Hello,

I am thinking about setting up a small home recording studio. I would like some input as to hardware compatibility and choices, such as sound cards, mixers, MIDI, etc. and Linux. How well do they operate, what sort of issues might I expect, etc.


Thanks in advance.

http://ardour.org/
http://jackit.sourceforge.net/

and if you are serious about recording the M-Audio Cards have been highly recommended for multi-track recording..
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=...=pciinterfaces

Attempting to use multiple disparate sound cards for multi-track recording is discouraged and I believe io's stated it just wont work..

Hello,

Thanks - I really don't need any advice on the software. Everyone and there brother talks about the software choices - so the information on it is in abundance (though a little less in abundance is proper configuration of that software). But there is a great lack of information on proper hardware (and configuring the software to work with that hardware).

Thanks for the advice on the M-Audio. I have their Uno MIDI to USB adapter which works fine with Linux. They seem like a good quality company. Do you know - if I hook up one of their PCI cards (or someone else's) - does that become the default sound card?

I am running an integrated C-Audio sound card on my HP. How would this work for configuring in Linux if I kept my C-Audio for normal sound (with my junker speakers) and installed a M-Audio (or other) PCI card that hooked up to my mixer and some monitor speakers?


Also, would it work to go from the mixer to the line_in/mic_in on my system (either front or back panel)? Would it work physically and with the software? Would the quality take a hit?

M-audio Audiophile 2496 - good card for recording

Potentially useful article: http://www.linux.com/articles/39751

I've had my delta 1010LT in my home pc for some time... I don't recall any problems, but I haven't done any recording at home. Yesterday I got myself the audiophile, because I need something for low-latency midi. Only problem is that the gnome volume control is completely confused, but it works. I've done some recording with Jack, and the latency with synthesizers isn't noticeable.
Although you didn't ask for it: I think that reaper running in wine (with wineasio) is currently your best option. It really works flawless, even with midi. + you don't need to mess around with FST to run VST and VSTi's.

Take it with a grain of salt. He confuses mastering with mixing and recommends Audacity for that - which is a great wave editor, but it's mulitracking is a gimmick more than anything else... and it only supports destructive editing.

I don't know if it's sad or funny that people recommend Ecasound over Ardour for ease-of-use. They are absolutely right in my opinion. Ardour is just way too much.