[LAU] Jack vs. Alsa, PianoTeq demo: Alsa wins!

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Tue, 2011-06-14 at 02:11 -0500, Aaron Krister Johnson wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
> 
> So the continuing saga is this: still no luck getting Pianoteq with
> JACK to equal or spank with superiority the performance of PianoTeq
> w/ALSA alone on my system.....
> 
> 
> I found the following information: the info from the /proc/asound
> output that Paul asked me to check out confirmed that at comparable
> settings, JACK choked where ALSA smoked. I had ALSA down to a period
> of 64 and 3 periods/buffer (hardware bufsize of 192) at a sample rate
> of 48000. The same setting of jackd ('jackd -dalsa -dhw:0,0 -r48000
> -p64 -n3 -S') didn't agree with Pianoteq....
> 
> 
> So...here's my dilemma. I have a live show coming up where I'd prefer
> to use the superior harpsichord sound of Pianoteq, but I don't want to
> risk a lock-up or xruns or worse in a live concert. So I would have to
> use ALSA...BUT....I also need to switch to playing a live kalimba
> through some Csound effects right after playing a harpsichord, and
> Pianoteq under ALSA will not stand for another app opening and sharing
> the soundcard like JACK will allow (ALSA will block I/O).
> 
> 
> So what can I do?

You won't use a non-tailor-made non-super-computer for
- recording an orchestra, when you need to pay the studio hall, the
recording van, the orchestra, the catering etc.
- even when you do an amateur live performance

A complete studio in the box could cost less than 1000,- EUR. What do
you think, why people still buy stand-alone-devices that provide just
e.g. some piano instruments for much more than 1000,- EUR?

If Pianoteq is the only problematic thing on your machine, regarding to
a live performance, than you've got good luck.

Sorry, no help, but try to see it that way, you should be lucky to have
such a reliable machine.

2 Cents,

Ralf