MIDI Timing and PC soundcards

[Thomas Hudson]

> The result : The PC I tested on ('486, but I don't think a Pentium would
> make very much difference) would not respond faster than 50ms to incoming
> serial data. Also the time used was very erratic, varying from 50ms to
> 150ms. This is a LONG time! The variations did not seem to be very
> dependant on processor load.
> 
The people working on ALSA say their playback latency is a consistent
10ms. And:
"These numbers should be probably improved with another Linux task 
scheduler (which works above 100Hz)."

Also, for those of you using Linux, be sure to check out Dave Phillips
web page of Linux Midi and Sound apps:
http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/linux_soundapps.html
also mirrored at:
http://sound.condorow.net/
and
http://sound.lovebead.com/

CSound for Linux is quite robust, and makes an excellent digital 
companion to modular analog synths (There, now I'm not off topic ;-).

Thomas