30 Jan
2015
30 Jan
'15
12:09 p.m.
Hi,
My laptop (running ubuntu) has the following (audio) specs. I know it's
probably subjective, but is this considered "good enough" for pro audio
work or should I invest in an external sound card? (Or for that matter a
better laptop?!) And if so, which soundcard is recommended?
Thanks a lot,
Peter
Memory: 3.8 GiB
Processor: Intel® Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz × 2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio
Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff66
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 46
Memory at d6700000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express
Port 1 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
30 Jan
30 Jan
1:07 p.m.
Hi Peter,
2015-01-30 12:08 GMT+01:00 Peter O'Doherty <kevinpeterodoherty(a)gmail.com>om>:
Hi,
My laptop (running ubuntu) has the following (audio) specs. I know it's
probably subjective, but is this considered "good enough" for pro audio work
or should I invest in an external sound card? (Or for that matter a better
laptop?!) And if so, which soundcard is recommended?
If you are going to record audio, yes, definitely get a better sound card.
If you are going to play along you need a soundcard that can provide
low latency audio also.
I use old firewire cards, e.g. FA-66, which works pretty good. Also
recently tried a really old DMX6fire usb device, seems to work OK too,
apart from the horrible setup with loading firmware etc.
I think most dedicated sound cards are a step up and the more you pay
the more confident you can be that they will satisfy your needs. Of
course making sure it's supported in Linux.
-
If you are only going to create music digitally, software synths,
samples, etc. Then you might as well try what you have if it's good
enough.
Regards,
Robert
Thanks a lot,
Peter
Memory: 3.8 GiB
Processor: Intel® Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz × 2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio
Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff66
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 46
Memory at d6700000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port
1 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
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2:32 p.m.
On Fri, 30 Jan 2015 12:08:59 +0100 Peter O'Doherty
<kevinpeterodoherty(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
My laptop (running ubuntu) has the following (audio) specs. I know
it's probably subjective, but is this considered "good enough" for
pro audio work or should I invest in an external sound card? (Or for
that matter a better laptop?!) And if so, which soundcard is
recommended?
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio
Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff66
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 46
Memory at d6700000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
The only thing "high definition" about the integrated audio interfaces
in laptops is in the name. Other than that they will sound okayish with
their speakers or with equally "high definition" head-phones. But as
soon as you connect them to a real amplifier/PA (and fix the
ground-loops) you will notice the noise and crappy quality. And after
connecting the laptop with a normal-sized audio-cable for more then 5
times you will get crackles from the broken soldering connection of the
plug...
Get a usb device or a firewire device if your laptop supports it.
Have fun,
Arnold
2:54 p.m.
On Fri, 30 Jan 2015, Arnold Krille wrote:
On Fri, 30 Jan 2015 12:08:59 +0100 Peter
O'Doherty
<kevinpeterodoherty(a)gmail.com> wrote:
What he didn't say is that (at least what I have found) the output is the
better part. The input circuitry (important for recording) is worse as it
is designed to allow the use of skype and not much else. If you are doing
pure synth music with no audio inputs. The HDA audio would be ok. To
record audio, you would at least need an external mic pre... and for the
cost of that one may as well get at least a USB audio IF which would
generally include the mic pre anyway.
USB insertion cycles is not that high BTW. It may be as low as 700
depending on the quality of the usb plug.
My laptop (running ubuntu) has the following
(audio) specs. I know
it's probably subjective, but is this considered "good enough" for
pro audio work or should I invest in an external sound card? (Or for
that matter a better laptop?!) And if so, which soundcard is
recommended?
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio
Controller (rev 03)
The only thing "high definition" about the integrated audio interfaces
in laptops is in the name. Other than that they will sound okayish with
their speakers or with equally "high definition" head-phones. But as
soon as you connect them to a real amplifier/PA (and fix the
ground-loops) you will notice the noise and crappy quality. And after
connecting the laptop with a normal-sized audio-cable for more then 5
times you will get crackles from the broken soldering connection of the
plug... Get a usb device or a firewire device if your laptop
supports it.
