[LAU] PortAudio and Audacity+jack

Scott lau at troutpocket.org
Wed Sep 9 21:24:00 EDT 2009


hollunder at gmx.at wrote:
> On Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:43:32 -0700
> Scott <lau at troutpocket.org> wrote:
> 
>> I'd really like to use Audacity through Jack.  Unfortunately it's
>> behavior complicates this.  I can load up a file, but nothing shows up
>> in jack connections until I hit play.  Then two PortAudio channels
>> appear!  If I stop playback they disappear.  The next time I press
>> play they appear again, but incremented by 2 and, of course, not
>> connected to my out channels.  This was all covered in an old thread
>> here:
>>
>> http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=552
>>
>> The best solution I could find there was to use PatchBay.  That kind
>> of works, except the two PortAudio output sockets created by Audacity
>> automatically connect to the first two input sockets on my system
>> which don't happen to be where the monitor cables plug in (they're in
>> 10 and 11).  Is there a way to specify which output plug routes to
>> which input plug via patchbay or is it stuck at the socket level with
>> no finer-grained control?
> 
> I think it may be possible to force it to do something else via
> patchbay and some exclusive option but I'm not sure.
> The portaudio behaviour is really annoying.
> 
>  
>> In a pinch, is there another mp3 capable audio player that works with
>> jack without jumping through any more hoops than just starting the
>> app?
> 
> Lots. Mediaplayers like mplayer, xine, vlc, audioplayers like mpd,
> aqualung, audacious, audio editors like rezound and others

I forgot that VLC plays audio!  That works really well.

Anyway, I found a workaround.  My audio interface is an Echo Audiofire12.  I had
plugged into the line-out ports 11 and 12 because of cable length issues but have
since moved things around a bit so that isn't an issue any more.  I just moved the TRS
cables to lines-out 1 and 2 and both Audacity and VLC work without having to manually
reroute them to the appropriate ports in patchbay.  Both applications automatically
attach to the first two ports of the system socket, but, like, whatever, etc, y'know.

-Scott




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