[LAU] So what do you think sucks about Linux audio ?

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sun, 2013-02-10 at 16:57 +0000, Dan MacDonald wrote:
> Hi Ralf!
> 
> On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 12:49 PM, Ralf Mardorf
> <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:

>         How should it be done to auto-detect the best settings? IMO
>         it's
>         impossible.
> 
> Surely its possible to get an optimized JACK setup working better than
> it does currently?
> 
> I'm not advocating JACK lose any of its options but what I'm thinking
> is something like this. Lets call the way JACK gets started at present
> the manual mode and I want to see an auto ('low latency scanner') mode
> added. On first run, auto-mode would do something equivalent to
> running a stripped down ecasound that would run a series of tests to
> determine the best settings (for tracking) that your setup can
> currently achieve without xruns. It would likely be up to the user to
> re-run the auto tests when they change hardware unless auto mode scans
> for that too. Exactly what the test would comprise of I'm not sure but
> maybe something like simulating a tracking a few tracks w/ plugins
> added to each. JACK has a dummy audio device so I'm presuming here
> that it could simulate recording sound too else maybe this is
> impossible.

Hi Dan :)

perhaps you want to record a guitar track with less latency, because
you're using Linux effects in real-time. You might get inaudible xruns
or completely no xruns at this song position, but to play the complete
song, you perhaps need to increase the latency, to avoid xruns, or at
least to avoid audible xruns.
IMO jack latency can be a construction area all the times and it's
possible to change the latency on the fly.
For MIDI set ups latency sometimes needs to be higher than for audio
track work.
An auto-detection at least must know, what kind of optimisation is
needed.

>         Are there many cases when users need to switch the audio
>         device?
> 
> I switch audio device several times a day. Sometimes I'll use onboard
> audio, sometimes I'll use my USB portable hifi output and sometimes
> I'll be using my Focusrite. They all have their own use cases.

I can imagine that it has advantages for you, to switch between those
devices, but I don't think that there's the need to switch between a
Focusrite and an integrated device on the fly.
> 
Regards,
Ralf