old drivers in the kernel no idea what you mean there.

AP Mastering swears by the MOTU 10-Pre, but really any class compliant device should just work its 20/6!

https://motu.com/en-us/products/10pre/

I have a UMC404HD which Just Works with Ubuntu Studio, Reaper.

I only have time to hate my ancient analog mixer which is about 50% unusable and a cheapo amplifier which is noisy and has a crackly pot (I usually use spray isopropanol from Amazon for pot cleaning, but I haven't yet got around to it).

Gen1 Audient ID4, worked out of box. All physical controls on it, believe the newer mk2 is more problematic with digital controls.

Have plugged it into various mint boxes over the years, main rig is Ubuntu Studio for about ten years and never had an issue on that, currently on v26. Seems to work fine in Cachy too although only used it for output.

My Audient iD24 works good

I use an Steinberg MKII UR, works flawless, but just for hobby purposes. May be there are other factors destabilizing your systems? I found the combo pipewire/jack/pulseaudio confusing and difficult to setup stable until I kicked out the native jack driver, and I had Xruns until I stopped sandboxing in Bitwig (linux mint 22.3)..so there are a couple of other possible factors that can interfere, one I keep running into are "bad" USB and audio cables.. What is Debian FFS? Not familiar with that one.

SSL 2+ MKII - 100% linux compatible, because it's class compliant and needs no proprietary drivers.

Not only that, it's got top of the line performance, and ranks in the S Tier in Julian Krause's latest comparison.

The Topping E2x2 supports the bitrates you want, not fully class compliant, but the functionality you need should work OOTB https://www.topping.store/products/topping-e2x2-otg-usb-audio-interface

EVO 4 works great

I'm super happy with my Topping E2x2 OTG

I'm pretty happy with my Steinberg ur22 mk2

SSL 12

Scarlett 2nd gen 6i6
Behringer UMC204HD

Both work fine.

Im happy with all what i have. Older Presonus stuff, M-audio legacy, Uphoria, everything works fluently. I used Focusrite of my friend, and didnt even noticed that im using something different. Also fluent.

Love my motu m2. Plug and play

Milne is a Clarett+ 8pre with an Octopre lightpipe expander. It just works, 100% rock solid, and there’s even a GUI equivalent of Focusrite Control available.

In face, Focusrite stuff is generally considered a safe bet for Linux .

Get a bigger behringer that has the outputs you need. If you get the rackmount size one you get upgraded to the good pre-amps as well.

Huh. I use an RME UFX+ that works flawlessly in class compliant mode and has never given me any trouble. Genuinely surprised to hear you’ve had problems with RME stuff.

allen heath qu5 and before it an allen heath cq18t and before that the 1st version of the Native Instruments KA6 (silver one).. and the tascam 16x08 which I hated but it worked perfectly.

I'm broke so I still have to use my first gen 2i2, which was almost unusable with Ableton on windows due to constant power cycling. Since I moved to openSUSE Tumbleweed and Bitwig on the exact same machinery, it runs like clockwork so no complaints, gets the job done reliably.

MOTO M2 does not suck.

anything RME. can be a bit pricy, but the quality is so good that these are lifetime purchases. i have a babyface running for 12 years now, not a single issue ever, like nothing. heard the same things about their bigger brothers like ucx n co. and the preamps are really great imo.

Motu m series

my universal audio volt 2 is working pretty well with mint so far. only had it for a month or two though so it hasn't gotten a whole lot of use, but linux has no problem detecting it

Both my motus work great in nix, when I've used them in nix. Ihae an 8pre-es and an m2. (as far as RME goes, they are famous for how long they support their hardware, sooo....

I used to use only the PCI MAudio 2496. The last 8 years I've been using a USB Yamaha/Steinberg UR242 - both have had no issues under Linux.

I use the Axe I/O One. It works flawlessly on Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora. It's designed specifically for guitarists. It also has ports for footswitches or wah pedals, which I use to activate individual pedals via MIDI. It can also do re-amping, though I haven't tried that on Linux yet.

Moto M2, Behringer UMC22 and UMC202HD

Edirol UA5 here, Steinberg CI1 on another machine, another Roland in the rehearsal room, then a couple of very cheap Behringers in a drawer should one of the bigger ones break. Nothing particularly new or expensive, but they work flawlessly under Debian and other distros. Should one day need a new one for more inputs it will likely be a Tascam US16x08 which is reported to work perfectly with Linux as well, also with a dedicated native software (tascam-gtk).

I'm currently using an SSL 2. It works, but it has a factory defect: the phantom power occasionally restarts on its own. I wasn't able to start an RMA because I live in Brazil and bought the unit in the US.

Before that, I tried a Behringer UMC204HD. It didn't work on my PC, even though it worked fine on some of my friends' computers.

Audient is solid I think. I have iD44 mk1. Great hardware. Class compliant. I did use the software mixer application from Windows to store a saved state which is stopped in the interface permanently. I can't change this from Linux, but I don't need the mixer software. I can still change the sample rate if needed using pipewire.

I have 2x ADA8200 8 channel expanders via ADAT giving 24 channels input, no problems at all.

Some people have reported the new EVO models sometimes having issues. I might stick with the iD models.

I used Debian briefly but sticking with Kubuntu now, because there was less set up. Ubuntu studio worked fine too.

I use 48khz but 96khz works fine.

