[linux-audio-dev] Re: What Parts of Linux Audio Simply Work Great?

[fons adriaensen]

On Sun, Jun 19, 2005 at 12:29:50AM +0200, Frank Barknecht wrote:

> On my laptop, all my audio software I use on stage is configured to
> use an external soundcard (hw:1) because it's much better quality,
> whereas all my "desktop" audio software (alsaplayer etc.) is
> configured to use the internal soundcard (hw:0), also because hw:1
> might not always be available.  I never had the feeling that this is
> broken, it's just using each soundcard for what it's working best at. 
> 
> Note that I never proposed this as a "solution" to desktop/pro
> problems or as a "Best Practice", it's just something that might
> become more common in the future as part of a natural evolution. I
> already know a lot of people using more than one soundcard in their
> box. The cheap onboard chip is just there, why ignore it just because
> you also have an RME card inside?

I'm basically doing the same thing. On my 'studio' system, all
'entertainment' stuff goes to the onboard chip and that drives
the speakers built into the monitor. Meanwhile jackd runs on the
Terratec hooked up to an external mixer. The onboard output also
goes to that mixer but is rarely used there.
Whenever I'm in 'pro mode', I make sure everything I need is
in a format that Ardour will accept, even if it's just for
listening to, put it in a session, and forget about the first
card and all apps using it. Same on the laptop: internal chip
for 'entertainment' and an external USB via jackd for anything
serious.

-- 
FA