Re: Universal sound card?

mike <spamme9@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Buying linux compliant hardware is not an option.

I would certainly go down this route, if you want to run Linux. In the
same way as you would buy Microsoft Windows compliant hardware, if you
wanted to run Micros~1dows.

I know what you are trying to achieve with standardization, I do a
similar thing here. However, there are problems with standard hardware
becoming unavailable, or motherboards having onboard devices or
different slot types, different drive connectors, no printer port, etc,
which makes the job of "IBM compatiblity" somewhat difficult.

This is not a Linux problem, and exists in the Micros~1dows world too,
because some versions do not support older standard hardware.

I have a set of standards here, but they may not match what others are
using. The trouble with standards is that there are so many to choose
from.

A specific problem with soundcards is that some are "soundblaster compatible",
but may be from a different manufacturer, and there are different levels
of compatibility. Some are register compatible, but there are apparently
some that are not.

What I tend to do is search the net before introducing a new piece of
hardware, to check that it provides the compatibility that I require and
that it works with open source drivers.

There are various websites that maintain compatibility lists.

You will not get a card that fits all slots, works on all IBM compatible
computers, and runs on all versions of Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Just get something that works well, and then use it in as many machines
as you can.

My main machines have onboard sound from Via technologies, and this
works just fine, but I haven't got midi files playing yet. (Apparently
the sound chips do not provide onboard midi synthesis, which is a bit
annoying, because I used to use midi a lot.) However this can
be replicated through software using the existing sound channels, but I
have not got round to fixing this yet.

I used to use ESS cards, because they have nice sounding onboard midi in
comparison to Creative Labs cards, however at the time I switched to
using Linux, I could not get the card to work, even though the card was
soundblaster compatible. (A driver was since developed, but I tend to
use PCI slot devices now.) I just got an ESS Solo1 PCI to work using the
new Open Sound System (not part of the kernel, but available under GPL
from 4front technologies.) This worked well, but I have not tried midi
synthesis yet.

The Yamaha Waveforce XG PCI requires binary swirmware in order to
operate, so I would avoid using this card.

Regards,

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley,
393 Quinton Road West,
Quinton, BIRMINGHAM.
B32 1QE.
.

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