From owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 14 10:11:24 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B7B0137B401 for ; Mon, 14 Apr 2003 10:11:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: from misav04.sasknet.sk.ca (misav04.sasknet.sk.ca [142.165.20.165]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 29BDE43FBD for ; Mon, 14 Apr 2003 10:11:23 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from lists-dated-1051549880.d5dbe9@jimramsay.com) Received: from thyme.sasktel.net ([142.165.20.198]) by misav04 with InterScan Messaging Security Suite; Mon, 14 Apr 2003 11:10:14 -0600 Received: from watson.jimramsay.com (hsde-sktn-164-66.sasknet.sk.ca [142.165.164.66]) by thyme.sasktel.net (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 1.08 (built Dec 6 2002)) with ESMTPA id <0HDC00DN7FQWBA@thyme.sasktel.net> for multimedia@freebsd.org; Mon, 14 Apr 2003 11:11:21 -0600 (CST) Received: (qmail 16669 invoked from network); Mon, 14 Apr 2003 17:11:20 +0000 Received: from unknown (HELO hsde-sktn-164-66.sasknet.sk.ca) (127.0.0.1) by localhost.jimramsay.com with SMTP; Mon, 14 Apr 2003 17:11:20 +0000 Received: from holmes.jimramsay.com (hsde-sktn-164-95.sasknet.sk.ca [142.165.164.95]) by hsde-sktn-164-66.sasknet.sk.ca (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Mon, 14 Apr 2003 11:11:17 -0600 Received: by holmes.jimramsay.com (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Mon, _d Apr 2003 11:11:17 -0600 Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 11:11:17 -0600 From: Jim Ramsay To: multimedia@freebsd.org Mail-Followup-To: multimedia@freebsd.org Message-id: <20030414171117.GE59368@holmes.jimramsay.com> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/0.74 (Citation) X-Primary-Address: Jim Ramsay Subject: Soundcard Recommendation X-BeenThere: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Jim Ramsay List-Id: Multimedia discussions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 17:11:25 -0000 I'm thinking of doing some home recording with my FreeBSD system, but the onboard CMI soundcard seems to do a poor a/d conversion - it's pretty noisy. Not that I'm surprised - I'm sure it's mainly because it's part of the motherboard / cheap. What I'd like are people's recommendations for sound cards. Here are my requirements: - Reasonably good quality analog -> digital conversion is essential. - PCI interface (USB is available too, but I don't understand USB as well, and don't know how USB compares for soundcards). - Full Duplex, unless the existing soundcard would be good enough for simultaneous playback (it plays my MP3s fine). - MIDI optional, but probably a useful feature (I don't know where MIDI support is in FreeBSD, though). - Preferably affordable, of course. - Well supported in FreeBSD 4.7, though I would not be opposed to upgrading to 5.0 if it was worth it. Thank you for your suggestions! If you've got recommendations for software too, fire away. I'll probably try audacity and ecasound at least. Maybe "SLab" (http://www.slabexchange.org/index.cgi?INDEX) if I can get it working (I used to use than on my Linux box and found it pretty useful / easy). -- Jim Ramsay i.am@jimramsay.com PGP Key ID: 0xBE28F488