Re: [LAU] Audigy too

On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 11:23:40PM +1030, Batz wrote:
[...]
> I need to see Linux sampler/fluid synth, etc, working. It doesn't
> matter to me upon what distro. The reason is that I need to know
> that they are going to work in this situation. There's not much
> point pouring time and resource into something only to find that
> it's design philosophy is anathema to the limitations of my
> methodology. On the other hand, I might find a workaround. Or even a
> better way of doing things. I just don't know till I can see it
> working. And then I'd know if it's worth putting in the hard work of
> nailing a system down. That's all I'm saying.
>
> From what I'd been reading there seems to be a couple of big flaws
> in the design of both fluid and LSP. But I can't tell from just
> reading about it. On the other hand they seem tantalizingly
> comprehensive. I really need to see that for myself. That's really
> the only point I'm making about that. It's actually a small point
> and I'm sorry to have had to labor it so. What I was asking is if
> there was any sure fire way I can get to that point so I can
> audition them. What's the quickest path? However you want to phrase
> that.
>
> Once I can see it's efficacy, once I can evaluate the behavior, then
> I can invest time in the nuts and bolts. With a view to honing it
> into a semi-embedded system perhaps.
>
> The thing is that everybody seems to be concerned with recording.
> And to a slightly lesser extent, sequencing. Sampling and
> soft-synths are seen as add-ons and plug-ins to those things. This
> philosophy presents us with a conundrum. Those solutions work well
> in the short term. However in the long term they are redundant. I
> need an instrument that is independent of those things and yet
> completely controllable. Future proof to an extent. Because once I
> start composing with this instrument, there's no going back. If I
> want to play the same song in 10 years time, I have to know that the
> instrument that makes the sounds is going to be there. Even if
> everything else changes around it. And that's just one issue.
From the above, I infer that what you're after is a "proof of concept"
or "proof of workability". In this case, I suggest you pick any
distribution that suits your taste and install packages like fluid and
linuxsampler. Don't bother with pro audio, rt, or even jack at this
point, if all you want is to "see if it works for you". Then, once you
know for sure, you can upgrade to the latest versions of those packages
and focus on making your system battle-ready, so to speak.

Cheers,
S.M.

