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
Last edited by dwrae on Mon Dec 17, 2012 5:42 am; edited 2 times in total

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.

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

I would love to beta test this.

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

Mike

Hi Mike,

Email is preferred.

Thanks!

Davy

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!

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

I'll send you an email soon!

Definitely interested!

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!

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

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.

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!