[linux-audio-user] what's the best option here? / SosPubs article

Mark Knecht markknecht at comcast.net
Mon Mar 29 11:46:33 EST 2004


On Mon, 2004-03-29 at 06:36, Kent, Gary wrote:

> Mark Knecht: 
> 	You said that you didn't use the Lite card much under Linux but
> that it worked ok, and sorry to be a pest here, but were there
> deficiencies somewhere with this card that caused you to yank it out?	

More that I've almost totally given up on Linux being an audio platform
at all, and less any real major issues with the Hammerfall Light. Please
remember that this statement comes on the heels of a year of messing
with the HDSP9652.

The one small problem I did run into near the end was that ever since
this card had been in a studio box running PlanetCCRMA, the mapping had
been:

ADAT1 = pcm 1-8
ADAT2 = pcm 9-16
spdif = pcm 17-18

Then updates for Alsa 1.0.x came along and something in the mapping
changed on my system to: (from memory...)

spdif = pcm 1-2
ADAT1 = pcm 3-10
ADAT2 = pcm 11-18

It was a little weird, IIRC, like maybe the input mapping and the output
mapping weren't the same? I don't remember anymore. Anyway, I had lots
of scripts written for things like racks of meterbridges and a few soft
synths. They had worked for months. They stopped working correctly. I
reported it at least twice on Alsa-User and Alsa-Devel. I got no
responses and gave up. I decided I wasn't going to deal with it anymore
and pulled it out. It isn't worth my time required to fiddle like a
developer. I'd rather write music.

I hardly use Linux for audio anymore. I'll wait for Alsa 3.0. Linux in
my studio today is a really great email platform, but primarily I'm
using it to keep the rest of my studio clean. The one app I do hope will
come along one day soon is LinuxSampler. I've got a big investment in
libraries, but without a GUI it's not close to replacing GSt 2.5 or the
new 3.0.

I got a 3GHz laptop this weekend. In the process of buying it I took
along a Dyne:bolics disk to see what would happen. I was impressed that
Alsa came up and ran on this little onboard sound chip called a Sound
Max. I'd never heard of the chip, but I can play games under Linux and
get sound. That's cool.

That machine will be a new Pro Tools platform soon. My old Pro Tools box
will get the Hammerfall Light running Acid Pro & Reaktor later today.

- Mark




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