Interfacing Linux: Digidesign 003R Take #2

In 2007 Digidesign released the Digi 003R. Fourteen years later it learned how to Linux.

Where to buy:
eBay

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Drivers

Takashi Sakamoto maintains snd-firewire-improve and that’s what we need to get the 003R up and running. These instructions should work for modern Debian based systems.

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1. Install the build dependencies.

sudo apt-get install dkms build-essential git linux-headers-$(uname -r)

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2. Clone the git repository and install the kernel modules.

git clone https://github.com/takaswie/snd-firewire-improve.git
cd snd-firewire-improve
sudo ln -s $(pwd) /usr/src/alsa-firewire-4.17
sudo dkms install alsa-firewire/4.17

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ALSA Mixer

If you want access to the controls available in alsamixer you’re going to need snd-firewire-ctl-services. It’s a bit of a pain to setup but should find its way into the kernel eventually.

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Pulseaudio

The Digidesign 003R will function like any other sound device in pavucontrol.

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Jack

Select the ALSA driver to connect your Digidesign 003R to the Jack server. 

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Round-trip Latency

While many kinds of audio latency metrics exist, one useful and well-understood metric is round-trip latency; the time it takes for an audio signal to enter the input of a device, get processed, and exit the output.

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Testing setup

CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 1700
RAM	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB
Motherboard	MSI B350 Tomahawk
GPU	Nvidia NVS 300
SSD	Samsung 840
PSU:	EVGA 600 B1
Firewire:	Syba SY-PEX30016
Network:	Intel i350-T4
OS:	Debian Bullseye
Kernel:	5.10-rt-amd64
Desktop:	NA

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Verdict

The Digidesign 003R is a fantastic little massive interface for the price. Four preamps, four line level inputs plus ADAT & MIDI. While the round-trip latency is a bit on the high side It’s still serviceable at higher sample rates.

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