As someone who has worked with and was in the Linux Laptop Orchestra for over 6 years, I had to bring this up: I wrote the software infrastructure for Dan Tramte's Woman Technologist Shifty Eyes and we used jack transport over local Ethernet to sync video with xjadeo on that piece. Believe it or not, it works! With the Linux Laptop Orchestra, there is a main Ethernet switch that every computer plugs into, so if you go that route I would definitely use one. Even a small one would help.

I can't say we ran into any major problems with doing jack transport over the local network, and everything remained in sync. There is a big however though: every laptop in the orchestra is the same model and has the same components. So, maybe it wouldn't work so well if the computers were all different models. I'm not sure. If you have any questions about how that worked, definitely send me an email. I worked on and wrote my own piece for the Linux Laptop Orchestra as well that synced the computers together using pd-l2ork. Reach out if you have any questions on how the orchestra works!

Brandon Hale

On February 21, 2021 3:51:05 PM HST, Sam Kuper <sampablokuper@posteo.net> wrote:

On Sun, Feb 21, 2021 at 05:15:23PM +0100, Francesco Napoleoni wrote:

Basically, what I am trying to achieve is a network mainly made of
Ethernet cables (while minimising audio cables), with the following
nodes:

A nice idea indeed.

I have been aiming to achieve something similar in the long run.
Ideally with entirely libre hard- and software, eventually.  It will
be
a while before I achieve libre hardware and do away with audio cables,
though!

* a master (or maybe better, a “conductor” ;-) ) machine controlling
  and transmitting the transport information, ideally a tablet or a
  minipc with a touchscreen showing the “big clock” and the “big
  buttons” (transport controls)
* another machine (the router) with audio h/w and a DAW, receiving
  audio data from the network. The same machine could also host a
  notation software, perhaps

Here, I would do things differently.

I think the primary machine should host the sequencer (or DAW,
depending
on features needed).

If you want a peripheral device for transport controls and time
display,
fair enough.  But this machine need not (and for
simplicity/reliability,
probably *should* not) run a sequencer or DAW itself.  Instead, it
could
be something like a Mackie Control, or a hardware or software clone
thereof: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/mackie-control-universal
(Maybe an Arduino or Teensy-based clock with 7-segment LED displays
and
transport buttons; maybe a tablet running Replicant and some suitable
app from F-Droid, if such exists.)  It should only need to communicate
to/from the primary machine via MIDI: traditional MIDI cables, or
MIDI-over-USB, or some kind of MIDI-over-IP, but still just MIDI.

This is a much more maintainable approach, IMO.

* N >= 1 hosts running synths, virtual instruments

As per my message in the other thread :)

All best,

Sam

P.S. I am writing this offline.  Perhaps someone else has already made
the observations above.  Sorry if so and I seem to be duplicating
their
effort.  I'll only find out once I am back online and sync emails.

Linux Laptop Orchestra

http://l2ork.music.vt.edu/main/



---
David W. Jones
gnome@hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community
http://dancingtreefrog.com

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