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On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 1:02 PM, Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@×××××.de> wrote: |
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[snip] |
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> I don't do professional audio. I have a normal PC. And just like I |
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> sometimes use a synth in Windows (I'm just a hobbyist), I'd like to do the |
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> same in Linux. |
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You can; but you have to use special software, because yours is a |
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special case. The normal desktop/laptop user does not use a synth. |
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> ALSA/Pulse needing third-party stuff just to get basics right (acceptable |
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> latency; not *ultra* low latency, just acceptable one) is a sign that |
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> they're not designed right. |
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Your definition of "acceptable" is *ultra* low to me, and many others. |
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To me acceptable latency means that the audio system does not waste my |
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laptop/phone battery. |
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> And in the end, you know what? Even if OSS4 had a broken design, it's still |
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> better, because it works better. |
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This is your principal problem: you think your use-case is universal, |
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and it's not. To me Alsa+PulseAudio works better because it allows the |
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battery of my laptop to last for hours while I see a movie with my |
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bluetooth headset. With the latencies you want, that's not possible. I |
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believe my use-case is more general. |
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> At least it gets the basics right. Other |
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> operating systems are much more advanced in that manner. It's ALSA that |
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> holds Linux audio back. |
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Jack uses ALSA. From the Jack FAQ page (http://jackaudio.org/faq): |
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<quote> |
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Doesn't use JACK add latency? |
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There is NO extra latency caused by using JACK for audio input and |
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output. When we say none, we mean absolutely zero. The only impact of |
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using JACK is a slight increase in the amount of work done by the CPU |
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to process a given chunk of audio, which means that in theory you |
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could not get 100% of the processing power that you might get it if |
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your application(s) used ALSA or CoreAudio directly. However, given |
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that the difference is less than 1%, and that your system will be |
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unstable before you get close to 80% of the theoretical processing |
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power, the effect is completely disregardable. |
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</quote> |
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ALSA works great. And for regular users, with PulseAudio both are full |
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of awesome awesomeness. For your use-case, you should try Jack. |
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Regards. |
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-- |
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Canek Peláez Valdés |
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Instituto de Matemáticas |
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Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México |
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