Super Low $ & Feature rich setup

[Zero D]

Use Raspberrypi Plus Audacity together with a USB 2 in x out external soundcard.

FAQs | Raspberry Pi

http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/apps/all/audacity

And make use of Audacitys PlugIn facility, for eg VST types, of which there are 1000's, & Many are FREE I'm not saying they are all great, but there are plenty that are !

Audacity: Features

For eg, i found these Very quickly just to use as some examples

CrossOver

is a plugin to split an incoming signal into several (at most 4) frequency ranges.

It can be used to build your own multiband effects within a modular (sub)host environment. By using only 2 bands, you can also create bass-effects. These are effects which (counterintuitively) keep the low frequency range dry and affect only the high frequency range. The band-splitting is done by complementary pairs of Linkwitz-Riley lowpass/highpass filters, the slope of which is adjustable between 12 and 96 dB/oct

Download Free Signal frequency splitter plug-in: CrossOver by Robin Schmidt

Classic Compressor

is a classic analog style VST Compressor Plugin with a lot of warmth and punch. Special designed to use on individual Instruments and Vocal, but also useable on your final mixes.

VSTPLANET - VST Plugins free, virtual effects

I'm not sure if you can have multiple outputs, for eg Xovers etc, but it "appears" you can ?

How to for multi-channel out

Audacity Forum • View topic - How to for multi-channel out

Open the preferences menu and go to File Formats -> Use Advanced Mixing Option

Audacity Forum • View topic - Mixing 5.1 Surround sound?

And/Or,

*********

Linux Audio and Sound - Application and Software Index

[url]http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/apps/start

Audio software repository

ACK (JACK Audio Connection Kit)

JACK was designed from the ground up for professional audio work, and its design focuses on two key areas: synchronous execution of all clients, and low latency operation.

http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/raspberrypi

Effects Processors - http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/apps/categories/effects_processors

zita-dpl1

DPL1 is an look-ahead digital peak limiter, the kind you would use as the final step to avoid clipping when mastering or mixing. It can be used as an effect on individual instrument tracks as well. DPL1 - Quick guide

Tapiir

Sweet multi-tap delay with FLTK GUI, from Maarten de Boer. From the website: Tapiir is a simple and flexible audio effects processor, inspired on the classical magnetic tape delay systems used since the early days of electro-acoustic music composition. It provides a graphical user interface consisting of six delay lines, or “taps”, which can introduce an almost arbitrarily big or small delay to their inputs and can be feed back to each other.

TAPIIR, A SOFTWARE MULTITAP DELAY

 

[phofman]

Do you have any practical experience with such setup?

 

[Zero D]

@ phofman

Hi, i'm just throwing out an idea, for further exploration

I do have experience with VST Plugins on Cubase.

 

[jlaakso]

Keep in mind that Raspberry PI has USB 1.1 which limits it's capabilities.

 

[camelator]

my experience with raspberry pi

Hi,
I have the raspberry PI for around 5 months.
I tried several configurations arout it.
my current config is raspberry pi + hifimediy DAC+ a) DENON AVR 1912, b) Lepai 2020
This config allow 100% quality sound production and movies without issues.
I am driving my raspberry pi with a chinese tablet (~60$) or a wireless keyboard.


Pros:
cheap, excellent sound quality.
It reveals that sound quality on $15 lepai with external usb DAC $50 is better than $600 DENON AVR 1912.
Very simple to play with, my girlfriend can manage the system with the chinese tablet.
The raspberry pi is on all the days. It is not requested to turn it off, and no bugs.

Cons:
not for 'high' HIFI sound, but quality is fine.
XBMC/OPENELEC can not output sound through DAC (no ALSA implementation), only HDMI, this is why for movies I am using my home cinema amp.
It is not a raspberry pi issue: with MPD, sound is sent to my USB DAC.


Details:

Pros:
I have several implementations:
XBMC (via openelec distribution) works fine, without critical issues.
MPD works fine, on another SD CARD, without critical issues.
=> For a simple use, it is a good choice.
With the last firmware, there is no USB issues. USB 1.1 is sufficient for 44Khz.
Sound quality is 100% perfect. not more, not less.
easy to drive.


Cons:
Well, I said sound is perfect and this is right... but in my opinion, it is not good!!!!
as class A/B amps, distorsions must be added on the path for 'magic' sound.
For that, software plugins like tube amp emulation must be on the path.
For that, Raspberry pi is not relevant: too slow, and lack of linux sound architecture.

So, to be honest, I decided to move on Intel architecture with Windows 7.
Windows 7 in my opinion is today better than linux in term of sound capabilities.

Cons:
Price is not the same,
it is really really hard to play with. It is not user focused.

Pros:
Amazing tube amp sound on a 15€ lepai amp / HIFIMEDIY DAC as I have tube amp plugin emulators.

I tried several CDs.... emotions / feelings / bass / voices / etc... are far away my home cinema DENON AVR 1912 AMP.

My software flow:
Foobar 2000:
1/ Increase sound resolution for all signals to 192Khz / 24bits (good luck with raspberry pi....) => Does not change the sound, but allow better quality for next steps.
2/ Increase sound quality by tube amp emulation (you can not do that with raspberry pi). At this step, output sound is not 100% equal to the input, and this is what I am looking for.

3/ add spacialisation with a software plugin.
4/ out to external DAC.

Definitly, it is the very best system I built.

as digital photo, I think digital sound is the future, not because sound is 100% perfect, but because you can play with it, as you can work with a picture, increase contrast, colours, etc...

Regards,