System "almost" perfect! (SOLVED)

[briandc]

Hi everyone,
well, my KXStudio is working great. I do have one strange problem however: every now and then, I get a type of "zap!" or "crack!" sound, either while playing live or reproducing audio. Like lightning out of a blue sky. No indicators are given in the Jack message board, so I don't think it's Jack. (No dropouts, either.)

I can't figure out if it's the audio card (new), or something in a cable, or...


Anyone ever had a similar problem? Is there a way to determine the culprit?

brian

[briandc]

As I have a second audio card, I'm now trying it, to see if the interruptions occur. For the moment, all's going well.. I'm hoping it's all in the card...

brian

[StudioDave]

...
I can't figure out if it's the audio card (new), or something in a cable, or...
Anyone ever had a similar problem? Is there a way to determine the culprit?

I've had similar problems with sample rate mismatches, but I can't help more without knowing the hardware.

Best,

dp

[briandc]

So far so good... the other" sound card (the one included with the Behringer UMX490) is performing flawlessly.

So it was either the M-Audio PRE sound card, or the audio cables or USB cable going in and out of it, that were probably causing the problem.

I may buy new cables and see what happens..

brian

[briandc]

I think I have an idea now of what's going on. Last night I ran "top" while playing around with various sounds on Yoshimi. I discovered that when using certain sounds, CPU usage rises easily to up to 80%!!! Wow..

Is there any way to control this? Is getting a new processor a realistic option? (finances aside )

brian

[autostatic]

I think I have an idea now of what's going on. Last night I ran "top" while playing around with various sounds on Yoshimi. I discovered that when using certain sounds, CPU usage rises easily to up to 80%!!! Wow..

Is there any way to control this?

Regarding Yoshimi: No. Some instrument patches are just heavy on resources. With which patch did you encounter this? Probably one of Will J. Godfrey's patches

Is getting a new processor a realistic option? (finances aside )

What do you have now?

[Capoeira]

find out if you cpu is on performance scaling, this can be an issue

[briandc]

Regarding Yoshimi: No. Some instrument patches are just heavy on resources. With which patch did you encounter this? Probably one of Will J. Godfrey's patches

Is getting a new processor a realistic option? (finances aside )

What do you have now?

Here's what lscpu gives (I forgot the other command I wanted..)

Code: Select all

brian@brian-kxstudio:~$ lscpu
Architecture:          i686
CPU op-mode(s):        32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order:            Little Endian
CPU(s):                2
On-line CPU(s) list:   0,1
Thread(s) per core:    1
Core(s) per socket:    2
Socket(s):             1
Vendor ID:             GenuineIntel
CPU family:            6
Model:                 23
Stepping:              10
CPU MHz:               1203.000
BogoMIPS:              6428.83
Virtualization:        VT-x
L1d cache:             32K
L1i cache:             32K
L2 cache:              2048K

Yes, it was in fact a Godfrey patch, one of the last ones: "Hyper Matrix." --The name fits!

I am using Specimen at the moment. Not more than 10% CPU. Even with Audacity recording realtime, probably not more than 20%. What a difference!


brian

[briandc]

find out if you cpu is on performance scaling, this can be an issue

How can I do this?

brian

[autostatic]

Here's what lscpu gives (I forgot the other command I wanted..)

cat /proc/cpuinfo
But lscpu is fine too.

Yes, it was in fact a Godfrey patch, one of the last ones: "Hyper Matrix." --The name fits!

Yeah, those patches are renown for being resource intensive. Which is in some cases quite handy, they're very useful for stress-testing your system.

How can I do this?

Code: Select all

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

If it's output is ondemand you should set it to performance:

Code: Select all

echo -n performance | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

And regarding your CPU, looks like it's an Intel Core Duo that's probably not running at its max. CPU freq (at least, the number of bogomips don't really match the current CPU freq).

[briandc]

cat /proc/cpuinfo
But lscpu is fine too.

Yeah, those patches are renown for being resource intensive. Which is in some cases quite handy, they're very useful for stress-testing your system.

How can I do this?

