[LAU] Alsa and 24-bit in Ubuntu Studio?

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Fri, Mar 08, 2013 at 10:02:49AM +0000, Ben Bell wrote:
 
> 1) Older kernels sound much warmer than newer ones.
> 
> 2) Kernels compiled by hand on the machine they run on sound less sterile
>    than upstream distro provided ones which also tend to have flabby low
>    end response and bad stereo imaging.
> 
> 3) As if it needed saying, gcc4 is a disaster for sound quality. I mean,
>    seriously if you want decent audio and you use gcc4 you may as well be
>    recording with a tin can microphone.
> 
> 4) Kernels sound better after they've been worn in a bit. Don't expect your
>    newly built 2.4 kernel to have that warm sound until you've run with it
>    for a few weeks, but for a really classy sound here's a trick: compile the
>    kernel and then put it somewhere safe (ext2 partition, obviously) to mellow
>    for a month and then boot into it at the last minute before you start
>    recording an important session. Your clients will thank you.

5) Make sure to disable all but one CPU and any hyperthreading.
   Parallel processing produces a very nasty form of crosstalk. [1]
   Even non-audio data (e.g. network packets) could leak into your
   signals if you leave it enabled.


[1] This is why Jack1 usually sounds more transparent than Jack2.

Ciao,

-- 
FA

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