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Message: 9
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2008 02:24:12 -0700
From: Ken Restivo <ken@restivo.org>
Subject: Re: [LAU] Reference or HOWTO?
To: Al Thompson <biggles58@sbcglobal.net>
Cc: Linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
Message-ID: <20080405092412.GC19052@restivo.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

On Wed, Apr 02, 2008 at 09:07:51PM -0700, Al Thompson wrote:
> Is there a reference or HOWTO on how all of the various audio parts work together in Linux?  I've looked around, and most are horribly out of date, and don't cover it all anyway.
>
> My goal is to get everything I need on Linux to replace my Sonar 3.1 setup, and it looks like the programs are available.  I just can't get everything to work, and part of the problem is that I don't understand Linux audio very well yet.  I need to understand how alsa relates to jackd, what is 'oss,' and why is that the only option available in Audacity to me that works, and why when I run jackd, some of my other programs no longer have a sound output available at all.
>
> Any help, or pointers to the information, would be greatly appreciated.
>
>


Thinking back to when I set up my system, the biggest hassles and challenges were, in order of difficulty and painfulness:
       1) Getting the audio interface and supporting hardware to work (using ALSA and/or FreeBoB)
       2) Getting the realtime kernel built and running
       3) Getting all the software all squared away and version-sync'ed.
       4) Getting JACK set up (actually this part was really easy after the above)

Numbers (2) and (4) can be made much easier by using a music-oriented distro such as 64Studio, Musix, UbuntuStudio, etc. Number (1) can be made easier by making absolutely sure that the hardware you buy is well-supported and that you choose it wisely (I didn't, and had to do a lot of buying/selling of gear as a result). If you do all of those, you should have things running very quickly and well.

Looking back, I started the process in December 2006 and had it pretty much completed by MAY 2007. Yes, it took five months. I made lots of music while the system was still in flux, though. I haven't changed much of anything since May 2007, and I remain reluctant to do so. It's been rock-solid reliable and stable, for almost a year now, so I just view it as a black box and use it to make music, as well as for almost all my other computing needs too.

-ken


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