Greg wrote:Otherwise, are there linux drivers available for older midi interface hardware? The box I would be using for LS used a MOTU MidiExpress XT-parallel port before I switched to MolCp3.
I have no idea about that particular device (other than MOTU generally isn't a Linux-friendly vendor), that's something you should ask on the Linux Audio Users mailing list or an ALSA mailing list. One solution would be to get a modern class compatible USB-MIDI interface like M-Audio MIDISPORT 4x4 (two of those per machine will give you 8 MIDI ports, N.B I haven't tried it) or similar like MOTU MIDI Express 128 8x8 Bus Powered Interface (if it's class compatible, i.e. don't require special drivers).
It would be brilliant if there was a USB device that you could connect between two computers and it would appear like a class compatible USB-MIDI device on both of them, without sending any data over a 31.25 kBaud current-loop, 5-pin DIN transport.
Greg wrote:How is audio latency on NetJack compared to say a RME HDSP9652 using the ADAT ports?
About NetJack:
Netjack is a Realtime Audio Transport over a generic IP Network. It is fully integrated into JACK.
When you transport Audio Signals over a Network, you will always have the problem, that two Computers are bound to two different Sample Clocks. The other Network Transports face the Problem of compensating for the drift between these Sample Clocks. This is very hard to do.
NetJack works around this problem, by syncing all Clients to one Soundcard. So there will be no resampling or glitches in the whole network. As long as there is no packet loss. Packet loss can not be compensated.
and
Its designed to have fully (synced) slaved soundcardless jackd's as 'processor farms'. Consists of a jack client for the master box, and a 'network' jack driver for the slave. It features single-period roundtrip latency, transport sync, latency compensation, and support for slow-sync clients.
Actually, I would probably go the hardware way (audio over ADAT ports and MIDI via USB-MIDI interfaces). It's simple. It works. It's linux/mac/win agnostic.