[LAU] ZynAddSubFX -- Zombifies on opening patch

[Gabriel M. Beddingfield]

On Fri, 28 Aug 2009, adam faranda wrote:

> (linux-2.6.29.6-rt23). I built Jack with no problem; I am even getting
> 2.67 ms latency without no Xruns using my laptop's sound cards. I

2.67 ms is considered cutting edge, FWIW.

> curious. I start Zyn from the terminal, and everything seems fine. As
> soon as I open my patch, I get the following message:    "  zombified
> - calling shutdown handler " Any help solving this issue would be most
> appreciated, especially since Zyn is one of my absolute all time

This means that Zyn could not complete its calculations in the amount of 
time that JACK allotted for it.  (I.e. it couldn't keep up.)

This is a flaw in Zyn.  Knowing something about Zyn's development -- this 
is a long-standing issue that several folks are working on and there is no 
easy fix.  However, there has been a recent "preview" of Zyn released and 
it is much improved.  (Search the LAD archives.)

There's several ways you can try to manage it until it gets fixed:

   1. Use the most recent, development version of Zyn.

   2. Increase your latency.  5-20 ms is considered sane.
      Humans are usually unable to discern a latency
      less than 20 ms.

   3. Start jackd with the --nozombies option.  (man 1 jackd)

   4. If using ALSA and JACK, use the --softmode option with
      the ALSA driver.

HTH,
Gabriel