sex & foreplay

Tue May 25 02:52:56 UTC 2004

First the sex then the foreplay. That way I won't waste your time if 
you're not interested. ; )

The Sex:

I can't configure my linux boxes to record musical instruments.

The Foreplay:

I want to record music in linux. I'm thinking of Audactiy because it's 
easy to get and looks like what I want – a multitrack recorder.

I have two pretty good systems:

Compaq Deskpro EN
384 MB RAM
Sound onboard: Intel 18x0 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio (rev 01)
Sound card: Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 EMU10k1 (rev 0a)
NIC and 56K external modem

custom Duron 800
256 MB RAM
Sound: Creative Media CM 8738
Video: ATI Xpert 98 8 MB AGP
NIC and 56K external modem

I also have an external backpack CD-RW which I could use with either 
machine (not that I've figured that out yet).

My instruments, cables, PC, soundcards and the stereo system that the PC 
connects to for playback all work fine. I have recorded music under 
Windows 98 so the hardware is all OK.

I've been running a business with applications running on linux for a 
few months now – spreadsheet, word processor, printing, posters, 
business cards, Internet and email. Multitrack sound recording is my 
final frontier.

Here are some of the things I have done, resources I have, etc...

- I had a debian guru from the list install beta sarge on the P733. As 
soon as I got the PC back to Timmins and booted it, I got the error, 
“artsd - sound server fatal error - cpu overloaded” and have not been 
able to record with the card. I can't play CDs either. I installed (even 
bought) Vmware so that I could test the card in W98. Little did I know 
that the VMware W98 vm can't use a real driver – it picks sound up (if 
it's working) from linux via VMware Tools – in short, if I'm right, the 
Vmware quest will pick up sound only if it's working on the host. But I 
don't want to get sidetracked with VMware issues. I want to get sound 
working under linux.

- I have a dial-up connection to the Internet so I can download 
applications but not OSs. If someone out there inspires me to work with 
a particular distribution I'll get it from Cheapbytes or wherever.

- At one point I had a linux/W98 dual-boot. However I found myself 
spending too much time in W98 and too little in linux. Everytime I 
didn't know how to do something I would just boot to W98. I don't think 
that would happen now as I can do all (but multitrack recording and CD 
burning) in linux now. So, if a dual-boot scenario will serve me well 
for a while I may try that while I'm learning how to configure sound in 
linux.

It seems to me that the best thing to do would be to do a dual-boot 
W98/linux (whatever tluggers talk me into) installation. Then I could 
carve the hdb drive into two to back up song projects in W98 and linux. 
The two benefits of this scenario are, 1. I would have access to 
information about hardware (including that it is connected and working) 
from W98, and, 2. I could start recording songs in W98 (on ProTools 
Free) while I work away at configuring sound in linux. So, all week 
linux would be up for business and sound configuration, and when the 
weekend comes I boot to W98 and get recording (until Windows is finally 
out of my life) – that kind of thing.

So, the first question I have is, which distribution? The second is, 
which PC I should use for this? It's been suggested that the P733 will 
be faster than the Duron 800. And I do recall problems with the Duron 
hanging. I haven't had that problem of late but then I have not been 
using it much. My only problem with using the P733 is that it has an 
onboard card *and* a sound card. So, I don't know which sound card is 
the “active” one (if that is aconcept that applies) at any given time. I 
want to be able to leave my line, mic and speakers cables attached to 
one card (the SBL! 5.1) and know that that is the card that will record 
and play.

Of course, this all begs the question, why not just use W98? Well, I 
don't want to. I hate the idea of using MS products even if I'm not 
paying for them. Multitrack recording and CD burning) is the only thing 
between me and a Microsoft-free life.

Don't be shy to suggest things that cost money. If buying a Mandrake 
boxed set with support is the answer then I'll do it.

I'm not looking for the distribution I'm going to grow old with, just 
one that a redhat, and soon-to-be-former Windows, user would be able to 
learn with modest but consistent effort over the next five weeks (I want 
to be multitrack-recording in earnest by the summer) and have a chance 
of having Audacity (or another multitrack recording application) come up 
and record instruments through the Mic and Line ports no my soundcard.

Thank you. This is a long email to read.

Sincerely,

Chris Aitken

--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml