New subject: [linux-audio-user] New hardware choice

12 May 2005

----- Original Message -----
From: lanas &lt;lanas(a)securenet.net&gt;
Date: Thursday, May 12, 2005 6:44 am
Subject: [linux-audio-user] New hardware choice
...
  Hi all,
  I'm plaaning to get a new home PC that could also be used (along
 withsoftware development) for creating and recording music.
  What I'd like to do: sequence MIDI external sounds (synth
 module(s)),add accoustic guitar and flute, record everything to wav
 and/or Ogg
 Vorbis formats (using original external synths sounds).
 Optionally, to
 be also able to choose from a palette of SoundFonts (as I did with
 my current PC, using a SB Live! card and MusE).
  What I'd like to get as PC: an Athlon 64bit based mobo, 2 GB RAM,
 some250 GB disk storage. graphics card not that important as it's
 not used
 to play games (why not on-board graphic ?).  Operating system: in the
 end most likely handmade Linux based on LFS (Linux From Scratch)
 but for
 starters SuSE 9.3 64-bit, or any other that's good enough.
  Now, is there some strong allergic reaction between a Linux Audio
 setup and 64-bit CPUs ?  Are 64-bits platforms recommended for audio
 purposes or is it better to wait a few more years ?  If it's OK, which
 mobo would you recommend ? 
I have been using an AMD 64 3500+ on an ABIT AV8 motherboard.  The
system is extremely stable and very fast, and everything is supported in
the distribution I am running.  I am not running a 64 bit distro though,
as I have not had any good luck with audio apps under a 64 bit distro.
I've had very good luck with the Planet CCRMA 32 bit distribution of
Fedora Core 3, using the Planet CCRMA edge kernel, and the CCRMA audio
packages.
...
   Which audio/MIDI card would you recommend for such a
setup ? 
I am using the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 with good results.  You might
consider one of the M_Audio Delta series if you will be recording the
guitar and flute as they have a greater variety of inputs and are not
insanely expensive.  None of these cards will offer zero latency, but
they will offer much lower latency than your SB-Live card.  With an AMD
64 chip and 2 gig of RAM, you can plenty of software synths to sequence
your midi through soundfonts so you won't need the hardware player on
the SB-live card.  I should mention that certain soundfonts sound
screwed up through one of the soundfont soft-synths I've used in Linux.
Alan

Re: [linux-audio-user] New hardware choice