On Tue, 31 Mar 1998, Paul Winkler wrote:
> Hi linart peoples. I've been trying for quite a while to get a working
> hard-disk recording setup that can use my TB Malibu's full duplex
> capabilities. So far the only success I've had has been with these two:
>
> 1) Multitrack 2.0 with a trial copy of the OSS-Linux drivers.
> 2) Ceres SoundStudio demo copy with OSS-free drivers.
Heh. I just bought a Malibu to go into a new machine that will be my
eventual sound box (replacing my current Ultrasound using non-OSS drivers,
below) because of the incompatibilities I've been having with so many sound
apps.
I'm down on Linux today. Or maybe not actually down on it, but seeing the
great amount of improvement that free software needs application-wise is
putting it into perspective. The sound support for GNU/Linux systems has a
fatal flaw: it's basically a commercial product that is stripped down for
free use. There were ripples on the linux-sound list about this maybe 2
months ago, some guys said they wanted to write a new, free sound driver for
the kernel. Also around that time, the guy who ran the Linux Ultrasound
Project said (I think) that he was turning the LUP into a project to create
a good, high-end sound driver for Linux. And one Gunter Geiger (sp?) is
doing the same thing. Hopefully in a year's time, there will be something
doable.
The good news is that I know that full duplex is possible with this card
using OSS-free - check out this netnews post:
<http://x2.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=323713887>. You might want to email the
author about your problem - he was very helpful to me when I was deciding
which card to get. (And if you do, please post your results to linart!)
> Based on #2, I know it's possible to use this card full duplex under
> OSS-linux. Unfortunately none of the free recording apps I've tried can
> make use of this... SLab wants to use the 2.1.xx kernels, which I'd
> rather avoid mucking with; Broadcast doesn't work very well, if at all;
This pretty much mirrors my experience with SLab and Broadcast. I think
Multitrack is your best bet.
> Multitrack was designed only to be used with two soundcards, and the
> tips for using it with one card in OSS-Linux don't work for OSS-free.
Full duplex with Multitrack works fine for me - but I'm using the
(OSS-compatible) Linux Ultrasound Project driver (and it's not perfect; I
started getting a lot of inexplicable noise with the latest Multitrack, and
the source did not appear to be available, although it is released under
GPL(?)).
> I thought I might get SLab working by upgrading to the latest OSS-free,
> which was back-ported from a pretty recent 2.1 kernel... so far, no
> luck. And SLab has been so grouchy that I'm not too optimistic about it
> anyway.
I can't stand it. The interface is modeled after "real" equipment, but it
loses something in the translation to screen - I find it at best supremely
awkward to use. And it's slow.
Michael Stutz . http://dsl.org/m/ . copyright disclaimer etc
[EMAIL PROTECTED] : finger for pgp : http://dsl.org/copyleft/
