[linux-audio-user] Newbie checks in

[wes schreiner]

Malcolm Baldridge wrote:

>>So how about this one? - Creative Labs SoundBlaster MP3+ USB Audio unit
>>Yeah, it's a cheapo, about 40 bucks at Fry's. 
>>    
>>
>
>Just my 1/2 cent.  USB has no latency or bandwidth guarantees on any aspect
>of its design.  I would strongly suggest that you'll have much better
>results with software/hardware integration and smooth-running performance if
>you use a real PCI audio card instead of a USB device.
>
>All I hear are problems from people who own USB audio devices.
>

I have had great success with a Edirol UA-5 USB audio device.  I have 
made multiple recordings over 3 hours long at 16bit/44.1KHz/2channels 
duplex using ALSA usb-audio, ALSA OSS emulation, and Audacity.  Using 
ALSA/Jack/Ardour I have made recordings over 70 minutes long at 
24bit/96KHz/2channels simplex.  And all of this on a 366MHz PII laptop, 
appropriately tuned.  I record to a second hard drive in the laptop.  
Originally that hard drive had a Reiser v.3 filesystem, but Reiser v.3 
performed badly when the partition is over 90% full, so now I have ext3 
in there. 

I've also had no problems with a Griffin iMic USB audio device on the 
same laptop, however the Griffin iMic has cheap analog circuitry.  They 
sure named it right since it turns out to be quite microphonic (if I tap 
it during recording noise is injected).

That said, I have found that USB audio just doesn't work well with some 
computers.  It seems to be due to hardware differences, because problems 
remain even when I have the software setup identical to my laptop.

wes