Has somebody a stable Ubuntu Studio NATTY 64-bit?

[Karl Giesing]

> today I got a RME card, very, very expensive. I'm curious about it. I> wonder if it will sound better than all the other cards I know, or if I> just spend money for nothing. I bought a B-stock (customer return), so> somebody perhaps wasn't satisfied by this card ;).

I'm American, and few people actually use RME cards over here, so I don't have any personal experience with them.

According to rumor, the "classic" cards are a bit old in the tooth as far as sampling rates and bit depth. However, everything I've read on the Internet suggests that their hardware is top-notch. 16/44 on an RME is supposed to actually sound better than some 24/128 systems, because the DAC's are that good. But, again, I'm just repeating rumors.

> ACK, but no full ACK regarding to "Linux audio isn't that good, as> proprietary audio is". MIDI jitter for hw MIDI is an issue on all OS,> AFAIK only Nuendo should be good and still with limitations. There> should be no App for Apple or Microsoft systems, excepted of Nuendo.> Using Jack2 from svn + a2jmidi_bridge on my Maverick install had at> least for one song, completely no limitation. It was hard real-time as> good as C64, Atari ST and 80's stand alone sequencers, there was no> jitter.

I've never been too concerned with MIDI timing, since I've either used MIDI controllers hooked up directly to synths, or within sequencers to control soft synths. Also, I've seen even hardware sequencers cause problems if too many things are passed through the MIDI cable.

Also - saying Linux audio "isn't as good a proprietry audio" is being a bit harsh. The open source community has always had to compete with well-financed companies who can afford to lock up the bleeding edge. Fortunately that's been overcome in other areas, but not so much in A/V technology. Yet.

> Regarding to audio it depends to the needs. If I should get rid of audio> loss, I'm satisfied for home recording. Just for professional work> Ardour2 IMO isn't stable enough. Sometimes it crash and sometimes still> is to often, regarding to contract penalty.

I haven't used Ardour in a pro environment, so I don't know about stability in that context. I've used it for DIY recording, and it does just fine there. It has a few quirks, but not regarding stability. OTOH, I've heard loads of complaints about crashes due to copy protection from the big players.

Then again, it's been years since I've tried any of the big software DAW's, so what do I know.
- Karl.