Re: [linux-audio-user] SBLive mailing list?

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] SBLive mailing list?
From: Speaker to Vegetables (speaker-to-vegetables_AT_pobox.com)
Date: Sat Sep 22 2001 - 16:53:05 EEST


I've got an SBLive "MP3+" and an AWE64 Gold card in my computer that I
dual boot between WIN95 (alas) and SuSE 7.1. The (SuSE RPM) version of
ALSA is 0.5.10-5. I've had some success recording through the SBLive
using Broadcast 2000. Using the Gamix mixer I can simultaneously record
one channel from the line input (guitar) and one from the mic input
(cheapo multimedia microphone, a Shure dynamic mic doesn't work well
with this input). I just select one each of "Line" and "Mic Boost" in
the Input Mux section. This doesn't seem to be possible with Creative's
Windows drivers.

I started with the version of Broadcast 2000 that was included in SuSE
7.1, but many of its effects user interfaces are broken. I downloaded
2000c from the heroinewarrior web site shortly before it was yanked,
and it works better. However, the equalizer effects, when
applied to some tracks and not others, alter the relative track timings
in an unpredictable way, even in non-real-time rendering. Broadcast
2000 uses the OSS API, which is emulated by ALSA. The great virtue of
the OSS API is that it is frozen, and thus applications do not have to
be changed every time ALSA makes a new release. Sometimes sound
playback through Broadcast 2000 becomes "crackly", but usually stopping
and restarting playback fixes this. Recording has been pretty clean so
far, by my cheap and dirty standards.
Even full duplex has worked.

I've played with MIDI and the on-board synth a little, and they exist,
but it appears that MIDI effects are not implemented, in which case
maybe I'd be better off with TiMIDIty or some other software-only
synth. It is really frustrating to me to wade through all the Web junk
looking for clues as to what is and isn't worth trying to use at this
point. Mostly I seem to find information that is years out of date,
like comparisons of ISA sound cards and tips about getting sound to
work with KDE (1.x), which have been wrong since KDE 2.0 came out.

I get the sense that split between the "old" OSS-API drivers that come
with the Linux kernel, and the "new" experimental ALSA drivers, has
gone on too long and has really hurt SBLive support in particular and
Linux as a musician's platform in general. I just hope that the ALSA
API can be frozen soon and turns out to be worth the wait.

Of course, it might also help if the sound card makers would stop
pretending that information about how to use these products were some
kind of valuable trade secret! Whatever happened to that open source /
free sound card design project?

-- 
"Even in America, justice can sometimes be made to prevail."


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