[linux-audio-user] where to begin or where's the beginning begin?

[Paul Coccoli]

On 7/20/05, Richard Hubbell <richard.hubbell at gmail.com> wrote: 
> I have a PCI SBLive (EMU10k) and the MB has a Via AC97 which I think is
> disabled but I'll have to try it out, I think at one point ALSA didn't
> handle multiple cards well or maybe it was the linux kernel....

My suggestion is to not buy a new sound card at all; use the SBLive
for now.  A small mixer, as has been suggested, might be good, but it
might be confusing if you've never used one.  A simpler setup would be
an M-Audio AudioBuddy mic pre-amp/DI and microphone (Shure SM-58 or a
cheap condensor).  The audiobuddy will allow you to plug an electric
guitar straight in, and it sounds decent.  It has 2 channels, so you
can plug the microphone into the other channel for vocals.  It's cheap
(usually $80) too.  If you eventually decide to mic the guitar, you
can still do that.  If you replace the SBLive with a
nicer/multichannel card, you can still use the audiobuddy (as a 2
channel mic preamp connected to 2 line level audio card inputs).  The
flexibility offered by a small mixer may A) confuse at first B) go
wasted if you use a 4 or 8 channel card.

That's my $0.01 (see how cheap I am?)