[Ipg-smz] What happens when Linux keeps getting better and better?

[Stephen Satchell]

What little audio work I've done recently, I've been quite happy with
Audacity on Linux Mint for multi-channel mixdown.  Still have difficulty
getting more than stereo input (courtesy of a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4),
but I've not needed more than two channels at a time.

I used to do audio work using Syntrillium CoolEdit on Windows, with a
professional-grade sound card.  Then the sound card went unsupported,
and Syntrillium was sold to Adobe...and so much for doing audio work on
Windows.  (But then Windoz was banished anyway.)

My original usage was a little unusual:  I would hook the pro sound card
inputs to a telco line simulator's audio side outputs, have two modems
establish a connection, capture the two channels of audio, then use a
custom program to create traveling FFTs of the two channels.  This was
used to analyze the conformance of a V.32 modem (later V.32 bis) to the
standards.  The system replaced a $40,000 audio spectrum analyzer, which
meant that I could have more than one testing station checking this
stuff without breaking the budget.

I used a similar setup to analyze a COM-10 cable system's telephone
channel, to find out why fax wasn't working.  Using a software
implementation of the industry-standard 23-tone test for telephony, I
recorded an hour of transmission, then took a slew of samples of various
parameters in the playback and plotted them.  Found the problem: their
timing chain was unstable, so the phase jitter in the DS0 channel would
exceed the ability of V.29 (and V.27ter) to establish a fax connection.

I've also done a lot of audio work over the years, but not digitally.
The reason: never found a digital multi-channel (8 and 16 channel)
recorder with a decent price.  If I did, I would have fed it with
per-channel output from a Ramsa mixing board, and remix using the line
inputs to start, then move to digital remix when that became available.
 The recording solutions I did find just couldn't keep up with 44-khz
sampling at 16 bits on more than two channels.  That was the fault of
the computer (and Windows).

Things are better now with regards to stand-alone digital recorders.
(Sweetwater, anyone?)  My need for multi-channel recording has passed --
I don't do on-location recording anymore.  (Call me stay-at-home...)