[linux-audio-dev] Re: GPL Audio Hardware

[Lee Revell]

On Wed, 2006-04-05 at 19:56 -0400, Dave Robillard wrote:
> Agreed.  "We" don't need a bunch of useless consumer cruft on a card.
> However channels are good, don't downplay channels :).  This thing
> should have as many channels as possible.  Obviously there is a physical
> limit to how many you can cram in physically, but that's what lightpipe
> is for.  There's many 8x8 rackmount preamps out there you could hook up
> (including a nice and cheap one from Behringer)
> 
> Frankly I think 60+ channels is completely unrealistic (otherwise one
> would probably exist), but what do I know.  If it's possible, hell yes
> put them in there. 
> 
> FWIW, my ideal audio interface _requires_:
> 
> * As many channels as possible
> * At least 1 ADAT Lightpipe in/out
> * Clock sync
> * Balanced everything
> * Real 19" rackmount breakout box
> * Good low latency operation (in Linux w/ Jack) 

I think after reading the comments in this thread that you may have a
hard time finding a niche.  There are already devices on the market with
good GPL drivers that do all this - the appeal of the open graphics
project was that there were no good graphics cards with GPL drivers.

That leaves the options of competing on price/quality with the likes of
RME and M-Audio, or a DSP device, which although I think it's a cool
idea, there's a lot of resistance to it.  I don't think your feature set
is necessarily "consumer stuff", it's just that most such devices to
date (Creative) have kind of been crap.

Lately however Creative/EMU's DSP cards have been getting great reviews
(X-Fi, EMU 1212M, etc) - they seem to have fixed a lot of the common
complaints about the SBLive! based devices (crappy codecs, horrible
resampling).  And they are still damn cheap ($200-300 tops IIRC) but
have no Linux drivers.  This might be an area to investigate, but I
suspect you would need years of development to produce a device of that
quality for anywhere near Creative's price point.

Lee