On Tue, Aug 24, 2004 at 03:14:40PM +0200, ChristianH wrote: dunno about mult-port midi devices, my own midi needs are very modest. There was the Linux Audio Quality HOWTO, but since I stopped maintaining it, it's very old info now. http://www.linuxdj.com/audio/quality/ This Wiki can be helpful: http://alsa.opensrc.org/ ... especially this page about all the drivers: http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=AlsaDrivers An OS X driver wouldn't do you any good. Somebody did write an AW8 driver here: http://www.sipkema-digital.com/~msipkema/audiowerk.shtml ... but it's rather non-standard (why the driver talks to its own user-space JACK code and isn't an alsa driver is beyond me, presumably it was a quicker way for the author to get what he wanted.) If you're buying a new card and want just a few good-quality I/O, you might consider one of the ice1712-based cards as listed on http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=AlsaDrivers... a lot of us have them and like them. I've got a Delta 66. Archives of this mailing list will also be helpful. In general, if there's a card you're interested in, google for name of card + linux + alsa and see what pops up. sorry, no idea. -- Paul Winkler http://www.slinkp.com

tim hall wrote: I agree. Good info that would be missed if lost.

On Tue, Aug 24, 2004 at 09:49:19PM -0400, Ruth A. Kramer wrote: I am fine with this idea. If you're willing to take on the task, I'll back you. Note that I made a previous attempt at wiki-fying the LAQHT. That attempt is closed for modifications but still available here: http://www.slinkp.com/LiLAQ/ http://www.slinkp.com/LiLAQ/LinuxSoundcards/contents So I would start with that, it contains some edits that never made it into the LAQHT. I went with LDP license. http://www.linuxdj.com/audio/quality/#copyright Let me know if that's too restrictive, I would be willing to consider others. -- Paul Winkler http://www.slinkp.com

On Wed, Aug 25, 2004 at 12:21:18AM -0400, Ruth A. Kramer wrote: Well, hard to quantify. Partly I just didn't like the look / feel of ZWiki at that time. And I was new to wikis in general and didn't really like the MagicWikiLinkCamelCaseNamingConvention. Still don't like it much but I've mostly made peace with it. I do tend to prefer the [Arbitrary text in square brackets] link convention that I've seen on some wikis. I also remember feeling it was too hard to find stuff. Maybe my organization was poor. That's because it's a random-tuning noise-maker, not a true saxophone :-) Dimensions were entirely arbitrary. I have no idea where that thing is. -- Paul Winkler http://www.slinkp.com

Paul Winkler wrote: Paul, I've read or glanced at all the pages on the wiki. My current thoughts: * Some parts of the document lend themselves to a serial read, and in the order presented in the original HOWTO (imho). Other parts might fit into some organization, but can easily be standalone (discussions of particular cards). (There may be other pieces I haven't really thought about yet -- no doubt I'll find those as "leftovers".) * TWiki allows "include pages" -- for the stuff that is best (imho) read in serial order (at least on an initial read), I'd propose to create small pages with individual topics / headings, but then include those on a master page. Thus: * By reading (loading) the master page, you can read that entire document in serial order. * The individual pages can also be found by other means (search) and read as individual topics. * Each individual topic is on its own small page which makes for easier editing. * For the topics that seem to lend themselves to individual pages (card discussion), I'd make the discussion of each card a separate page and then create one (I hope) organizing page, sort of a TOC, but I'd probably make it look like a table and allow characterization of the card on that page, i.e., is the card good or bad (maybe "recommended" and "not recommended" as a professional and consumer card (i.e., 4 columns for these characterizations). * I'd then think about the leftover topics. TWiki does allow creation of separate "webs" (i.e., directories or folders), but unfortunately, WikiLearn is currently piggybacking on the twiki.org site and I am reluctant to ask for more webs to be set up as it's somewhat of an imposition. (I'll think about that, I might ask anyway.) I do have plans (had them for three years now ;-) of moving to my own host/site (either Sourceforge where I have an approved project) or some other host -- I haven't found the time or the necessary ready knowledge. If I would move to a new site I would probably then dedicate a web to the LAQHT and reserve one (or more) for non-LAQHT audio topics. TWiki also allows (sort of) the [arbitrary link in square brackets] which appears as such when you write it (i.e., on the page containing the link) but still does the annoying ArbitraryLinkInSquareBrackets as the title of the page. I occasional ask that be changed, but so far no progress. (TWiki does have an active *community* of developers (not just one) but as the analogy goes, it is like herding cats, and, in any case, I am not the shep(cat?)herd.) Another reason (in my mind) to move to TWiki (well really, I mean WikiLearn -- I am "reserving the right" to move WikiLearn to another wiki should I find one that is more suitable) is that (for me) the syntax is easier. I've looked at the description of creating headings by indenting text (I couldn't try an example because (1) editing is not allowed, and (2) I am not registered) and am not sure how (or if) headings can be created at levels other than (HTML) level 3. TWiki uses a simple ---+, ---++, ---+++, ... leader to designate headers at different levels. (Don't get me wrong, the TWiki syntax has its share of quirks and verboseness.) Anyway, I'm willing to start the attempt to move the LAQHT to WikiLearn. I think what I'd like to get is the wiki text (raw) from the current wiki. Haven't looked yet at how to do that -- must you give me (and others) modification privileges? Or is it easy for you to extract the stuff in that form and send it to me? For a few days, at least, I expect to have a little less time than I did in the previous few days. No guarantees on when I'll get it moved. (Especially as I'll have to adjust the syntax.) regards, Randy Kramer