Code: Select all

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

If it's output is ondemand you should set it to performance:

Code: Select all

echo -n performance | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

And regarding your CPU, looks like it's an Intel Core Duo that's probably not running at its max. CPU freq (at least, the number of bogomips don't really match the current CPU freq).

I don't know how you do it... But I'd sure like to know where you guys learn all these tricks!

I followed the code you suggested (it was indeed "ondemand") and now it's at performance: no xruns, and CPU usage doesn't exceed 41%!!

So at this point I'm wondering.. What other cool tricks should I know about?? How do you guys know all this stuff? Is there an audio setup reference manual or something?

Anyway, your suggestion did something very useful to my PC... Thanks!

brian

[autostatic]

Is there an audio setup reference manual or something?

Yes there is: http://wiki.linuxmusicians.com/doku.php ... figuration

And the best way to learn these tricks:

• Get to know your Linux system.
• Don't just copy and paste commands, try to figure out what they're doing, read the man pages or any other available documentation, preferably BEFORE you run them
• Know how to use Google.
• If you have questions, ask! There are things that are also uncharted territory for me so I ask.
• Make actual music and run into the ever existent troubles, your question about Yoshimi is a great example.
• If possible, use Linux exclusively. A job as a Linux administrator definitely helps too
• The terminal is a friend, not a foe. People can tell you whatever they want but in a lot of cases the terminal is the fastest way to get things done, especially in a forum context (a CLI command is so much less typing than explaining where to click in which menu).
• Keep track of the changes you made on your system, be it in a Wiki, a blog or some place else. I use my personal blog for this and the LinuxMusicians and linuxaudio.org Wikis.

[raboof]

People can tell you whatever they want but in a lot of cases the terminal is the fastest way to get things done, especially in a forum context (a CLI command is so much less typing than explaining where to click in which menu).

Also the CLI tends to be more 'stable' - it's so frustrating to see GUI documentation that shows all kinds of menu's and buttons that apparantly have been moved around in my version of the software, of course undocumented because as a GUI everything should be obvious...

</rant>

[briandc]

Is there an audio setup reference manual or something?

Yes there is: http://wiki.linuxmusicians.com/doku.php ... figuration

And the best way to learn these tricks:

• Get to know your Linux system.
• Don't just copy and paste commands, try to figure out what they're doing, read the man pages or any other available documentation, preferably BEFORE you run them
• Know how to use Google.
• If you have questions, ask! There are things that are also uncharted territory for me so I ask.
• Make actual music and run into the ever existent troubles, your question about Yoshimi is a great example.
• If possible, use Linux exclusively. A job as a Linux administrator definitely helps too
• The terminal is a friend, not a foe. People can tell you whatever they want but in a lot of cases the terminal is the fastest way to get things done, especially in a forum context (a CLI command is so much less typing than explaining where to click in which menu).
• Keep track of the changes you made on your system, be it in a Wiki, a blog or some place else. I use my personal blog for this and the LinuxMusicians and linuxaudio.org Wikis.

Yes; I've started keeping notes (on paper) of the little tricks and also some commands that I find particularly useful. I've been using the command line more and more (never did in Windows) and I like using it now. It's not so intimidating. I even installed an app on my laptop called Guake, that basically turns your desktop into a transparent terminal/shell, just by hitting F12. Really handy.

I'll check out the link you posted on linuxmusicians. I'm sure I've already visited their website a hundred times in the last couple of months, since I've discovered making music on Linux. But I haven't actually sat and read in-depth yet, just stopping by when a link is useful or when I do a google search.

I know that google is handy. At the same time, the advice you just gave me to set the CPU to performance, I probably would've spent hours/days to come across. In fact, I can't search for something in google if I don't know it exists!

Thanks again AutoStatic.. for sharing your knowledge and experience.!
brian

[briandc]

People can tell you whatever they want but in a lot of cases the terminal is the fastest way to get things done, especially in a forum context (a CLI command is so much less typing than explaining where to click in which menu).

Also the CLI tends to be more 'stable' - it's so frustrating to see GUI documentation that shows all kinds of menu's and buttons that apparantly have been moved around in my version of the software, of course undocumented because as a GUI everything should be obvious...

</rant>

I agree. When there's a GUI, that's just one additional process that has to be kept functional!

brian