I have to buy a small windows system (notebook or netbook) to run some of the sysex software for a couple of my synths. I am tossing up between a cheap dual core notebook or scale down to a netbook… if i can do some basic ardour in that system it would be a bonus… but not necessary…
Of course the system would be dual boot … windows will only be used for that very specific purpose…
So I’m tossing up between a 1.6GHZ core2 duo 13" notebook with 2GB RAM and 160 GB HDD or a 9" netbook with 16GB SSD and 1 GB RAM on an Atom N270 (1.6 GHZ RAM)…
I think Ardour on a Netbook is useless unless these little devices are providing the opportunity to connect a reasonable recording hardware. This requires a cardbus or expresscard slot. USB is not an option due to latency issues.
On a side note: if your synths use standard MIDI cables (as opposed to USB) to connect to the PC, I’d try running the sysex software in Wine.
The windows editor for the ToneLab modellers work great in linux through Wine.
Last time I tried the Yamaha XG works software under WINE it froze on the opening screen (this was 2 years ago). I think it uses DirectX. Maybe Cedega or Crossover Office may work?
Do you think it would be possible to utlise the MIDI ports on my Delta 1010 under Wine/Cedega/Crossover while still giving ALSA control of the audio ins and outs?
I’d start by installing the latest Wine available from winehq.org (if you don’t feel comfortable doing that you could use the one that comes with your distro, but it might not be so up-to-date) and try installing/running XG Works natively.