Re: sound systems shipped with PC's...

On Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:54:37 -0700, h.stroph wrote:

"Mike Fontenot" <mlfasf@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:48726611.14781EAE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

But the PC ads I've looked at so far don't seem to say anything about a
sound system being included anymore. What's going on with sound on the
new PC's?

Wrong newsgroup; this has absolutely nothing to do with Linux.

Unless they're referencing onboard midi support. Which many cards do not
come with these days. In linux you'd have to emulate midi with timidity.

modprobe snd-seq
timidity -Os -iA

And use whatever midi app you want. pmidi, timidity, rosegarden, .....
This assumes you compiled alsa with sequencer support.
--with-sequencer=yes

As far as higher end soundcards, you might check out alsa-project.org for
it's soundcard matrix. Not all soundcards are supported. And some that
are, are not fully supported. For firewire cards you'll probably need
freebob drivers.

http://alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page
http://freebob.sourceforge.net/index.php/Main_Page

http://alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main

I have an M-Audio Mobile Pre which I use on my laptop. Works fine in
linux, but limited. Only 2 channels of 16 bit and 48 kHz sound. In
and/or out. But it has builtin microphone preamps (XLR), and can be had
for under $100 used.

I also have an M-Audio Delta 44. Which has excellent converters A->D /
D->A. But doesn't come with preamps, or common connections. Unless TRS
to studio monitors is your common. It works great in linux as well. 4 in
and 4 out full duplex at 24 bit and 96 kHz. There are better cards out
there, but I don't know if they work in linux. While the Delta 44 is
fairly cheap, you'll need a lot of extras (cables / adapters / microphone
preamp / headphone preamp) to be able to have the same functionality of
more common and worse sounding soundcards.

My laptops soundcard is weak to say the least. Hooked up to my stereo
there's a noticeable noise floor even when idle. The Mobile Pre is much
better. The Delta 44 is almost silent with the same configuration.

And various other options to convert .mid files to .wav files with
timidity. And then to mp3 with lame. Put it on your mp3 player and take
your computers soundcard out of the equation.

HTH
S7
.

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