28 May
2003
28 May
'03
12:10 p.m.
Hi,
Some time ago I asked for a PCI soundcard which can deal with
*.sf(2) soundfonts and works on Linux. I was told "soundblaster live 512"
is a good choice. But this soundcard is unknown to all resellers.
(They know "soundblaster live 5.1", but I'm afraid it has no
hardware MIDI synthesizer.)
To my knowledge _all_ sb-live cards are built on the emu10k chip. Hence all
live cards support soundfonts in hardware.
Now a reseller recommended "Audigy 6.1 platinum". Is there
anybody who has experiences with this type of soundcard?
Escpecially: Does the hardware MIDI synthesizer work on Linux?
Can I change the orchestra using "sfxload" ?
Audigy is not a bad card if you want hardware soundfont support
(I'm unsure how good it is supported under linux though, last time I tried
,I've got one, it didn't work that well...)
Having said this, I should add that I own several sb-live cards in various
configurations. These days though I almost never use the built in support for
soundfonts. Most of the time I find it better to use Fluidsynth. The only
concern here is that Fluidsynth will consume CPU resources which the hardware
synth won't.
Regards,
Robert
28 May
28 May
1:23 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Audigy 6.1 platinum and Linux
The only
concern here is that Fluidsynth will consume CPU resources which
the hardware synth won't.
And the hardware synth 'just works', as long as you have sfxload
installed. You could turn a very low spec machine into a flexible
MIDI sound module this way. We've kept our SB Live as a second card
for just this job, even though we have a much better card for
recording audio now.
Try eBay for a SB Live 512 - it shouldn't cost much.
Cheers
Daniel
1:46 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Audigy 6.1 platinum and Linux
Hi,
I didn't catch the beginning of this thread. Are you
guys syncing external synths to software apps? If yes,
how, what applications, protocols and hardware?
ron
--- Daniel James <daniel(a)mondodesigno.com> wrote:
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The only
concern here is that Fluidsynth will consume CPU
resources which
the hardware synth won't.
And the hardware synth 'just works', as long as you
have sfxload
installed. You could turn a very low spec machine
into a flexible
MIDI sound module this way. We've kept our SB Live
as a second card
for just this job, even though we have a much better
card for
recording audio now.
Try eBay for a SB Live 512 - it shouldn't cost much.
Cheers
Daniel
3:05 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Audigy 6.1 platinum and Linux
Are you
guys syncing external synths to software apps?
Nope, we just plug a Roland dumb MIDI controller keyboard (no sounds
of its own) into the SB Live MIDI in, and take the SB Live audio out
to the mixing desk, where it then goes into the Delta 1010 analogue
in. No internal routing required, therefore no sync problems!
Cheers
Daniel
2:21 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Audigy 6.1 platinum and Linux
I got an sblive oem brand new for $25, and its true that it works great as
a module. I don't have alsa working right at the moment (doing kernel
surgery right now), but my machine is only a 533 pII and the latency on
the soundfonts loaded into the sblive are basically better than my
hardware sampler. Once I'm done doing surgery with my machine I won't even
need the hardware sampler anymore. The nice thing as well is that Muse
sees it as a normal midi device, once your soundfont is loaded with
sfxload you're good to go. Fluidsynth will be very cool, but it still has
some stability issues, it always crashes Muse out and I couldn't get jack
to not freeze my machine up when I tried to connect Rosegarden4 to
Fluidsynth with it. However when these programs inevitably get more stable
the need for hardware based stuff will totally diminish. Fluidsynth
actually covers more of the soundfont2 spec than the sblive hardware does,
like the sblive doesn't allow for realtime effects modulation, while you
can actually sequence realtime effects on Fluidsynth (though only on a
fast machine).
On Wed, 28 May 2003, Daniel James wrote:
The only
concern here is that Fluidsynth will consume CPU resources which
the hardware synth won't.
And the hardware synth 'just works', as long as you have sfxload
installed. You could turn a very low spec machine into a flexible
MIDI sound module this way. We've kept our SB Live as a second card
for just this job, even though we have a much better card for
recording audio now.
Try eBay for a SB Live 512 - it shouldn't cost much.
Cheers
Daniel
2:57 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Audigy 6.1 platinum and Linux
On Wed, 28 May 2003, Robert Jonsson wrote:
soundfonts. Most of the time I find it better to use
Fluidsynth. The only
concern here is that Fluidsynth will consume CPU resources which the hardware
synth won't.
This is the 4rd time I'm told a hardware midi synthesizer isn't necessary
because there are a lot of software midi synthesizers. But this against all
of my experience.
Please have a look at:
http://rnvs.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/soundtest/soundtest.html
There is a MIDI file "sample.mid" and an MP3 "sample_hardware.mp3"
with the first 20 seconds of "sample.mid" created with soundcard
AWE 64 and soundfont "8mbgmsfx.sf2". It sounds like a bigband.
Unfortunately, there is no posibility to record the Fluidsynth
WAV output. Otherwise I'd present a direct comparison.
But even if I use the same soundfont and -r 44100
there is no similarity between the result and the sound
in "sample_hardware.mp3".
Till now I regard the software synthesizers only as a substitute
for all those who can't bring their hardware MIDI synthesizer to work.
This holds also for TiMidity++.
But feel free to make your own attempts with "sample.mid".
I'm convincend you won't get a playing bigband. In my ears
it always sounds like a orchestra in a stock pot.
--
J.Anders, Chemnitz, GERMANY (ja(a)informatik.tu-chemnitz.de)
7:38 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Audigy 6.1 platinum and Linux
On Wed, 2003-05-28 at 20:46, Joerg Anders wrote:
Please have a look at:
http://rnvs.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/soundtest/soundtest.html
There is a MIDI file "sample.mid" and an MP3 "sample_hardware.mp3"
with the first 20 seconds of "sample.mid" created with soundcard
AWE 64 and soundfont "8mbgmsfx.sf2". It sounds like a bigband.
Is there a way to record hardware synth'ed sound on SB Live into WAV, so
I can mix and/or master it?
--
Sincerely yours, Mikhail Ramendik
29 May
29 May
6:21 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Audigy 6.1 platinum and Linux
Is there a way to record hardware synth'ed sound
on SB Live into
WAV, so I can mix and/or master it?
Yes - use the capture feature in your mixer (eg alsamixer). Sometimes
the fader for the hardware synth is labelled 'Music' - I don't know
why, because it's all music! Then you can record the synth output
with anything you like - we use Audacity for this.
Cheers
Daniel
30 May
30 May
4:18 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Audigy 6.1 platinum and Linux
On Wed, 29 May 2003, Mikhail Ramendik wrote:
Is there a way to record hardware synth'ed sound on SB Live into WAV, so
I can mix and/or master it?
This is important information! With AWE 64 I simply select
the "Synth" ruler on "alsamixer" and press space key. A bracket
on top of the ruler marks this as the recording source.
Then I use "acrecord" to record the sound.
But from your question I learn: This is not possible with SB Live.(?)
But this is important to me. Are there any experiences with
"Audigy 6.1 platinum" ?
--
J.Anders, Chemnitz, GERMANY (ja(a)informatik.tu-chemnitz.de)
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9 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
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Brian Redfern -
Daniel James -
Joerg Anders -
Mikhail Ramendik -
R Parker -
Robert Jonsson