I like my Mackie ProFX12v3 mixer but it only has a single stereo in so it's not great if you need separate tracks simultaneously. It's just me though and I can't play more than one instrument at a time, so it's no big deal for me. It's capable of 24/192k or 32f/192k and has 2/4 USB I/O channels. It has separate headphone and monitor out plus an additional main out, mono monitor out, and another stereo out, so I have my headphones, stereo monitors, guitar monitor, and my MPC all connected to the outputs with an extra stereo pair to spare.

Mackie Onyx Producer 2.2 (https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/mackie-onyx-producer-22), discontinued unfortunately but does 24/192, headphone and balanced monitors outputs each with volume control. 2 Inputs, one with optional 48v, both with optional hi Z.
Plug (set up Jack/Pipewire) and play on Linux Mint, shouldn't be different on Debian.

It’s time you discovered Motu my friend. I switched to Motu converters in my studio and use and M2 at home for mixing and editing. Both are flawless.

Currently have..
Firewire:
Apogee duet
Focusrite Saphire 40
Been playing with fixing the kernel firewire_core race condition but they work ok with ffado.
M-audio fast track Ultra:
Has been my main interface forever. needs some electronics love the power switch is and always was a piece of garbage prone to self oscillation. and I probably should replace the power and filter capacitors.
Had a Behringer 202HD which was never any drama. needed more in's and outs for setting up synths tho.

I know this is old school but I have my (pre avid) Pro Tools 001 with pci card and i/out box. Anyone ever find a way to hack it and get it to work? Other wise its only gonna live on my old Quicksilver Mac which is collecting dust.

In my home studio I'm currently using a Yamaha RuIO16-D paired via Dante (unfortunately configured in Windows) with a Yamaha TIO1608-D. I'm planning on getting a Marian Clara Emin within the next year, as I've seen RME lacks official Linux support but Marian does have it. All done via pipewire in Ubuntu 26.04 and using Reaper as my DAW.

The only thing I don't like in this setup is that to change dante configurations and to change the TIO preamp levels I need to use a Windows machine, though fortunately I can use my wife's windows laptop just connected via Ethernet to the separate dante network. Plus, since the RuIO16-D is 16x16 that means that there's 2 inputs I'm wasting.

I'm currenlty at [44.1kHz 24bit WAV : 32/12ch 128spls ~2.9/2.9ms JACK] as reported by Reaper. It's the lowest latency I could muster 100% stable with no dropouts. I can go even lower samples but only if I don't use anything but Audio, haven't tried 96kHz as the TIO1608 does not have that samplerate available.

I'm actually very happy with this setup but as I do need more channels for the expanding synth collection, I'm going to get as many TIO1608 as I can to pair with my future Marian Clara Emin.

PS: in this setup I use the RuIO16-d via USB-C and it's main outputs for the stereo monitors, the headphone jack for headphones and the RuIO16-D to process audio with either synths or Eurorack. Something to note is that the TIO1608 is compatible with Eurorack levels for input/output. All these outputs have separate audio levels.

It's not the fanciest or most expensive but the mackie producer 2x2 has been serving me well. No special drivers, no anything. Just plug n play and capable of 64 samples @ 48kHz (2.1ms)

Specs (taken from amazon listing): - High-resolution 2 in x 2 out 24-Bit/192kHz recording plus MIDI I/O with The Musician Collection of 23 plugins and instruments - Two boutique-quality Onyx mic preamps with class-leading fidelity and dynamic range with 48v Phantom Power for use with studio condenser mics - XLR/TRS combo inputs accept mic, line and Hi-Z instrument level sources - Zero-latency direct monitoring of analog inputs with dedicated outputs for connecting studio monitors and a powerful headphone output - Great for easy mobile recording with USB 2. 0 connectivity for fast transfer speed and low latency, bus-power requiring no power adapter, and built-Like-A-Tank design to survive day-to-day abuse

note: im still switching to linux but i tried this interface and it worked well (pavucontrol recognized my IO after selecting the appropriate type)

I had a super complicated 8channel + 16 expandable focusrite clarett with lots of in and out routings and digital outputs and the lot, etc etc, thinking i would need it for when i had a studio... But i ended up doing mostly audio work for AV projects so i ended up selling it and buying a Presonus studio 26c.

I have a tiny bit of buyers regret because I'm currently using analog synths for a project, but i just got a 20 USD mixer off facebook marketplace, since im not actually planning to do a live session and perform. But its a real limitation i did get into after downsizing so i wanted to share it.

It has two virtual routings into two main outputs: out 1+2 and out 3+4, as well as a headphone out. it has two independent inputs that you can switch the preamp between line and mic level, it has phantom power and a monitor button to send the inputs to mix

IIRC you can select which mix goes to headphones out virtually but i've always used it with 1+2 out so im not sure

it has a built in virtual loopback feature but ive rarely used it, basically it re-routes your ASIO or whatever audio source you have to a virtual input (in 3+4) or you can change it to go into main out, i used to do this with soundflower back in the day when i owned a mac so its a plus to have

you can change the sample frequency up to 192 and you control the block size from its own app so that your DAW switches to your preferred audio driver settings (tho you still need to manually change the sample frequency your project is recording as, ofc)

I would definitely recommend it for a small home studio use if you just need 2 mixes at most, and 2 inputs at most. Not sure if it has expandable ADC that you can hook up to external preamps but i doubt it

You could check the other interfaces in this line to see if one has the hardware stuff you need, seeign as at least this model works well on linux