Under Linux, acquisition of line-in data through the Soundblaster
Live! (emu10k1) suffers from the fact that the hardware buffer is small.
If one samples at 44kHz 16-bit stereo, then the recording must be
continuous and must not cease for more than 100 ms. When the data is
being written to disk, the problem is that the disk synchronization
takes so long that the buffer becomes empty, and thus realtime recording
suffers from a pop' even with a nice’ factor of `-20’.
I am fairly certain that QNX will solve the problem, provided that
it supports the card to begin with. The question is is it possible,
and if so, what hints might apply to ensure that no corruption occurs?
What would be the best program to sample the data from line-in at
the highest quality? Will it be even necessary to issue system calls
to specify the realtime nature of the recording process, or will the
recording work automatically because of the inherent flexibility and
low context switch time?
Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.