+1
--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net
31 Jan
31 Jan
2:07 p.m.
Many thanks Robert, Arnold and Len for your very helpful advice.
Up to now I have only been doing sound synthesis but want to start
recording and live processing of sound too, so I'll take your advice and
get a usb device.
Thanks,
Peter
On 01/30/2015 02:53 PM, Len Ovens wrote:
On Fri, 30 Jan 2015, Arnold Krille wrote:
On Fri, 30 Jan 2015 12:08:59 +0100 Peter
O'Doherty
<kevinpeterodoherty(a)gmail.com> wrote:
What he didn't say is that (at least what I have found) the output is
the better part. The input circuitry (important for recording) is
worse as it is designed to allow the use of skype and not much else.
If you are doing pure synth music with no audio inputs. The HDA audio
would be ok. To record audio, you would at least need an external mic
pre... and for the cost of that one may as well get at least a USB
audio IF which would generally include the mic pre anyway.
USB insertion cycles is not that high BTW. It may be as low as 700
depending on the quality of the usb plug.
My laptop (running ubuntu) has the following
(audio) specs. I know
it's probably subjective, but is this considered "good enough" for
pro audio work or should I invest in an external sound card? (Or for
that matter a better laptop?!) And if so, which soundcard is
recommended?
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio
Controller (rev 03)
The only thing "high definition" about the integrated audio interfaces
in laptops is in the name. Other than that they will sound okayish with
their speakers or with equally "high definition" head-phones. But as
soon as you connect them to a real amplifier/PA (and fix the
ground-loops) you will notice the noise and crappy quality. And after
connecting the laptop with a normal-sized audio-cable for more then 5
times you will get crackles from the broken soldering connection of the
plug... Get a usb device or a firewire device if your
laptop supports it.
+1
--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-user mailing list
Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
5:27 p.m.
On Sat, 31 Jan 2015, Peter O'Doherty wrote:
Many thanks Robert, Arnold and Len for your very
helpful advice.
Up to now I have only been doing sound synthesis but want to start recording
and live processing of sound too, so I'll take your advice and get a usb
device.
Generally, I would take the laptop to the store where you will buy the USB
audio IF and try it in the store. This is the nice thing about about a
laptop :)
I am assuming that you already have jackd and qjackctl installed. I would
also install the lowlatency kernel.
If you have used qjackctl before but only with the default device... when
selecting the "Interface" use the > button not the v dropdown. You will
need this to find the USB device to start jack with. Many USB devices do
_not_ have mixer controls in ALSA, but rather have physical level knobs
on the unit itself. This is a good thing (IMO) as no software can change
your carefully set levels for you.
With a laptop, you will want to find out which USB plug is not shared with
anything internally (SD reader/camera/etc.) and use that for your audio
IF. Do not use the same USB with anything else (mouse/external drive/etc.)
I know this all sounds very picky, but computers are _not_ designed around
low latency audio... they are designed for high throughput.
One last thing: You may have to boot with WIFI turned off for clickless
audio for lower latencys. The choice is your's to run a higher latency and
monitors the input audio externally or do the work to get good low latency
performance to monitor via the audio IF out. Many of even the cheaper USB
audio IFs do allow mixing the input audio directly with the audio coming
from the computer for miintoring. This does mean not allowing the
recording program Ardour for example, to do the monitoring for you.
Really low latency is only really required for live use. That is using the
computer as a softsynth on stage with a keyboard controller or as an
effects unit (with guitarix for example). For recording a higher latency
can be very workable.
--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net
12 Feb
12 Feb
11:32 a.m.
On 30/01/2015 12:08, Peter O'Doherty wrote:
[...] I know it's probably subjective, but is this
considered "good
enough" for pro audio work
The most importan assets for your audio/music work
are:
- your ears
- your artistic inspiration and intent
- your creativity
Lorenzo.
3646
days inactive
3659
days old
linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
6 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
Arnold Krille -
Len Ovens -
Lorenzo Sutton -
Peter O'Doherty -
Robert Jonsson