[LAU] New Hardware

[Chip VanDan]

Okay, so I did all the software experiments for the past couple years
and have been running just fine using Planet CCRMA's packages in
Fedora on an old piece of crap computer.  I've gotten fairly good at
what I do for what I have, and I am to the point where I believe that
my performance and quality issues are due to the hardware restrictions
of my current machine, mostly due to the fact that my motherboard has
an integrated soundcard which I've been using to control my mic and
MIDI, ugh.  I'm ready to go out and plunk down a large amount of cash
on a new system.  Here's my problem, I have no idea what to get.

I love things like JACK, Zyn, Seq24, Hydrogen, and Ardour, but not
sure how new hardware would affect the operations of such programs.  I
have determined so far that I would like to have a Hammerfall HDSP
card, but not sure whether I want to go for a 64 bit processor yet.
My current mic is a cheap $30 Radio Shack mic and I'm not sure whether
my sound card or my mic is the reason why the pick-up on it is so low
and infested with noise.  My USB MIDI cable is about the only piece of
hardware that I'm actually happy with, I even want to get a new
keyboard that has a pitch bender on the side.  All this time I have
been learning the Linux audio apps and stuff I have never bothered to
even question what type of hardware I SHOULD be running.

So I guess my question is this:  Any suggestions?  What works, what doesn't?

Chip VanDan
http://airlynx.sitesled.com


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