KVR Audio

dwrae · Post by **dwrae** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:20 pm

eXtream Software Development has managed to get USB audio recording working on Android 3.1 or higher devices! By writing a custom USB audio driver from scratch, both USB audio playback and recording will be possible for a lot of USB audio standard compliant devices.

EDIT: the software has been released to the Play Store as USB Audio Recorder PRO

You can see our Lexicon Omega in action here on our basic USB audio recorder app in development:

The driver will completely bypass Android including Android's incapable audio system. The advantages of USB audio and our driver are plenty:

Finally you will have decent connectivity to your Android device: connect mics with XLR, line inputs, instrument levels inputs, depending on your USB device
Playback and record in 16 or 24 bit
Lower, but more important, predictable latency that can fully and automatically be compensated for
Zero-latency monitoring on the devices that support it
Control hardware level input gain on the devices that support it
Multitrack recording capability

The USB audio recorder will be available as a stand-alone app and the USB audio driver will be available as an in-app purchase in our flagship multitrack audio sequencer, Audio Evolution Mobile. Currently, only USB audio spec 1.0 is supported, but this will be solved in a subsequent release. Both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 devices will be supported however.

Requirements will be an Android 3.1 or higher device and the device must support USB 'host' mode. Most recent devices have 'host' mode luckily. If your device has a micro-USB port, you can connect to full-size USB using a so-called USB OTG cable. No rooting of your device is required.

Testers wanted:
If you are interested in a pre-release alpha version and meet the following requirements, please send an email to info AT audio-evolution.com:

You have one or more Android devices that meet the requirements
You have one or more USB audio devices
You are fluent in English writing
You usually anwer to emails within 2 days

We hope to have a release within one or two months.

Kind regards,

Davy
eXtream Software Development

twisted-space · Post by **twisted-space** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:42 pm

Hi Davy, this sound very cool.
Will the driver be useable in other apps or only in audio evolution/usb recorder?

dwrae · Post by **dwrae** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:49 pm

twisted-space wrote:Hi Davy, this sound very cool.
Will the driver be useable in other apps or only in audio evolution/usb recorder?

It's not a 'driver' in that sense, so it will only be available in my apps.

InfernoX · Post by **InfernoX** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:44 am

I would love to be a tester.
I will send you an e-mail!

Karmacomposer · Post by **Karmacomposer** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:59 am

I would love to beta test this.

I meet all criteria. How do you want me to contact you? Email or PM?

Mike

dwrae · Post by **dwrae** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 10:16 am

Hi Mike,

Email is preferred.

Thanks!

Davy

Karmacomposer wrote:I would love to beta test this.

I meet all criteria. How do you want me to contact you? Email or PM?

Mike

Ulrik Sander · Post by **Ulrik Sander** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 5:19 pm

Hi

I'm very interested in this. But I have some questions:

1: I have a Samsung Galaxy S2. Is it supported? Does the OS have to be rooted?

2: Will any audio interface be sufficient? I have an M-Audio Audiophile USB audio interface.

3: Which USB cable will I need?

4: Does any Android apps at ALL support this USB recording feature ATM?
I'd be satisfied for long if just Audio Evolution has the feature.

I really pray it works without rooting.

And thanks for contributing to taking Android music making to the next level!

dwrae · Post by **dwrae** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 5:24 pm

Dear Ulrik,

Just send me an email and we can try!

No root required. You device just has to have Android 3.1 or higher and USB host mode.

In theory, all USB audio compliant devices will work, but that's just in theory. You will need a USB OTG cable to go from micro-USB to full-size USB and trigger the USB host mode.

Only Audio Evolution Mobile and the basic USB audio recorder app will have this feature until someone else puts months in developing a driver too of course.

Kind regards,

Davy

Ulrik Sander wrote:Hi

I'm very interested in this. But I have some questions:

1: I have a Samsung Galaxy S2. Is it supported? Does the OS have to be rooted?

2: Will any audio interface be sufficient? I have an M-Audio Audiophile USB audio interface.

3: Which USB cable will I need?

4: Does any Android apps at ALL support this USB recording feature ATM?
I'd be satisfied for long if just Audio Evolution has the feature.

I really pray it works without rooting.

And thanks for contributing to taking Android music making to the next level!

Ulrik Sander · Post by **Ulrik Sander** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 6:14 pm

I'll send you an email soon!

Platopi · Post by **Platopi** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:02 pm

Definitely interested!

dwrae · Post by **dwrae** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 1:46 pm

Ok, so far I've got the following devices working:

Lexicon Omega
Lexicon Alpha
iMic
Behringer UCA222
M-Audio Fast Track

The M-Audio Fast Track Pro is partly working, but I'll get that device in a couple of days. M-Audio Duo is working partly as well.

Note that probably a lot more devices are working, but I simply cannot afford to buy them all. Just like the M-Audio Fast Track that I got in this week: I just plugged it in and it worked!

Now I'm continuing with USB audio spec 2.0 devices on USB 2.0 (PreSonus AudioBox 22VSL and FocusRite Scarlett 18i6 are on my desk here). Wish me luck!

Carmelious · Post by **Carmelious** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 8:20 pm

So what we're talking here is the ability to connect a USB audio interface to any kind of Android operated smartphone - and record with whatever kind and number of mikes and MIDI your external audio card supports? Just like PC?

You know Jellybean supports audio output through usb now? Isn't this more than half-way to your work?

Anyway would like to know some more since I am about to buy a new phone and audio card, and that would help me decide

dwrae · Post by **dwrae** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 8:39 pm

Kind of. Not for any kind of device, see the requirements above. MIDI is already possible by the way, see my USB MIDI Monitor app.

Of course I know JB support USB audio output (although funnily it doesn't work for me), but half-way is still not there. The reason Google added USB audio playback is for putting your phone on a speaker system like you can with iPod/iPhones. They are not interested in recording, let alone multi-channel recording! And in the event that Android 5 or 6 supports USB audio recording, it's likely they will still have the terrible latency and latency jitter they have now and no control whatsoever on the internals of the device (mixers, gain, etc.).

Of course we can all wait until hell freezes over, but I think there will be a lot of people who appreciate my effort.

If you buy a new phone, don't buy a Samsung Galaxy S2, that's quite clear from my testers. Samsung delibaretely disabled USB for most types of devices including audio on their S1 and S2's.

Carmelious wrote:So what we're talking here is the ability to connect a USB audio interface to any kind of Android operated smartphone - and record with whatever kind and number of mikes and MIDI your external audio card supports? Just like PC?

You know Jellybean supports audio output through usb now? Isn't this more than half-way to your work?

Anyway would like to know some more since I am about to buy a new phone and audio card, and that would help me decide

Carmelious · Post by **Carmelious** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 9:17 pm

I think the world should be anxiously looking forward for your program..!

dwrae · Post by **dwrae** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 9:22 pm

Carmelious wrote:I think the world should be anxiously looking forward for your program..!

Well, I certainly hope so!

And my Presonus AudioBox 22VSL with USB 2.0 and USB audio spec 2.0 just started playing back nicely in 24-bit!

USB audio recording for Android. It's here.. almost!