[linux-audio-user] New To List

Hi, After reading an article about Linux and music in Sound On Sound recently, I thought I'd take the plunge and begin moving my music studio to Linux. Currently I'm using an Athlon XP-based PC and a PowerMac 7600/200. The PC contains a Hoontech DSP24 Value card and an MPU-401 style MIDI interface that I put together myself. The Mac contains a Yamaha SW1000 card and an Opcode MIDI interface. My main music software is Cubase, although I've used tons of other music software over the years. The main programs I'm interested using are Rosegarden and Ardour, although I'm also interested in looking at some of the softsynth stuff too. I work as a technical writer and have written some music software for Mac and PC (CS1 Background Edit) so I'm fairly computer literate. However, I have no experience with Linux. Initially, I installed Debian on my PC, however it didn't get along with my TFT monitor. I've since bought Red Hat 9.0. Which I'm just about to install. Hopefully it will be a bit easier to use! Before I begin the installation I was wondering if someone could fill me in on the current state of ALSA. I've had a quick look at some of the How-Tos however I'm not clear on how up-to-date they are. I'm currently looking at getting a new soundcard--the Hoontech was really only a temporary measure to get sound out of the PC. Unfortunately, it seems that the SW1000 won't ever be supported so it's not much use. I'd like a card with balanced 24-bit analog I/O and SPDIF I/O. The MiaMIDI card seems to have these features. Does anyone have experience with this card on a Linux system? I also thought that a Delta66 would be suitable too. Cheers, Chris Share