[LAU] firewire soundcard, recommendations please

Gabriel M. Beddingfield gabriel at teuton.org
Tue Mar 24 08:40:34 EDT 2009


Atte André Jensen wrote:
> Now I'm looking for recommendations. I assume they all work flawlessly 
> with linux, right? How about sound quality (convertes, preamps), latency 
> and stabillity? Are there any cards I've overlooked, esp something 
> that'll provide 3-4 mic preamps?

You may already know this... but in case you don't:

Warning!  At the moment, firewire on linux *typically* requires personal love 
and care (installing libraries, compiling from source, googling until your eyes 
are shot) to get your setup up-and-running.  It is generally *not* 
plug-and-play.  Some distro's either provided the Freebob driver or the newer 
FFADO driver, or both.  Some compile JACK without FFADO support.  Some devices 
require prayer and fasting in order to divine a configuration string for a driver.

However, Fireware *does* work on Linux if you pick the right device -- and it's 
getting better all the time. Your best resources for hardware and config. are:

   * The FFADO web site (http://www.ffado.org/).  They have a list
     of supported, recommended, and NOT recommended devices.

   * this mailing list (search the archives).  This list is full
     of the wranglings of many people trying to get their firewire
     device to work.

   * the LAD (developer) mailing list

FWIW, my brother has a Saffire that he got running over Christmas, but it wasn't 
fun.  AFAIK, it works OK.

If you're still game:  awesome!  However, if you're wanting something that is 
more plug-and-play... you might look into PCI or USB solutions.

Hope this helps,
Gabriel




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