The Roland Edirol U-8 USB Digital Studio is an USB 1.1 audio and MIDI interface with a built in effect unit, that can also be used as a standalone digital mixer and a MIDI control surface. It was sold around 1998-2000 and the only full-featured device driver for it is for the Windows 98 operating system.
If you have the original driver CD that came with the U-8, please get in touch with me. It would be hugely helpful for mapping out the workings of the unit.
This is a work in progress. See u8ctl.py -h for usage instructions.
Examples:
./u8ctl.py -d hw:2,0,1 set 0x3c 127
This sets the master volume to maximum.
./u8ctl.py -d hw:2,0,1 set 0x2d 1
This mutes the 'effect' channel (reverb). Note that 1 = mute on, 0 = mute off.
./u8ctl.py -d hw:2,0,1 set 0x29 63
This pans the computer audio to the center. Note that 0 = left, 63 = center, 127 = right.
Linux and ALSA are required. u8ctl.py sends MIDI messages using the amidi command, which is part of ALSA.
Currently the snd-usb-audio kernel module needs to be patched with the included u8-audio-for-linux-4.11.patch and recompiled to enable sound from the U-8.