29 May
2005
29 May
'05
7:46 p.m.
On Fri, 27 May 2005, Peter Lutek wrote:
i'm wondering what you all would recommend as the
least resource-consuming
(in terms of cpu/memory usage) method for multitrack recording. i need to
record 18 channels (each to its own file) of 44.1kHz float audio in a live
setting, while simultaneously running some looping and FX, so i'd like to
keep the recording chain as lean as possible.
[...]
curiously, my tests have shown significantly lower
average system load using
ardour than using ecasound. i was surprised by this, having assumed that
I wouldn't be suprised if ardour performed better in your case. Especially
handling lots of separate files (for example 1ch-per-file) can be a
challenge to ecasound's engine...
But the difference shouldn't be significant, so I'd still be interested in
the exact ecasound configuration you've used in your tests (in private
mail perhaps?) -- maybe it's a known performance bottleneck.
Anyways, the basic operations a multitrack hd-recording app needs to do
are the same for a console app as well as for a full-blown DAW: audio i/o
-> ardour and ecasound both use jackd; separate disk i/o thread with lots
of buffering; processing and float<->fixed conversions; etc -- some of
these are by their nature quite heavy operations cpu+mem wise, so if some
app provided significantly lower cpu+mem usage than for example ardour or
ecasound, I'd suspect it is skipping some important steps. ;)
--
http://www.eca.cx
Audio software for Linux!