Subject: RE: [linux-audio-dev] embedded sound api.
From: Patrick Shirkey (pshirkey_AT_boosthardware.com)
Date: Wed Nov 21 2001 - 15:10:51 EET
I'll check out busybox as that seems the most likely route to take.
The idea is to have a dual boot system where the default boot is into
the embedded version and the secondary boot is to a full working version
of linux.
What is the reason for asking if it will have users and passwords?
For those who are interested what we are doing. We are going to supply a
fully functional portable digital recorder. On the hardware side it
will have a multiple input preamp with gain and panning, a large battery
and a notebook HDD.
I have sourced a very tidy little Motherboard which will run 2 sdram
sticks and upto a 1 ghz cerelon. I am going tomorrow to meet with cns
sytems who make a refrigerated cooling unit to replace the fans and
hopefully will be able to use that technology in the design.
The only draw back is that it will only have 2 tracks.ie stereo. The
sound card is an onboard cmipci. I anticipate that this may not be a
problem in the near future (next 5 years)
The target audience will be the movie and film industry but I'm guessing
that a lot of other people will find uses for it once we start shipping.
Obviously this is more than powerful enough to do a stereo recording but
we don't intend to stop there.
On the software side some of the options I'm considering incorporationg
are equalisation and volume control. This would need a large buffer I
guess. Possibly also some preset effects which would add to the sound
quality. Also I would want to incorporate a sound conditioner (is that
the right word?). This would be able to take a sample of the standard
input and then attempt to equalise or delete it from the track before
writing to disk.
In my opinion this will be one of the most important features because it
will allow the user to target sounds they want to capture by getting rid
of the unwanted peripheral noise. It will also be good for people who
have cheap mics or happen to be recording in a high solar wind period or
a lightening storm etc... ;-]
My grand vision is that this will have the same level of usability for
sound that a digital camera has for images.
Just to reinforce the point in case people haven't clicked already. This
is not a wish list but a work in progress.
What I would like to hear from people who are interested in sharing
their knowledge is what drawbacks they can see in the software
design/setup and ideas on how to fully open the internal power with the
press of a single button. I think the easiest peripheral to use is a
ps/2 numpad. The are easy to replace and pretty durable. This
essentially means that we are limited to 17-19 buttons. Most of those
will be used by the player/recorder
1 play/pause
2 record
3 stop
4 Fwd
5 FF
6 Rewind
7 RR
8,9,10 preset equalisation
11,12,13 prest effects
14 volume up
15 volume down
16,17,18,19 ???
In terms of the sound app I am considering using alsaplayer but it may
be easier to use Ecasound or Ksi-ardour. Andy, Kai, Paul, Jeremy ... do
you have anything to say on this matter?
-- Patrick Shirkey - Boost Hardware Ltd. http://www.boosthardware.com - For the discerning hardware connoisseur. http://www.boosthardware.com/LAU/Linux_Audio_Users_Guide/ =======================================================================
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