[linux-audio-user] New hardware choice

[aljordan at maine.rr.com]

----- Original Message -----
From: lanas <lanas at securenet.net>
Date: Thursday, May 12, 2005 6:44 am
Subject: [linux-audio-user] New hardware choice

> Hi all,
> 
>  I'm plaaning to get a new home PC that could also be used (along 
> withsoftware development) for creating and recording music.
> 
>  What I'd like to do: sequence MIDI external sounds (synth 
> module(s)),add accoustic guitar and flute, record everything to wav 
> and/or Ogg
> Vorbis formats (using original external synths sounds).  
> Optionally, to
> be also able to choose from a palette of SoundFonts (as I did with
> my current PC, using a SB Live! card and MusE).
> 
>  What I'd like to get as PC: an Athlon 64bit based mobo, 2 GB RAM, 
> some250 GB disk storage. graphics card not that important as it's 
> not used
> to play games (why not on-board graphic ?).  Operating system: in the
> end most likely handmade Linux based on LFS (Linux From Scratch) 
> but for
> starters SuSE 9.3 64-bit, or any other that's good enough.
> 
>  Now, is there some strong allergic reaction between a Linux Audio
> setup and 64-bit CPUs ?  Are 64-bits platforms recommended for audio
> purposes or is it better to wait a few more years ?  If it's OK, which
> mobo would you recommend ?

I have been using an AMD 64 3500+ on an ABIT AV8 motherboard.  The
system is extremely stable and very fast, and everything is supported in
the distribution I am running.  I am not running a 64 bit distro though,
as I have not had any good luck with audio apps under a 64 bit distro. 
I've had very good luck with the Planet CCRMA 32 bit distribution of
Fedora Core 3, using the Planet CCRMA edge kernel, and the CCRMA audio
packages.

>  Which audio/MIDI card would you recommend for such a setup ?

I am using the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 with good results.  You might
consider one of the M_Audio Delta series if you will be recording the
guitar and flute as they have a greater variety of inputs and are not
insanely expensive.  None of these cards will offer zero latency, but
they will offer much lower latency than your SB-Live card.  With an AMD
64 chip and 2 gig of RAM, you can plenty of software synths to sequence
your midi through soundfonts so you won't need the hardware player on
the SB-live card.  I should mention that certain soundfonts sound
screwed up through one of the soundfont soft-synths I've used in Linux.

Alan