Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Demudi looking good, soundcard advice?
From: Emiliano Grilli (emiliano.grilli_AT_poste.it)
Date: Thu Oct 14 2004 - 16:23:08 EEST
giovedì, 14 ottobre 2004 alle 12:47:25, Alejandro Lopez ha scritto:
> The only other thing is I may need to buy a decent soundcard for this
> PC. It should have a GM synth (nothing special since I guess I'll be
> using soft synths anyway but I don't want to run a synth just to write
> a couple of arrangements), one stereo output and one stereo input both
> with good overall audio quality. Seemingly, the current trend is
> towards either USB 2.0, firewire or PCI. A colleague has just told me
> that USB 2.0 is supported by the Linux kernel starting from the latest
> version (2.6 I think?) only. Since music distributions are based on
> other distributions, chances are that they now run the 2.4 kernel or
> maybe older. Does that make sense or am I talking complete b*ll*cks?
> Also, this friend has heard about drops happening with audio over USB,
> but apparently this was on a Mac and the USB device was a hard disk
> rather than a soundcard. Still, he seems to think that USB 2.0 is not
> as good option as firewire for audio. (Which reminds me of SCSI vs IDE
> drives for audio a few years back, yes SCSI was the serious option for
> a couple of years but it was an 80% more expensive as well, and shortly
> afterwards IDE started to go "fast enough" and cheaper.) Is firewire
> better? Is it more expensive? Also, how does it compare to PCI? Lastly,
> if any of you has bought a soundcard (recently so the card is still in
> production) which is reasonably similar to what I need (wouldn't mind
> if it's slightly better, say 4 mono inputs and 4 mono outputs or
> something) and has succeed with having it running under a Linux based
> music studio, I'd be grateful if you drop a line.
As far as I know firewire based audio cards still aren't supported by ALSA,
and USB devices aren't that good, especially with jack (a sound server
which you probably *want* to run ;)
Also onboard synths are difficult to find nowadays on pro or semi-pro
hardware, for this is better to stick to an hw external expander or a
soft-synth like qsynth or timidity.
Among PCI cards, one of the best value for price is IMHO the m-audio
audiophile 24/96, which in europe you can find at around 100 eur. It is a
pure stereo card based on the well supported envy24 chip, it has s/pdif
I/O, analog I/O and MIDI I/O :
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-main.html
I don't owe one, but I have recommended it to a pair of friends and they
seem to have liked it :)
As for 4 I/O, the only one I know is the m-audio delta 44 (around 155 euro
in europe, but *without* s/pdif and MIDI):
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Delta44-main.html
the delta 66 is the same as the 44 but with s/pdif (~ 190 euro).
Then, the cheapest (of which I'm aware of) 8 I/O interface is the staudio
dsp2000 c-port (around 400 euro in EU):
http://www.staudio.com/products/dsp2000.html
> Many thanks!!
HTH ciao
PS: I've taken current prices from http://www.thomann.de , with italian tax
rates applied.
-- Emiliano Grilli Linux user #209089 http://www.emillo.net
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