Re: [linux-audio-user] New hardware choice

From: <aljordan@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Thu May 12 2005 - 21:10:07 EEST

----- Original Message -----
From: lanas <lanas@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Thursday, May 12, 2005 6:44 am
Subject: [linux-audio-user] New hardware choice

> Hi all,
>
> I'm plaaning to get a new home PC that could also be used (along
> withsoftware development) for creating and recording music.
>
> What I'd like to do: sequence MIDI external sounds (synth
> module(s)),add accoustic guitar and flute, record everything to wav
> and/or Ogg
> Vorbis formats (using original external synths sounds).
> Optionally, to
> be also able to choose from a palette of SoundFonts (as I did with
> my current PC, using a SB Live! card and MusE).
>
> What I'd like to get as PC: an Athlon 64bit based mobo, 2 GB RAM,
> some250 GB disk storage. graphics card not that important as it's
> not used
> to play games (why not on-board graphic ?). Operating system: in the
> end most likely handmade Linux based on LFS (Linux From Scratch)
> but for
> starters SuSE 9.3 64-bit, or any other that's good enough.
>
> Now, is there some strong allergic reaction between a Linux Audio
> setup and 64-bit CPUs ? Are 64-bits platforms recommended for audio
> purposes or is it better to wait a few more years ? If it's OK, which
> mobo would you recommend ?

I have been using an AMD 64 3500+ on an ABIT AV8 motherboard. The
system is extremely stable and very fast, and everything is supported in
the distribution I am running. I am not running a 64 bit distro though,
as I have not had any good luck with audio apps under a 64 bit distro.
I've had very good luck with the Planet CCRMA 32 bit distribution of
Fedora Core 3, using the Planet CCRMA edge kernel, and the CCRMA audio
packages.

> Which audio/MIDI card would you recommend for such a setup ?

I am using the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 with good results. You might
consider one of the M_Audio Delta series if you will be recording the
guitar and flute as they have a greater variety of inputs and are not
insanely expensive. None of these cards will offer zero latency, but
they will offer much lower latency than your SB-Live card. With an AMD
64 chip and 2 gig of RAM, you can plenty of software synths to sequence
your midi through soundfonts so you won't need the hardware player on
the SB-live card. I should mention that certain soundfonts sound
screwed up through one of the soundfont soft-synths I've used in Linux.

Alan
Received on Fri May 13 00:15:13 2005

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