>
> That's enough orthodoxy for one evening I'm sure. Except to thank
> everyone once again for your advice. And move right along.
>
> At 11:37 PM 3/16/2011 -1000, david <gnome@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
>
> >Over the next year of his use of it, they had to walk him through
> >reimaging the system and reconfiguring things because Windows wouldn't
> >boot, or some other thing failed. Finally the hardware failed completely
> >and they sent him a whole new computer system to replace. He still
> >didn't get his "works out of the box" experience.
>
> This is why we use linux isn't it?
>
> In actual fact, windows can be nailed down pretty well these days.
> Use TinyXP or now, Tiny7. These "unofficial" versions allow you to
> pre-install windows (AKA BOSH AKA Bastard Operating System from
> Hell) without all the M$-centric crap. IE, Outlook, WiMP and DotNet.
> Once you get rid of all the virus magnets, it's actually half decent
> and runs about 3 times faster. Since these things are where 99% of
> all the hooks for malicious code reside, you have to purposefully
> install something to get stung. Replace IE with FireFox. Or better
> yet, Opera. Replace WiMP with VLC. Who needs WiMP when you've got
> VLC anyway? And Outlook, What can I say. Virus anyone? And anything
> that requires DotNet Framework or VB script shouldn't be in your
> system anyway. No matter how tantalizingly bling it may appear. It's
> not enough to just disable these things. You have to rip their still
> beating hearts out from the system. The beauty is that Tiny does it
> all for you from the get go.
>
> The sad irony of all this is that I tend to learn far more about
> fixing and butchering BOSH systems simply because the bloody things
> break so readily. I don't get those kinds of opportunities with
> linux because the damn things never die. I've got a SlackServer
> here that ran for 5 years, 24/7. And even then all we did was jack
> it up and put another Mo-Bo under it. That was 2 years ago.
>
> But having said that, every system I've run up with TinyXP seems to
> be getting the same kind of mileage. Except for the guy who blamed
> his kids for installing a firefox tool bar which eventually snagged
> his machine. Was a bit embarrassing when I discovered that it was a
> porn toolbar and he, himself had installed it. You think your friend
> is dumb as a rock?
>
> Then there's ReactOS. http://www.reactos.org An open source version
> of windows which seems to be coming along quite nicely these days.
> I'll likely use that if I have to install this CreatiFlabs card
> under Windows.
>
> >I don't think he's tried a Mac yet. Maybe he should.
> >
> >I booted his first machine off a Linux audio distro's live CD. The sound
> >worked. (Other stuff didn't, I think the system had a bunch of
> >Windows-only hardware in it.) So I didn't recommend that he use Linux on it.
>
> That's not been an issue since the days of WinModems. Perhaps
> there's no driver but even BIOS shouldn't be an issue with linux
> because once the kernel takes over, the BIOS becomes irrelevant.
>
> >While he's much younger than you or I, he has the technical knowledge
> >and understanding of a rock. You don't have that limitation to deal with!
>
> Heh. This maybe true. Though I have one big limitation. Whilst I can
> program in machine code on embedded systems, I completely missed the
> boat with bloatware. I have a vague understanding of TinyC on
> embedded systems but that's about my limit. There is a threshold I
> reach with large complex OSes that just gives me a headache. But I'm
> sure I'm not alone and there's probably clinics all across the globe
> that treat the condition.
>
> >Anyway, I've tried a number of Linux audio distros. Some were
> >surprisingly poorly-setup for audio use! Such as some of the Ubuntu 10
> >derivatives that didn't include an RT kernel. Or the ones that had RT
> >kernels but hadn't set up the permissions right. Or the one that refused
> >to recognize any form of audio hardware except the Intel stuff built-in
> >to the motherboard. Aptosid is the first distro I've encountered that
> >didn't need tweaking for audio - and it's a general purpose distro ...
> >
> >I liked the last beta version of Musix 2.0 - it worked very nicely
> >running from the live CD, is very well setup for audio work. (Their
> >audio demos are really slick!) So I downloaded the release and tried it,
> >and the release version wouldn't work with the bog-standard Intel video
> >hardware in the laptop I use for music stuff!
>
> I had some issues with Musix but I can't remember what they were
> now. I'll go back and investigate. Hadn't come across Aptosid. So
> thanks for that. I've now got fedora down and I'll see if I can get
> CCRMA working. Never really got along with ubuntu but I'm slowly
> making peace with it.
>
> I agree about KDE. It use to be just fine in slackware for some
> reason. But I'm assuming that the systems in question must be still
> running KDE3. I'm not sure if I ever bothered upgrading any of these
> local slackware boxes. You know how it is. If it ain't broke, don't
> fix it.
>
> Once again thanks. I have much to go on. I would rather prefer to
> have a linux based system at the end of the day but I'll hedge my
> bets. As long as I don't end up running something like
> PropellerHeads Reason, I can live with running the CreatiFlabs card
> under BOSH I guess. And it just dawned on me that I can still
> transfer the SF2 files over to Fluid or LSP at some later stage
> should I get either working.
>
> Thanks again. Most appreciated.
>
> Be absolutely icebox.
>
> _ __ _
> | "_ \ | | batzman-lau@email-addr-hidden-electric.com
> | |_)/ __ _| |_ ____ _-_|\
> | _ \ / _` | __|___ | / \
> | |_) | (_| | |_ / / \_.-*_/
> |_,__/ \__,_|\__|/ / v
> / ,__
> Goodfortune |_____| http://all-electric.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-audio-user mailing list
> Linux-audio-user@email-addr-hidden
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user

-- 
-- 
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-user mailing list
Linux-audio-user@email-addr-hidden
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user