Having two sound card in a machine

[Florin Andrei]

On Wed, 2006-01-04 at 22:20 -0500, Reuben D. Budiardja wrote:

> Is it possible to have two sound card in a machine ? 

Yes. Actually a lot more than two.

> Why, you ask ? Well my motherboard has a built in one (with VIA 8237) that 
> works allright. Unfortunately the it does not have a MIDI interface, which I 
> need to capture MIDI from an instrument. I am thinking to get one of the 
> cheapo soundcard ( < $10 ) just for the MIDI interface, so the sound from 
> that card is probably not very good. 

You can also get a cheap USB MIDI-only interface that's supported on
Linux.

> Any hints or pointer on how to configure Alsa to do something like 
> that (for example if the two cards require different driver) ?

The modules (drivers) used by both cards need to be specified
in /etc/modprobe.conf per ALSA documentation.

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/

Fictional example (don't know if it works) to simultaneously use an
M-Audio Delta 1010 and a SoundBlaster Live!:

alias snd-card-0 snd-ice1712
options snd-card-0 index=0
alias snd-card-1 snd-emu10k1
options snd-card-1 index=1

When using alsamixer to configure each card, use -c X where X=0,1 to
choose the card.

> Other suggestions are welcomed too.

Subscribe to LAU and ask your questions on that list:

http://www.linuxdj.com/audio/lad/subscribelau.php

They are THE source of information for Linux audio.

-- 
Florin Andrei

http://florin.myip.org/