Configure Rakarrack(Ubuntu 13.10) with Line6 pod

[midskavid]

My Line6 pod is working fine. When the pod is plugged in (USB) the audio of the PC is redirected to the pod and it plays without an issue. Even what I play with my guitar comes out, though somewhat as an unrefined sound.

Therefore all I need is to configure a software equivalent to guitar rig (in windows). I do not want to use wine therefore I am using Rakarrack. But I am not able to configure it. I tried QjackCtl but I do not know how to configure that either.

This is the output for cat /proc/asound/cards:
--------------------------
0 [MID ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel MID
HDA Intel MID at 0xb4400000 irq 44
1 [PODStudioGX ]: line6usb - POD Studio GX
Line6 POD Studio GX at USB 2-1.1:1.0
---------------------------

Kindly help.

[ssj71]

read this and learn about jack.
http://libremusicproduction.com/article ... arted-jack

[midskavid]

With the settings mentioned even normal audio stops. The point is without using jack the audio of the PC is redirected through the Pod and even the guitar audio comes out though unfiltered. All I need is configuration for Rakarrack.

[ssj71]

With the settings mentioned even normal audio stops.

normal audio uses pulse audio which is stopped when jack starts. You typically have to connect something to the output with jack before you get any sound out.

The point is without using jack the audio of the PC is redirected through the Pod and even the guitar audio comes out though unfiltered. All I need is configuration for Rakarrack.

Rakarrack only works with jack. You can do some trickery and start jack with a dummy backend and pulse audio bridges and the PA loopback module to route audio into and out of jack. But you need jack for rakarrack. You are trying to route audio through a program. This is precisely what jack does. I think its worth more consideration.

Or, another option is to use carla which can run without jack and use the lv2 port of the rakarrack effects. github.com/ssj71/rkrlv2 Some of these have issues, if you go that route I'd really appreciate if you report anything you find.

[Pablo]

guitarix is a wonderful virtual amp, just saying.

[ssj71]

guitarix is a wonderful virtual amp, just saying.

and another JACK only app.

[midskavid]

So I have been able to find the exact problem. Pod is detected by ubuntu. I had copied the output for cat /proc/asound/cards. However this it is not visible in Jack and so I cannot make the right connections.

The following video showed How the connections should be made :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC2iJUZEhFQ

However jack does not seem to detect my pod.

[asbak]

There's loads of information on hooking up guitars to PC here, the principles for connecting the Line6 shouldn't be any different if it is detected as an ALSA audio device.

viewforum.php?f=19

[ssj71]

I suspect you haven't configured jack to connect to the pod. Its probably using your internal soundcard or something else. It should show every device that alsa lists, but it might be under a cryptic name.

[midskavid]

I suspect you haven't configured jack to connect to the pod. Its probably using your internal soundcard or something else. It should show every device that alsa lists, but it might be under a cryptic name.

So Finally this worked but I am not very happy with the sound:

I used capture_2 as the input to rakarrack. Even then the audio from my guitar was robotic. However now the tuner seemed to be working and showed the correct notes and therefore I knew the connections were right. After playing a little with different configurations what worked was this : Turning on Fx. raising it to 100. raising the input to 50 while keeping the output the same. With this configuration the sound now is far better than what I was hearing previously. However I have heard better :p

What I want to know is whether this is a hack and therefore the sound lacks quality or whether this is the best sound that is possible in linux environment.

[tramp]

So Finally this worked but I am not very happy with the sound:

I used capture_2 as the input to rakarrack. Even then the audio from my guitar was robotic. However now the tuner seemed to be working and showed the correct notes and therefore I knew the connections were right. After playing a little with different configurations what worked was this : Turning on Fx. raising

You need to ensure that there isn't any sound output from your guitar, without connect it to rakarrack in jack, otherwise, you will always get a mixed output from your clean guitar and the processed part. I didn't know which controller it may be to disable direct monitoring on your pod, on most sound-cards it's the pcm controller for the capture part.
You'll find your controllers for the pod in the alsamixer, (properly)
type alsamixer in a terminal, and when it appears, press F6. to select your pod from the list. If you have it, press F4, to get the capture controllers.
If you see a capture PCM controller, set it to zero.
Now, you wouldn't hear your guitar, without connect it to jack and run rakarrack. In turn, when you run rakarrack, you will hear only the processed sound, without mixed it up with the clean direct guitar output.

[midskavid]

You need to ensure that there isn't any sound output from your guitar, without connect it to rakarrack in jack, otherwise, you will always get a mixed output from your clean guitar and the processed part.

Thanks a lot!! This worked

There are two more things that I would want to know.

1) Is there any way with which I can still play background music from my computer. I guess when Jack server is started pulse-audio is killed. I want to play backing tracks. This was possible in windows.

2) Is there a way to eject the hardware properly ? because I need to kill all processes (kill -9 -1) before audio from my computer works.

[apathity]

1) Is there any way with which I can still play background music from my computer. I guess when Jack server is started pulse-audio is killed. I want to play backing tracks. This was possible in windows.

You can use VLC player and use the package named vlc-plugin-jack. More in this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... st11176545

That's what I do. However, it won't work with Flash in the browser. So if ou want to play YouTube videos etc. while running jack, it will not work. I think there is a solution for that also.

[tramp]

1) Is there any way with which I can still play background music from my computer. I guess when Jack server is started pulse-audio is killed. I want to play backing tracks. This was possible in windows.

Yes, here is a short basic tutorial:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=14822

and this is the way I do it a bit more advanced:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=13234

[asbak]

Sending pulse through jack as tramp mentioned is one way.

Another method avoids using pulse completely by using a virtual alsa soundcard (snd_aloop) and a asoundrc configuration file which defaults to a specially configured alsa device. Then you use alsa_in and alsa_out to bridge alsa to and from jack. All kinds of variations on this method are possible too.

Apps like Skype require pulse so for that either re-enable pulse (when needed) or try this pulseaudio emulator for alsa.

https://github.com/i-rinat/apulse