Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] RME boards for Linux/Csound
From: David Gerard Matthews (dgm4+@pitt.edu)
Date: Sun Aug 04 2002 - 04:46:32 EEST
Hello,
The Hammerfall has a great reputation, but it might be more
cost-effective to go with one of the M-Audio cards if you don't need
16-24 channels of audio. The biggest selling point of the Hammerfall
cards (besides their legendary low-latency performance) is the massive
number of channels, and the ability to use external converters.
However, if you're not going to be using external D/A's, or a digital
mixer, then you're probably better off going with a card that uses an
external breakout box for the A/D/A, because that offers better
isolation from the CPU than you would get from the Hammerfall's
daughterboards. I personally use an M-Audio Delta 1010 and have been
quite happy with its performance under Linux; other cards from
manufacturers like Terratec which also use the Envy24 chipset should
work well too. All of this, of course, is not meant on a diss on the
Hammerfall cards - they really are great cards, however, if you're
mostly just doing CSound, with a bit of analog tape transfer, it
probably is severe overkill.
HTH,
dgm
pma wrote:
> Hi, Everyone.
>
> As my digital-audio-hardware savvy is wanting, I would much appreciate
> any critique of the following (not very long) purchase proposal.
>
> My old sound card, a vintage '91 MTU MicroSound running with Csound
> under MS-Windows, died recently. I am in search of a replacement, to
> run in a newer
> box under Debian Linux. My use of the system use will consist mainly
> of Csound generation to disk (no realtime issues) and the CD-burning
> of selected results. I'll want to hear directly from disk too, and
> record occasionally from analog tape.
>
> My proposed solution is an RME Hammerfall Lite, together with its two
> analog expansion boards, the AEB4-I & AEB4-O. If I understand, the
> main board on its own will format output appropriately for audio-CD,
> but requires the AEB4-I to record from analog sources, and requires
> the AEB4-O to play directly from disk.
>
> Question 1: Do I understand these essentials correctly? (Already
> have also the ALSA-0.9 sources, CD-burner, amplifier and speakers.)
>
> Question 2: Does the RME constitute overkill -- for someone mainly
> wanting sound _quality_ (not whatever new fancy functionalities) in
> his old-fashioned style of use? If a simpler alternate could serve
> me as well, any suggestions?
>
> Thanks in advance for your time.
> Peter
>
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