I've been trying to switch to Linux for home recording. I can't stand Windows and use Linux for all my other needs, but the switch has been slow for audio. First, it took a while to get a card that works. And now, finally having settled on the Xubuntu 11.04 + KXStudio option, I don't know what to do after the install. Documentation seems sparse and I really need help to move on.
I have a 64-bit PC (6 Gb Ram). I have a generic onboard audio card and later installed an ESI Maya44 PCI.
I installed Xubuntu 11.04 and KXStudio in this way:
I got Jack to produce sound with ESI, but there is slight crackling. Somewhere I also saw that my latency is around 46 ms (don't know if I interpreted that correctly but that's how it seemed). I don't know how to set up the system so that I can:sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kxstudio-team/kxstudio
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kxstudio-repos
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install kxstudio-desktop-xfce
sudo apt-get install kxstudio-meta-all
sudo apt-get install kxstudio-kernel-lowlatency
--get rid of crackling, reduce the latency, and optimize everything else
--use all the inputs/outputs and other features of ESI Maya44 (or at least use most of its features): Right now, I have no idea how to record any external audio (e.g., from my guitar)
--get all (or most) of the software that came with KXStudio to produce sound or respond however they are supposed to
Also, bunch of things are weird. For instance, I can't get the volume level in the notifications area to work, it's grayed out. Some software doesn't respond at all. Etc., etc.
In sum, I'm a little lost, and really want to get some progress. I really hate the idea of going back to Windows and I really hope to stay with GNU/Linux for audio. Any help is much appreciated, thanks!