[linux-audio-user] Commercial "clone" of ZynAddSubFX?

[Folderol]

On Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:49:25 +0100
Lars Luthman <lars.luthman at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 2007-02-03 at 14:39 +0000, Folderol wrote:
> > On Sat, 3 Feb 2007 01:01:18 -0500 (EST)
> > Larry Troxler <lt at westnet.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Fri, 2 Feb 2007, Ken Restivo wrote:
> > > > Wish there were a way to approach all the talented hackers who are 
> > > > unfortunately wasting their time working on trying to crack it, 
> > > > and instead get them a copy of the Zyn source, to revamp it from 
> > > > scratch and make it RT-safe.
> > > 
> > > Zyn isn't RT safe? Could you elaborate or point to a link? I remember 
> > > reading something about this, and was hoping to use it for live 
> > > performance.
> > 
> > I have heard several comments to this effect, and also that the code
> > in Zyn is 'a nightmare' however I have not heard anything specific that
> > one can really get a handle on.
> 
> I wouldn't say that it's a "nightmare", but it's not designed with
> RT-safety in mind. For example, there is a big mutex protecting some of
> the data structures that is locked from the audio thread, from the MIDI
> thread (in the case of ALSA MIDI) and from the GUI thread, which will
> cause audio glitches if the mutex is busy when the audio thread tries to
> lock it. And some other things. The actual synth algorithms are great,
> and it would be very nice if someone could clean it up a bit and make it
> a proper JACK client (or plugin, or whatever - as long as it's RT-safe).
> 
> 
> --ll

Ok I can understand that... to some degree.

Why is there any lock capability from the GUI? Surely, as this is not in
any way time critical, it should be able to operate in the 'spaces'
left by the audio & MIDI?

Also (and I speak from the depths of ignorance here) I can't see any
circumstance for MIDI wanting to lock out audio. If there are MIDI
signals wanting to change the data then surely it would make sense to
wait in some form of queue, dipping in quickly between buffer fills.

Subjectively I would expect minor MIDI time discrepancies would be
unnoticed if the average time remained constant. 

BTW I'm desperately looking for excuses to avoid doing home repairs
today so if anyone wants to come in on this discussion please do :)

My apologies if anyone thinks this isn't really the right list for
this discussion!

-- 
Will J G