USB multiple audio input hardware

[rabrol]

Hi Folks.

I'm playing around a lot with Zello right now, and loving it as a streaming platform as it fits my needs really well.
Evidently I can run up to 8 instances of Zello at once. This is working well when using SDRs, but for aviation feeds I am using some old Pro-2006s among other radios.

Does anyone know of a USB audio device that can capture 4 to 8 simultaneous inputs that can be piped to individual Virtual Audio Cables?
e.g.
Radio 1 - Clearance -> USB Audio Input 1 -> VAC 1 -> Zello channel 1
Radio 2 - Ground -> USB Audio Input 2 -> VAC 2 -> Zello channel 2
Radio 3 - Tower -> USB Audio Input 3 -> VAC 3 -> Zello channel 3

The goal is for each feed to have its own Zello channel, rather than just having a scanner scan the channels to 1 feed.
Feeds from my scanners would typically be on standard 3.5mm aux cables.
Hardware advice most welcome!

 

[JoshuaHufford]

Hi Folks.

I'm playing around a lot with Zello right now, and loving it as a streaming platform as it fits my needs really well.
Evidently I can run up to 8 instances of Zello at once. This is working well when using SDRs, but for aviation feeds I am using some old Pro-2006s among other radios.

Does anyone know of a USB audio device that can capture 4 to 8 simultaneous inputs that can be piped to individual Virtual Audio Cables?
e.g.
Radio 1 - Clearance -> USB Audio Input 1 -> VAC 1 -> Zello channel 1
Radio 2 - Ground -> USB Audio Input 2 -> VAC 2 -> Zello channel 2
Radio 3 - Tower -> USB Audio Input 3 -> VAC 3 -> Zello channel 3

The goal is for each feed to have its own Zello channel, rather than just having a scanner scan the channels to 1 feed.
Feeds from my scanners would typically be on standard 3.5mm aux cables.
Hardware advice most welcome!

I've been searching for something like this myself with no success, I'd love to find it. Looking forward to any suggestions.

 

[DC31]

Just a shot in the dark here, i haven’t ever tried it myself. Take a raspberry pi, four usb ports (more with a hub), and insert four cheap usb sound cards. Use pulseaudio, paprefs, and pavucontrol to sort out the inputs. Pulse can then send that audio over your network to pulse running on your streaming computer where you do the routing of the audio to the Zello channels. Again, no assurances that this would work at all.

 

[rabrol]

Just a shot in the dark here, i haven’t ever tried it myself. Take a raspberry pi, four usb ports (more with a hub), and insert four cheap usb sound cards. Use pulseaudio, paprefs, and pavucontrol to sort out the inputs. Pulse can then send that audio over your network to pulse running on your streaming computer where you do the routing of the audio to the Zello channels. Again, no assurances that this would work at all.

Interesting idea. I was initially going to comment about Zello not having a Linux / Pi client, but see you pointed towards another solution.
However since the Pi can't stream to Zello directly, there would be no real advantages. I could just attach an 4 port USB hub with 4 single input sound devices straight to my laptop.

What I'm really looking for is multiple input USB devices to do this with. Something like the Motu 4pre for example, but perhaps priced a bit lower. Don't exactly need recording studio quality.

There's bound to be a few people already using these kinds of devices, so knowing what hardware works well would be really helpful.

 

[rabrol]

Just found the following as a potential device - the Behringer UMC404HD. Cost is under $200 for 4 separate USB channels, and allows for latency-free direct monitoring through the headphones when in the shack.

 

[IAmSixNine]

I have an older cheap laptop with 5 usb audio adapters running 4 broadcastify feeds and 1 going into the zello app for a private feed for me.
It works great. I have not tried running multiple instances of zello on the machine to have additional private feeds but i may at some point down the road. Do you need an audio mixer? I found that the cheap 5 dollar usb audio adapters work great on their own and i use the built in windows control pannel to adjust their gain and audio levels.

 

[rabrol]

I have an older cheap laptop with 5 usb audio adapters running 4 broadcastify feeds and 1 going into the zello app for a private feed for me.
It works great.

Thought I'd post an update.

Ordered some of the cheap USB sound card adaptors. Under £2 each! So far I'm just running one for the second scanner feed, but have 3 Zello instances running on the PC (1 input from the aforementioned USB adaptor, 1 from the onboard soundcard, and one from a virtual audio cable for demodulating a digital trunked system in my area).

Running 3 x Zello instances is a little tricky, but does work.

The cheap USB audio device also works ok, although has a bit of noise on the preamp. I turned the gain down in Zello which has helped reduce some of the noise. It seems to have its own AGC as well, which can sometimes give Zello problems with VOX operation. Setting the Tx & deactivation gains was time consuming. BUT, it does work and is a very inexpensive solution to adding more channels on a computer that is already running.

I may well attempt adding another of the USB adaptors to see how 4 x Zello feeds works out ;-)
Thanks for the suggestions chaps.

 

[IAmSixNine]

For my usb audio dongles, i turn the mic gain down to 10 (or basically low) Uncheck AGC and then adjust the scanner as needed.. I do this so the scanner has higher audio ouput and allows better audio with less noise. If you use low scanner audio and higher mic gain settings more noise gets in. At least on my set up.