Which distribution for these Audio-related needs?

Hello everybody,

I've had Ubuntu on my laptop since more than one year, but never used it for anything special.

Now I have got a "special" need: I want to use my laptop as an high-quality stereo audio source (think about it as a Super-iPod), keeping the audio files on an external HDD, and connected via FireWire to and external audio board that will convert the digital signal and send the analog signal to a Hi-Fi amplifier.

Now I've just changed my laptop internal HDD and I would like to know which distribution would fit me best...

My indecision is between Ubuntu 9.10 and OpenSUSE 11.2.

I'd like to know if they have got some problems with the things I want to do, If they have the apps I need, if they support the drivers I will use and so on.

For this "special" task, I've used only Windows XP up to now. For other things, only Ubuntu (versions from 8.04 to 9.10) but I'd like to try something different if it's better.

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I'll try to be as clear as possible. I need:

1) Some program/application that will copy my CDs just as they are (without compressing them), copying and saving the audio tracks bit-by-bit.
Just like Windows does with WAV files and Mac does with AIFF files.

Not FLAC, but just a perfect copy of what's written in the CD.
Is it possible? Has Linux got such a kind of format?

I'm talking about 16bit/44.1KHz tracks.

2) Some program/application that will extract the stereo audio tracks from my DVDs, always bit-by-bit without compression version.

We're going from 16bit/48KHz to 24bit/96KHz tracks.


3) Some program that will extract the whole DVD (always without compression)

The best would be extracting only the movie with the stereo track.


4)Some media player with a kind of library (such as iTunes) that will classify and show me all these files by author, composer, track title, album title etc and play all these files saved on the ext HDD

5) Real-Time (a.k.a. low latency) Kernel: I know that Ubuntu has got it. What about OpenSUSE?

6) Last but (absolutely!) not least, I'd like to know if the following package will work on both the distributions:

I CANNOT POST THE URL. It's a *.gz package, it contains the drivers of my external FireWire Audio Board. Do you think this kind of package will give me problems with any of the distributions?


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Thank you very much for your attention!


Edoardo

Most of what you talked about is over my head, but you might want to look at Mint 8. You have heard the phrase before I'm sure, "It just works"!

Good Luck,
Harold

hello Edoardo_P,

of course, everything that you mention in pp. 1)-5) is possible with many distributions. since i use OpenSUSE, i know for sure that it's possible there.

the only thing that might cause you problems is 6), so my advice would be to test-install the distribution from e.g. KDE-LiveCD and try to make your driver package work. noone can guarantee you that it will work without you trying yourself. btw, check if the audio board is supported by alsa (see their homepage). if yes, you won't need to bother with the driver package.

if that works, i could advise you on the programs to use for pp. 1)-5)

oh, and last - would you care to explain why do you need to have a wav file, but not flac, from cd's?

Have you checked Ubuntu Studio?

I generally use command line apps for this kind of thing. It's not the only way, but it's what I know. :)

Quote:

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I'll try to be as clear as possible. I need:

1) Some program/application that will copy my CDs just as they are (without compressing them), copying and saving the audio tracks bit-by-bit.
Just like Windows does with WAV files and Mac does with AIFF files.

Not FLAC, but just a perfect copy of what's written in the CD.
Is it possible? Has Linux got such a kind of format?

I'm talking about 16bit/44.1KHz tracks.

---

I do this with cdparanoia. Type:

cdparanoia -B

Quote:

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2) Some program/application that will extract the stereo audio tracks from my DVDs, always bit-by-bit without compression version.

We're going from 16bit/48KHz to 24bit/96KHz tracks.

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I do this with mplayer. Try:

mplayer -ao pcm dvd://

Quote:

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3) Some program that will extract the whole DVD (always without compression)

The best would be extracting only the movie with the stereo track.

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There are a number of ways of doing this. The simplest is to copy the VOB files from the DVD.

Quote:

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4)Some media player with a kind of library (such as iTunes) that will classify and show me all these files by author, composer, track title, album title etc and play all these files saved on the ext HDD

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Not sure.

Quote:

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5) Real-Time (a.k.a. low latency) Kernel: I know that Ubuntu has got it. What about OpenSUSE?

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Not sure. I think there was a media variant of SUSE called 'Jacklab' that has a real time kernel. You don't need this unless you are using software synths or doing real time effects processing from a live source.

Quote:

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6) Last but (absolutely!) not least, I'd like to know if the following package will work on both the distributions:

I CANNOT POST THE URL. It's a *.gz package, it contains the drivers of my external FireWire Audio Board. Do you think this kind of package will give me problems with any of the distributions?

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What firewire sound card is it? The only audio firewire drivers for Linux I know of are Freebob/FFADO, which work via Jack.

I can see this being problematic, unless you already have had it working on Linux.

With regard to the real-time kernel for OpenSuSE, as avenir says, there is one in the repositories. It may not be in the default install repositories, but it's definitely in one of the other, easily available (through YaST) ones. It's appended with the term, "trace", from memory.

As argosy says though, you likely won't need this for the stuff you've outlined in your post. I believe JackLab isn't maintained anymore, BTW.

FYI, if you are planning to use this kernel with Rosegarden (MIDI sequencer), the Timer Frequency may not be high enough and Rosegarden may complain about this.