I bought an EMU-0202 sound device from Sweetwater. (Actually I got their demo model for $10 off.) The Sweetwater folks have been very attentive, and asked what my plans were. I told them Linux and amateur radio, and they didn't bat an eye, though their main business is of course music. They said they'd report my interest in Linux support to the manufacturer. Hopefully that will result in some official support for the ALSA developers on the project from EMU.

Briefly, I found that in Ubuntu 8.10, 48Khz stereo input works with certain bit formats, and 48Khz output as well. 96Khz is recognized, but just produces a bunch of aliases. 192Khz causes segfaults in the application. Also, the device can't be plugged in during boot as it causes a hang very early on.

Patrick W9PDS reports that he's had better luck using raw ALSA builds as described here, but it's a dicey non-packaged installation.

Update: 44.1Khz works; 48Khz does not. The Creative Drivers page claims that it now defaults to 44.1Khz even after a power reset. Maybe the OSS Mac drivers will help.

- posted by Leigh @ 21:02 z