On Tue, Aug 24, 2004 at 04:23:10PM +0200, Clemens Ladisch wrote: Note that others have reported issues with the M-audio usb devices. I can't speak to that but I recall the subject popping up from time to time. Their PCI devices, on the other hand, are generally excellent and well supported. -- Paul Winkler http://www.slinkp.com

i would also mention that m-audio is now owned by digidesign's parent company avid. its way, way too early to tell what will happen, but its not necessarily the case that the existing cooperation that we've seen with them (which has been OK, not excellent) will continue. --p

On Wed, Aug 25, 2004 at 09:13:05AM +0200, Clemens Ladisch wrote: Yes, sorry I forgot to make that distinction. I had the same experience with my Oxygen - works fine once you've dug around the net and figured out how to load the #@()% firmware. -- Paul Winkler http://www.slinkp.com

On Wed, Aug 25, 2004 at 05:06:53PM +0200, ChristianH wrote: to keep shipping weights rather low, they put in NO firmware in some hardware (just a loader). firmware is included with the driver and required to be uploaded to the device on every initialization or at least after every power on. might be the idea behind that, and that the user doesn't need to go for the risky step of flashing the thing (and sending the half-flashed device back and complaining etc.) bests, martin

On Thu, 2004-08-26 at 11:07, Robert Epprecht wrote: To me this is about as silly as Linux people get. (Not you Robert!) The 'firmware' that's being discussed here is stuff that goes in external hardware. It's not part of the OS and doesn't run on the machine running Linux. What a silly thing to do in a world full of DSP processors where most everything is either firmware or downloadable to external processors of one type or another, to say they won't distribute this stuff. I can understand not wanting to polute their source code database, but not a mentality that says no one should hook a Debian machine to a piece of hardware that uses proprietary software or that people have to go other places to get it. Weird....but then I'm a blatent capitalist with many patents to my name and working for a start-up IP company that extracts large sums of money from people all the time for this sort of stuff, so admitedly I'm not a Debian-head... ;-) - Mark

On Fri, 2004-08-27 at 10:53, Pedro Figueiredo wrote: Nobody on either distro will force you to do upgrades (AFAIK :-), so probably this is not really an issue. If version x.x of program y works for you, then there's no need to upgrade :-) Of course after reading the lists for a while and drooling over the new features available in version x.x.1 of y, you'll want to upgrade. Resisting the temptation of frequent upgrades is apparently not that easy. I think later versions of RedHat (now Fedora Core) start up with less services enabled by default. It depends, in part, on what package mix you select at install time. A plain workstation install will not include web and mail servers, for example. Once the system is up and running both distros enable you to turn on and off selected services. As to which is "prettier", as usual beauty is in the eyes of the beholder... you'll probably hear from fans of both soon. If you have the bandwidth and time I'd suggest you give both a spin and see what you like and dislike about each one. -- Fernando

Last Friday 27 August 2004 18:53, Pedro Figueiredo was like: Both very old now. AGNULA/DeMuDi is based on Debian 3.1 (Sarge), which is very pretty (if you want it to be) and has a nice balance of up-to-dateness and stability. It's still as configurable as ever, but now has a degree of user-friendliness that it didn't used to, in the form of hardware auto-detection & GUIs if you want them. Can't comment on RH. The firmware issue seems to be an insoluble conundrum. Both AGNULA and PlanetCCRMA contain Linux Audio software, the choice is between strict & loose interpretations of 'Free' AFAICT ... and your preference. cheers tim hall