[linux-audio-user] The sound dropout problem - Linux-audio-user

17 May 2003

Recently, after having tried every fix I could find on
the net for fixing the dropped samples that I get out
of my Delta44, it hit me to simply try 'nice'.

I got a profound increase in sound reliability by
preceding my play command with 'nice -n-20'.  I was
finally able to get a couple of dropouts this way,
by simultaneously executing a recursive long directory
listing from the root (in other words thrashing the
hard drive), but I found that using nice, I am at least
to the point now that I can operate under normal
conditions with reasonable assurance that I am not
going to ruin a recording with drop outs.

This raises some questions.  If negative 'nice' greatly
relieves my sound stablility problems, then what does this
say about the origin of the problem.  Does it determine
which of the many causes (irq order, pci latency,
kernel preemption, disk throughput, etc..) should be
focused on to further alleviate the trouble?

Also, are there any suggestions as to how to conveniently
make sure that all processes that use the sound driver
run at the higher priority?  If 'nice' is to be used,
what is the best way...  Shall I run them as root using
nice, or is there another way to automatically cause them
to be -nice, perhaps even when run by normal users?

Thanks,

Tobiah