From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Oct 8 23:20:33 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id XAA11703 for hackers-outgoing; Wed, 8 Oct 1997 23:20:33 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers) Received: from labinfo.iet.unipi.it (labinfo.iet.unipi.it [131.114.9.5]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id XAA11698 for ; Wed, 8 Oct 1997 23:20:27 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it) Received: from localhost (luigi@localhost) by labinfo.iet.unipi.it (8.6.5/8.6.5) id GAA12182; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 06:03:40 +0100 From: Luigi Rizzo Message-Id: <199710090503.GAA12182@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> Subject: Re: FreeBSD for digital recording w/PCI multitrack in/out cards? To: dcarmich@Mcs.Net (Douglas Carmichael) Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 06:03:39 +0100 (MET) Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199710082310.SAA21519@Jupiter.Mcs.Net> from "Douglas Carmichael" at Oct 8, 97 06:09:52 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > With Jordan's comment about FreeBSD in the recording studio, it could be > done with PCI-based multitrack audio I/O cards (e.g. Event Electronics > Layla - FAQ at http://www.event1.com/layla-faq.html), and some changes to > the sound driver (e.g. creating /dev/[audio|dsp][0-7]). > > Could FreeBSD handle the guaranteed 8-channel in/out? The main problem is that pci audio devices are unsupported and we can only work on them if we have the specs. So far I haven't seen the data sheets of any PCI card available on the net. manufacturers usually do not respond (or those who do already have the data sheets on the net). I cannot check the URL you pointed above in this moment, but if they do not have programming specs then we are out of luck. Otherwise I am willing to work on a driver if someone provides specs and a card. Note that my audio driver (see http://www.iet.unipi.it/luigi/FreeBSD.html) can handle multiple ISA boards (and I quite often have 2-3 active in my test machine) although you will likely run out of DMA channels with >3 boards (if you are smart enough and do not want full duplex, then you might get 4-5 ISA audio cards up and running; but then you are going to have bandwidth problems on the ISA bus.) > What multitrack recording software exists for FreeBSD? it's a user-space thing, once we have solved the device problem as depicted above, any software available on the net for unix machines will do. i know of none at the moment but I think I have seen something on the net. check the oss page or some linux doc on audio. Cheers Luigi