2 Jan
2004
2 Jan
'04
2:17 p.m.
I have two Audio related projects that need updating.
1. "rsynth" formant based text-to-speech synthesis
2. Audio::* Perl modules.
Both have existing /dev/dsp style backends at present, which have been working
fine. But recently (SuSE 9.0 install?) when run under ALSA emulation of
/dev/dsp they both started producing segfaults - "after program had exited",
(neither valgrind nor gdb can give any info on the fault).
So I decided it was time to do a native ALSA backend(s).
I have rsynth backend working, and perl Audio:: one almost working.
But before going forward I would like to solicit opinions on what
is the "right" API to use.
The Linux audio world seems to be in a state of flux with these options
(please tell me if I missed any):
1. Venerable OSS stuff
- Widely available :-)
- Some cards have quasi or truely commecial drivers rather than
free / opensource ones :-(
- emulation via ALSA (at least as shipped by SuSE) seems broken :-(
2. ALSA
- Reasonably widely available :-|, and improving
- Opensource :-)
- Documentation is lacking :-(
Everything hinges on the
"Configuration Space" concept, but I can't find an explanation of
how that works. This is the sticking point with perl code - I can't find
how to change the sample rate / channels, so _seems_ I need to
close and re-open.
3. JACK
- Gets lots of excited "this is cool" kind of coverage :-)
- realtime :-)
- Callback style not ideal for speech synthesis or play-from-file
of my simple apps. complex :-(
4. Enlightenment Sound Demon
- Seems to be used by KDE etc.
- haven't looked into it further.
5. Network Audio System
- Works on many platforms Linux/Solaris/X Terminals :-)
- X-like "imake" style rather than configure :-(
- Linux version still seems to be based on OSS - so recurse ;-)
6. Presumably there is some kind of telephony API as well, for sending
sound to incomming phone calls via modem / ISDN
Complexity and callbacks don't scare me - I do perl/Tk after all!
But this is a 2nd-string project so I don't want to do a lot of
complex stuff for an API that is vanishing - I would rather either
use a simple stable interface, or pitch in and help on the "comming"
complex API.
Suggestions anyone? (I just subscribed to both lists - so reply to your
favourite list.)
2 Jan
2 Jan
4:15 p.m.
This is my first post to linux-audio-dev, by the way, so hello
everybody. :-)
On Fri, Jan 02, 2004 at 06:15:12PM +0000, Nick Ing-Simmons wrote:
I have two Audio related projects that need updating.
1. "rsynth" formant based text-to-speech synthesis
2. Audio::* Perl modules.
I like your Audio::Play module, it's the only Perl module I've been able
to find that actually *works* for playing audio on Linux (Audio::DSP apparently
has memory leaks, and Audio::OSS is just too complicated, and seriously lacking
documentation).
Both have existing /dev/dsp style backends at present,
which have been working
fine. But recently (SuSE 9.0 install?) when run under ALSA emulation of
/dev/dsp they both started producing segfaults - "after program had exited",
(neither valgrind nor gdb can give any info on the fault).
I cannot reproduce this on Suse 8.2 with an M-Audio Delta 66 card, but that card
has other problems with the OSS emulation - I can only get it to play to ALL
channels at once, which is kind of annoying when you have 6 out channels.
So I decided it was time to do a native ALSA
backend(s).
I have rsynth backend working, and perl Audio:: one almost working.
But before going forward I would like to solicit opinions on what
is the "right" API to use.
[ snip ]
I might be biased because of my hardware setup, but I would really like a some
ALSA (or maybe JACK) input/output modules with multi-channel support. I cannot
really comment on the different drivers from a programming point of view, because
I've only used them as a regular user, but some good, responsive multi-channel
audio modules is just what I'm looking for. Then I could really put my
LADSPA modules to some use :-)
Joost.
--
http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-authors/id/J/JD/JDIEPEN/
4:37 p.m.
The Linux Audio Developers' Mailing List <linux-audio-dev(a)music.columbia.edu>
writes:
Thanks it is always good to hear that :-)
2. Audio::*
Perl modules.
I like your Audio::Play module, it's the only Perl module I've been able to
find that actually *works* for
playing audio on Linux (Audio::DSP apparently has memory leaks, and Audio::OSS
is just too complicated, and seriously lacking documentation).
I didn't have any trouble on SuSE8.2 on the laptop either, it started when I
did an upgrade to SuSE9.0. The desk top is still on 8.2 and still works.
Both have existing /dev/dsp style backends at
present, which have been
working fine. But recently (SuSE 9.0 install?) when run under ALSA emulation
of /dev/dsp they both started producing segfaults - "after program had
exited", (neither valgrind nor gdb can give any info on the fault).
I cannot reproduce this on Suse 8.2 with an M-Audio Delta 66 card, but that
card has other problems with the OSS emulation - I can only get it to play to
ALL channels at once, which is kind of annoying when you have 6 out channels. 
11:13 p.m.
On Friday 02 January 2004 15:13, Joost Diepenmaat wrote:
> Both have existing /dev/dsp style backends at
present, which have been
> working fine. But recently (SuSE 9.0 install?) when run under ALSA
> emulation of /dev/dsp they both started producing segfaults - "after
> program had exited", (neither valgrind nor gdb can give any info on the
> fault).
Do either/both of these use pthreads by any chance? I've run into the exact
same situation recently (crashing at exit, on SuSE 9.0) when using pthreads
with dynamic linking. Try building things statically, and see if your
results change.
Cheers!
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Frederick F. Gleason, Jr. | Director of Broadcast Software Development |
| | Salem Radio Labs |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have. |
| -- Harry Emerson Fosdick |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
4 Jan
4 Jan
6:52 a.m.
The Linux Audio Developers' Mailing List <linux-audio-dev(a)music.columbia.edu>
writes:
On Friday 02 January 2004 15:13, Joost Diepenmaat
wrote:
Thanks, but I don't think that is it.
rsynth doesn't use threads in any way at all.
Perl is linked against pthreads but testcase that has the problem
does not start any threads. (Linking perl against threads statically
would be a pain.)
> Both have existing /dev/dsp style backends
at present, which have been
> working fine. But recently (SuSE 9.0 install?) when run under ALSA
> emulation of /dev/dsp they both started producing segfaults - "after
> program had exited", (neither valgrind nor gdb can give any info on the
> fault).
Do either/both of these use pthreads by any chance? I've run into the exact
same situation recently (crashing at exit, on SuSE 9.0) when using pthreads
with dynamic linking. Try building things statically, and see if your
results change.
Cheers!
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Frederick F. Gleason, Jr. | Director of Broadcast Software Development |
| | Salem Radio Labs |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have. |
| -- Harry Emerson Fosdick |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
2 Jan
2 Jan
7:04 p.m.
How about PortAudio? It currently supports OSS, and should support ALSA
and JACK in the next release.
- Steve
7422
days inactive
7424
days old
linux-audio-dev@lists.linuxaudio.org
5 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
Fred Gleason -
Joost Diepenmaat -
Nick Ing-Simmons -
Steve Harris