From alsa-devel-owner@alsa.jcu.cz  Sat Jan  9 18:01:14 1999
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Date: Sat, 09 Jan 1999 16:55:13 +0000
From: Benjamin GOLINVAUX <golinvaux@benjamin.net>
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To: alsa-devel@alsa.jcu.cz
Subject: Re: Hi - need some help?
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> documentation.  If we could honestly argue that there was a big market
> to tap, it might be a little different, but to be honest, no
> commercial studio is *ever* going to sanely use a preemptive
> multitasking OS to run its audio setup. Its great for those of us who
> want the best combination of all possible worlds, but there is a good
> reason why companies like Mackie don't run Linux on their digital
> mixing consoles, and its not (just) that they don't know about it.
> And how many of us "hobbyists" are going to fork out the big bucks
> (and keep coming back for more) for a genuine high end audio card ?

You are right... Market is tiny and we can't argue that their return for
Linux driver will be enough...

_but_ I'm pretty sure Linux CAN be tailored for real time audio stuff...
After all, a good PII 450Mhz with a fast PCI audio card can make
real-time effects WITH REAL TIME OS.

The key point here is : Is it possible to reduce the latency down to
1-5ms by using real-time Linux extensions... If it is possible, then we 
could imagine AT LEAST that a virtual studio is possible.

And I'd be very very very glad ;-)

I would like to know the various levels of optimism about this fact
among the alsa/linux community :

Do you see as possible a hot band on stage feeding streams of data in a
hotter 4 cpu/xeon/2Mb L2 linux station with some cooool effects
(whatever the audio card... just need some low latency circuitry for
digital output) ???

Benjamin.

