Auto mode for JACK latency is a good idea.
 I have another proposition: a dedicated graphical front-end for jack session. It could help users setup their workflow , by providing a list of all the jack aware programs installed, categorized by type (sampler, daw, synth). The program should aid in setting up a project , eg firing up ardour with several tracks, firing up synths (lv2 instruments/hosts incl) with presets selectable from the front-end with a preview sound. The front-end could trigger the synth in question with a midi note when selecting a preset. Lv2 plugins, that is pure audio effects, could also listed with the ability to directly send a signal from the audio interface through the selected plugin to quickly hear what it does. One could then associate the selected plugin with, say a track in ardour, and another plugin with a track in hydrogen or so.
This would just be for setting up a project. The fine tuning comes later.
 Such a front-end could give the linux audio ecosystem as a whole a face, just like qjackctl gives JACK a face, and it does not degrade the quality of the ecosystem. Now of course , one can't expose options of all programs in the session-front-end but just the most important ones to quickly set up the project. You may think, why not just create templates, scripts so on? Well my personal subjective answer: my musical projects vary . I simply can't create templates and scripts because the configuration changes immensely from song to song. So the proposed front-end should allow a quick start into the project so that one could rapidly record an idea.
This front-end could also list audio programs, plugins which are currently not installed, so that they are discoverable within one central place, much like an app-store or specialized repo (it could be connected to popular linux audio repos, e.g kxstudio).
As a developer in computer vision (I'm doing my PhD developing largely on ubuntu) I am aware technical nitty gritty detail problems (realtime video has a lot in common with realtime audio), but here I'm trying to portray a bigger vision/picture.
I've ditched windows years ago, and I have never owned an apple product. But I strongly recommend to learn from the two, to cleanly analyze the good and bad aspects of propriety audio software. Then cherry-pick the good aspects. This can only benefit open-source in general. And to make it clear: it is not my intention to grow the userbase at any cost. I rather want enhance the user experience quality for us current users, devs. You heard it: devs too;-) but in a manner that people can opt in to do things the way they want (no one would have to use the proposed front-end) .
I can go further: such a front-end only makes sense if jack-session support is made mandatory, which I've suggested before and earned a storm of negative replies. So let the storm come ;-)
Cheers,
Gerald


-- Sent from my HP TouchPad
On 10.02.2013 17:58, Dan MacDonald <allcoms@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Ralf!

On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 12:49 PM, Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@alice-dsl.net> wrote:
On Sun, 2013-02-10 at 09:59 +0000, Dan MacDonald wrote:
> * JACK needs to become more plug-and-play. I think its a shame it
> still offers no way to auto-detect optimal settings on any given setup
> and instead the user has to find out what options to tweak then find
> the best settings through trial and error.

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.

>
> * JACK can still fail to start and just leave the user with some
> pretty cryptic errors as to why it failed.

I experienced this very seldom, but it's true, I at least remember one
very strange example on jack devel mailing list a while ago. The output
lead into a completely wrong direction.

> * JACK can't hot swap audio devices and so if the user wants this
> feature they have to integrate PA with JACK which sadly still isn't
> straightforward under many popular distros and then the user has to
> learn about how ALSA, PA and JACK interact.

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.


> [snip]
>
> In fact, I'm a bit concerned that if Bitwig leads to an explosion of
> commercial apps and plugins for Linux and LA busts out of its niche
> that LA* will suffer a kinda Ubuntu/Android effect where these lists
> will get swamped with newb questions and cause many of our valued
> members to unsubscribe.

There's already energyXT, but it didn't cause such an explosion.

energyXT is in no way comparable in sheer hype and the music tech industry/market interest thats surrounding Bitwig. energyXT is unlikely to be counted in the top 50 DAWs now or at the time of its initial release. Ableton and its offspring Bitwig are a BIG deal for Linux and music tech as a whole as Ableton has enjoyed being one of the most popular music production apps of recent years. Ableton has real market recognition which Bitwig is inheriting and its very likely one of the top 5 most popular music apps today. energyXT?

Whether you're into these sequencers or not, many people are so Bitwig is big news Ralf - BIIIIIIG!!! :D