[linux-audio-user] MusE: Jack or Alsa

[LinuxMedia]

BartonBosch at aol.com wrote:
> I have just installed the Planet on my linux partition
 > and have started in to reading the jack and alsa user documentation.
 >
> I want to do some basic composition and aranging in midi.  I was
 > thinking that I would use MusE with Fluidsynth and various
 > soundfonts.  At this point I am not trying to input any external
 > signals from guitars, hardware synths, mics, etc.
> 
> I noticed that MusE gives an option to use Alsa only or to use Jack
 > (which I assume would be in combination with Alsa as a driver).  Any

> opinions whether it is worth going to the trouble of learning to use
 > jack with MusE to import, modify, create and playback midi tracks?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Barton

I never get sick of embarassing myself. So here I go again :-). Maybe
the problem is that I'm a "right brain" and that is why I've spent
4 years building my recording studio using Linux (never owned a Window
Box in My life). But after endless hardware test, software test, reading
about latency issues, a week of hdparm tests, IRQ tests, articles 
comparing one file system performance over another, testing this peice 
of software, that peice of software, along with the many other computer 
tasks that one needs to do (it goes on and on)... I have settled on 
Muse, ecasound/tkeca, Timidity and no Jack (for now, but this list is 
educating Me for the future Jack use).

Please let Me know if I'm on the mark or not. With Muse's capability to 
record/play/sync _both_ WAV _and_ midi (in both directions), combined 
with being able to connect with many synth sources (without Jack), use 
LADSPA plugins, what would the other advantages be to using Jack in this 
situation?

I _just_ settled on these combinations after 4 years of only producing 
"test peices" of music. And the latest distraction was the xrun and 
latency problems that I was having with Jack. I was running as root 
exclusivly during all this also (just to eliminate as many variables as 
possible). I'm sure I would uncover all the problems I've encountered 
_eventually_. But I just need to create some music.

The ecasound/tkeca/Timidity/Muse combination seems to solve the midi/WAV 
sync problems (and I don't even have the version of Muse that _records_ 
a WAV, it only _plays_ a WAV), and yet I've managed to rec/play/sync 
midi or wav together in any combination. There appears to be (so far) 
many ways to accompish any recording task I need with this combination 
of software. I have, although, only just started with this direction and 
just joined both the Timidity and Muse mailing list _today_ (been on 
ecasound list for a while), so more will be revealed.

Please forgive my long, rambling email. I've been working on solutions 
for a long time and have wanted to post something about all this. I 
think it's also complicated by the fact that I'm always writing scripts 
or hacking some file to make everything work as hastle free as possible. 
If I was just concerned with Myself, then it would be much easier 
because I'm comfortable with (for instance) ecasound command line only. 
I just want to build things that are easy for my other "left brained" 
musician friends to use. I just may go (eventually) with "Planet". But 
I've already invested so much time with SuSE that it would mean learning 
another distrob. But the idea of eliminating the compiling problems is 
enough of a reason to do it. And it sounds like they keep things up to date.

I will say one last thing and then I will shut up. After all the time 
trying to figure out all the xruns and latency problems, I finally 
mounted /tmp in ram and now Move all my files there and do all my 
multitracking/effect processing/midi recording combinations right out of 
there. So far so good, but I've only recorded one (WAV) track and 
multiple midi tracks (with effects). But there's no latency or xruns 
problems. With Jack, there was no tweeking that would get rid of the 
latency or xruns. There's not an ounce of latency problems with that 
aformented set up. Let's see what happens when I have many tracks of 
WAVS, midi, and effects playing/recording at the same time. If I start 
getting xruns, I will probly go out and buy some Fostex "all in one" 
unit and use my Computer to just chat with Women online. :-)

Again, my appoligies for the long email... Rocco