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USB audio

The Tracker shows up on a computer as a USB sound card, OpenTracker, next to its USB MIDI, serial and storage. Whatever the computer plays into it (a browser, a DAW, a software synth) can be heard through the Tracker and sampled with it, and the computer can record the Tracker. No driver needed.

Works with Linux and Windows. macOS sees the device but isn't supported: it can't follow the Tracker's clock, so expect a click every half-minute or so.

Hear the computer

  1. Connect the Tracker over USB and pick OpenTracker as the computer's audio output.
  2. On the Tracker, open the Global Mixer (Master, three presses) and unmute USB (F8), the last column.

Like Line in, USB starts muted in a new project. Its column works like the others: hold F8 and turn the encoder for the level, hold F8 + Delete for 0 dB, Shift + F8 to solo it. The level and mute are saved with the project.

USB audio joins the mix after the limiter, under master volume: the delay and reverb sends don't get it, and it isn't sent back to the computer (see below).

Sample the computer

  • Sample Recorder: Source USB (the fifth, after Mic HG). Always stereo, no Gain. With Monitor On you hear it at full level whatever the mixer says, as with Line in.
  • Resample: From USB records it on the bar, like Line in. You hear it through the Global Mixer USB column.

Record the Tracker on the computer

Pick OpenTracker as the input in the DAW or recorder and record. The computer gets the Tracker's master bus, the same signal Resample From Master takes:

  • After the limiter and before master volume: turn the Tracker down for listening without changing the recording level.
  • Line in is in it when unmuted in the Global Mixer, so the Tracker also works as the sound card for whatever is plugged into it.
  • Not in it: the metronome, file preview, and the computer's own USB audio. A DAW that records the Tracker while playing through it doesn't record its own playback again.

Nothing to turn on: it's sent while the computer records.

Good to know

  • Latency is about 5 ms each way on the Tracker plus the computer's own buffer: fine for sampling, recording and listening along, not for playing a software synth live from the pads.
  • The Tracker runs at 44,117 Hz, a little over the 44,100 Hz it names. Linux and Windows adjust for that on their side when recording, as with any USB sound card.
  • The computer's volume control works as usual (the Tracker has no volume of its own on the USB side).
  • While USB Storage mode copies files, USB audio drops out.