On Sun, 31 Aug 2014, Moshe Werner wrote:
On Sun, Aug 31, 2014 at 7:29 PM, Len Ovens <len@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, 31 Aug 2014, Moshe Werner wrote:
all the recent talk about less audio interfaces being supported
for Linux got me
thinking.
First I want to mention that I'm neither a programmer nor an
electrical engineer, but
what if we could develop our own AI?
This is not the first time for this idea. There are one or two people working on
it. The idea that seems to be the best is an ethernet connected AI because this
seems to be the digital interface that stays around and is best supported. The
idea is to use an arm based board with a netjack master and built in audio IF. The
only project I know of is to at first provide stereo i/o as a proof of concept.
Interesting, I didn't know this. Can you send a link to it?
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-user/2011-October/081520.html
is the start I think... Though it may have surfaced since then too.
It seems to me that at some point the same project came back in either LAU
or LAD but the topic got changed.
A few comments about ADAT, while the format of the messages is well known, it is
not open. Licencing may be a problem. True MADI uses obsolete HW. There are a
number of audio over ethernet protocols with various openness or not.
But ADAT is one of the most important and widespread interfaces, so we can't just ignore
it
Reading through the above thread, it seems to agree.
Just a quick note about DIY HW. It is not generally cheaper than buying the
same capability made by someone else. There are premade solutions out there,
but they are not in the range of a lot of linux musicians.
I didn't say cheaper. I am willing to pay for decent hardware, and also software. I
Ok, nothing to argue about there. DIY is also a way of getting what can
not be bought. I have done some small HW projects before (MIDI stuff) but
am finding with older eyes even with glasses I tire sooner. SW is easier
for me (and I am not that great at that either :) )
Maybe this is just wishful thinking, but it would solve one of the
biggest problems for
Linux audio musicians.
The biggest limit to audio interfaces in basement studio is getting over the fact
that a good audio interface is going to cost more than the computer it works with.
This is first of all a psycological problem not technical.
I can see your point, but I don't totally agree. Cost is one matter but IMHO the main
factor of frustration is the lack of support, and generally cold shoulder, we as a
community get.
I was not thinking from a custom POV, but from a developing to manufacture
POV. In which case it has to be profitable to fly.
So the problem is less technical than it might seem. (on the technical end,
using netjack as an audio interface does use more CPU than the same alsa
card used locally) To make such a project worth while it needs to have a
wide appeal, this means cheap... I can't think of any other way to put it.
The goal ends up being 8 i/os with 8 mic pre for around $500. Having
something more stable and lower latency than USB2 might give you another
$200 (maybe more) to play with, but writing OSx/win drivers would give a lot
more room (netjack does this OOTB).
Totally agree, we're witnessing genius on a daily basis in this list, so I don't see a
technical problem at all.
But I think the goal would be to bring something real new to the world, like a
"stackable" or modular interface that every user could more or less configure using
standard building blocks. That would cater the whole range of users in our community.
The problem is that I'm neither a programmer nor a hardware designer, I'm a user, so I'm
just thinking out loud.
I'm not much of a designer ether, more of a hacker (not cracker thanks). I
am not much at refining things once they work. I only have so much time to
spare and limited energy due to physical problems.
--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net
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