new linux project, need suggestions

Atown

Atown

Christian Gamers Alliance Amazon Store Manager
Staff member
Ok so i have close to a new goal in life - making music.

More specifically recording it. I have a microphone thingy that allows for the input of 5 xlr and i can output to performance speakers and/or 1/4 jack to a computer.

Now my original though was to get a linux box that could input 2-5 instruments (or voices) but i figured the linux box would get the multiple sound cards messed up and it would be easier to just input from the xlr box i have but then you lose the extremely diverse signal of each instrument that you cant mess with on the computer.

So yeah, ideas? linux distro suggestions?

i looked for a audio recording/mixing specific os but didt find much of anything off distrowatch and google searches were bloated with other non-related material
 
find a linux supported soundcard at hte professional level(theya re out there)...distro? ubuntu or fedora...
 
if you want to do it right it's going to cost a bit in $$$ since multitrack soundcards aren't cheap....or you can get a mixing board with a usb2 or firewire output and then plug that into the computer..i think audacity can handle that one.
 
thats im looking at 3 diff distros now. i didt see that multimedia thing in there before. but i think ima try http://www.dynebolic.org/ it looks pretty sick, or just the ubuntu studio.

HCS: i was looking through newegg and i didt see any multi-track sound cards adn the cheapest one i found was $100. have you ever seen like.... deals on these things??
 
another way is to buy a mixing board that has firewire or usb out..then using audactioy or something that can interface with it record right form the mixing board..:)
 
Hescominsoon said:
another way is to buy a mixing board that has firewire or usb out..then using audactioy or something that can interface with it record right form the mixing board..:)
Click to expand...

Most of the firewire based boards require special drivers iirc. M-Audio has some OK entry level recording boards with XLR breakouts, however you need to double check the driver status. Ardour is one of the nicest recording apps IMO on linux, however I have never used it in production usage. Elive had some multimedia apps on it when we used it in high school ~2.5 years ago, however it is geared exclusively towards being a live cd and not for installation.

As for distro wise, I am almost tempted to say gentoo. As portage has the largest repository I have ever seen. A lot of alpha and beta software is in there that you will never find in ubuntu and especially fedora, and if it isn't in there people often post ebuilds that you can add in. However that is a pretty steep learning curve and can be a PITA. There are realtime kernels and the like that are designed for recording, but I can't remember anything that actually took advantage of them (aside from the reduced latency). I usually ran a -ck patched kernel that incorporated some experimental features.
 
that's why i suggested ubuntu because you tap the debian repos which is as extensive as gentoo..:) MOst folks use winders though..:)
 
Hescominsoon said:
that's why i suggested ubuntu because you tap the debian repos which is as extensive as gentoo..:)
Click to expand...

hardly, portage also has several commercial packages because the ebuild system is decentralized. It can download a source or binary package and install it, which is pretty powerful considering the several dozen ways to install a source package (scons, make, cmake, etc).
 
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