Hi Klangmeister, Thanks for the advice, sorry for the *long* reply. What Linux/distro do you use? Since I posted this I've been experiencing "..But you'll pay dearly for it" with an issue I have on Suse 10.1 and my inbuilt Intel 82801G ICH7 multichannel sound card. My hope was to install and run up Linux and test the inbuilt audio software, but I can't seem to get even the most basic features to work -- I've posted elsewhere, but this group seems to be the most active. I think the problem is not Alsa but Jack as I can playback wav's and capture audio through Alsa (eg aplay, amarok), but anything I playback through Jack connections (Ardour etc) is distorted - noisy - clicky and no answer found yet. I'm not sure how to troubleshoot Jack. Do you know of a better forum to ask about how to troubleshoot Jack? I suppose installing a 9632 would add to my woes rather than cure them. Nevertheless, I will probably try to get this resolved before I invest in an RME. At least I need to understand Jack as I'm sure I'll need it. One issue I have with the RME is that my media center PC only has one PCI slot. I'll need to pull out some other capability or find a PCI extension bay... >You need one input channel per speaker and apparently three outputs. >While I personally think that that is overkill (why not make a good >analog crossover), that's what you'd have to do. So for a 5.1 system >you'd need 16 channels (3x5 for 5 surround channels plus 1 for the >sub). Overkill? perhaps... probably! Ultimately I will implement auto-room-eq, loudspeaker management, and sub-bass enhancement with my crossovers. This for home theater/audio as well as the biggest challenge: prosound, wherein the flexibility digital offers in these areas is attractive. Yes, we can purchase DBX and other loudspeaker "do it all's" (EQ, xover's, delay/compression/limiting) and at some point I may decide the time invested in implementing this in Linux via "effortware" isn't worth the trouble (my time is worth something I keep saying...). BTW have been looking at other signal processing products like Signal Wizard (DSP without tears) and an exciting analog product "SonicMaster" by Anadigm (www.anadigm.com) but alas these both so far fall short in terms of our long-term goals. The closest thing I've seen is the low-cost DBX unit (driverack pro) which does pretty much everything but clean your dishes however this won't work in all situations. Am I right in that the 9632 with external IO cards would prevent the need for external AD/DA? not sure I'm prepared for the cost of all the non-analog RME solution apparently requires. >From what I can tell, the RME has about the best LF response (among other things) -- my infrasonic processing will need to go down to 8Hz and the RME appears to be good to 5Hz. Yup, we will be using some sort of long-throw woofers with low efficiency and lots of power for 8-80Hz sub-bass. Thanks alot, Ronan On 1/19/07, Roman Katzer <klangmeister@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi Ronan, > > first, RME Firewire devices are not supported (yet) AFAIK. > > On 16/01/07, ronan mcallister <bass.woofer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > I'm writing to ask about the RME cards relatively to Linux (I'm using > > Suse 10.1) -- which RME cards are the most fully-featured to work with > > ALSA in the various product lines? Which cards within those most > > actively "supported" by the driver developers are the most robust and > > the best cost/feature wise? Which have the most flexibilty? > > The flexibility part depends on your needs. I use a bunch of > Multifaces (>15) and Digifaces (>8) on a number of machines (>24), as > well as three MADI systems and one HDSP9652. The MADI systems have the > highest number of I/O channels. The HDSP 9652 is like a built-in > Digiface. If you need that many channels, you would have to get a > Digiface and some ADI-8 AD/DAs. ADI-8 are high quality units that > convert ADAT to analog and vice versa, at a pretty high price. > I also tried using Alesis units that also do analog to ADAT > conversion, but all odd channels have a 1.3 sample latency with > respect to the even channels, so they're unusable to me. > > > The 9632 can handle supposedly 6 I/O simultaneously. > > Is my assumption I'd need one output card for use to implement a 2X6 > > analog I/O correct? > > You need one input channel per speaker and apparently three outputs. > While I personally think that that is overkill (why not make a good > analog crossover), that's what you'd have to do. So for a 5.1 system > you'd need 16 channels (3x5 for 5 surround channels plus 1 for the > sub). > > > Which of the RME cards are most actively used/supported? > > Support is good for all PCI-based cards. Keep your mitts off the > Firewire units. > > > Are there any other sound cards with similar characteristics that > > might be a better choice? > > I don't know of any that are that good. For that reason I (well, my > company) uses RME. > > > I can buy dedicated prosound or > > home hifi equipment (loudspeaker management system) to do the same for > > less money -- yet I'd rather implement in something like BruteFIR and > > Linux if I can avoid commercial equipment. > > Not to mention the flexibility you'll get. But you'll pay dearly for it. > > > Oh and one problem with the RME card is if I need onboard I/O cards, > > it will take up more PCI slots than I have (I only have one spare PCE > > card). I'd have to find a PCI extender etc. I wonder if I should > > look at a fully outboard firewire device? > > RME HDSP 9652 takes one PCI slot and one additional slot cover without > occupying the actual slot. Plus external AD/DAs. > > HTH, RoMan > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list Alsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
