Re: 4D-NXs (was Re: Sync Issues)

[Paul Barton-Davis <pbd@Op.Net>]

>> >  Drivers had better be forthcomming.  Yes, I'm talking about cards like
>> >those, such as the Event Layla and Darla, etc.  Without them, it makes
>> >Linux pretty useless as a multitrack platform...
>> 
>> the manufacturers of such cards don't have much of an interest in
>> Linux. i did a little work at AES to try to change that, but its going
>> to be a long uphill battle.
>
>  Well, if there were a more powerful audio API, and applications that
>took advantage of it, that would all change pretty quick...

actually, no.

i've had many discussions with different companies. the problem has
*never* been "Oh, Linux's audio API isn't worth us developing
for". Its also never been "Well, what applications are there ?"
(remember, most of these companies simply *assume* the existence of
apps, or alternatively, write their own). 

Instead, its a combination of:

      * "some other people wrote a Linux driver for our board and it sucked"
      * "we don't have enough programmers to do that"
      * "we don't have any written documentation to give you guys -
         we wrote the driver by having the software group sit in with
	 the hardware group"
      * "we think our hardware's proprietary secrets will be revealed
         if there is a source code driver"
      * "Linux ? Is that like Cakewalk ?"

>  4D-NX seems to be just the chipset.  Which card are you referring to
>here? 

go to www.hoontech.com and look at the SoundWave NX.

--p