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Shuttle X audio playback machine


jbaileypro

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I am looking at putting an old Shuttle X (cube) computer into my playback rack for shows (anything from triggering sound effects to simply playing music for talent contests). This will hopefully sort out any skipping tracks on cd's (scratched) or people giving me cd's with a youtube videos on when I don't have my computer with me.

 

I currently take my MPB but I don't like some of the environments that is has to be left in (damp or I have to part from it). I use iTunes and playlists for any tracks (as I find the correction very good for scratched disks or ones that are neglected) and Qlab for triggering sound effects. I use a usb sound card to double check that I don't get any computer sounds coming over the PA.

 

The only problem is the speed of the Shuttle computer (at 1.2 ghz AMD Athlon and 512mb ram) really seems sluggish even running a fresh copy of XP and some of drivers are not stable at all on windows. I already use basic linux distros such as Ubuntu desktop and Server. I am looking for a distro or programs that will fit the bill (I haven't had a crash on linux). Not looking for anything too amazing regarding output but it might be nice to be able to select the output (as I currently have a separate PCI multichannel sound card installed).

 

Thanks,

 

Jonathan

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I'd stick some more ram in that box for Xp.

 

My old show computer is 1.2GHz and that runs multiple audio playbacks and video or powerpoint and DMX512 without missing a beat.

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I use Debian on my main desktop PC, but I have a variety of window managers installed, which I think makes a lot of difference to performance. Pick your favourite distro for the backend, then pick a WM that suits your needs.

 

KDE and Gnome are pretty full featured, but too the heavyweight of the WMs out there. at the other end, there's very light WMs like fluxbox, openbox, xmonad etc. XFCE I've found to be a very good compromise of the two, though lately leaning towards the more featured of WMs.

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