Re: Building A Sampler/Looper around a barebone computer.

[Jeff Larson <Jeffrey.Larson@Sun.COM>]

Romain Rochas wrote:
> 3)- A pedal board => should be plugged directly via USB or Via a 
> MIDI->USB interface (Midiman) (any suggestions ?)

Behringer FCB 1010 with any single port MIDI->USB interface.

> About software, I need:
> 4) - a live processing main software which can loop and which can map 
> the pedal actions to actual sampling/processing command

Well, this is a rather large topic that is discussed at least
once a month here and on many other forums.  If you're determined
to use Linux you should explore some forums devoted to Linux audio
applications.  There are some good Linux looping applications such
as SooperLooper and Freewheeling, but in general I think you will
find that there aren't many choices unless you are willing to write
your own software.  By far the majority of audio applications run
on Mac or Windows.

> The idea will be to have the audio main application being launched at OS 
> startup, so I would'nt even need a screen (could display the presets 
> info on the pedal board ?)

I doubt you will be able to do this without a screen.  Even dedicated
hardware devices have LCD's and LED's to give you some idea of what
is happening. There are no pedal boards that I'm aware of that display
messages sent to it by the computer.

If you were more specific about exactly the kinds of looping/sampling/fx
functions you want you may get better advice.   But unless you can find
what you need on Linux or are willing to invest many months of time writing
your own software, you will be better off buying a cheap Windows laptop
or Mac Mini, learning about VST plugins, and exploring the very large world
of audio software for those platforms.

Jeff