do I miss anything if I just use jack but not using pulseaudio?

What other apps and distros do you use to round out your studio?

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jsomedon
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do I miss anything if I just use jack but not using pulseaudio?

Post by jsomedon »

What problem I may run into if I just install jack on linux? In particular, can I still play steam games, listen to music with music player, watch youtube videos on browser, make some video calls on browser?
Kott
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Re: do I miss anything if I just use jack but not using pulseaudio?

Post by Kott »

You may not run into problems if You just install Jack :)
But if You run jackd daemon then it may occupy soundcard so other apps couldn't use it. But recent pulseaudio (if You use it) can deal with it automatically.
jsomedon
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Re: do I miss anything if I just use jack but not using pulseaudio?

Post by jsomedon »

Kott wrote:You may not run into problems if You just install Jack :)
But if You run jackd daemon then it may occupy soundcard so other apps couldn't use it. But recent pulseaudio (if You use it) can deal with it automatically.
So that means, if I only have jack and no pulseaudio, I cannot, uh, say listen to music and play steam games at the same time?
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Re: do I miss anything if I just use jack but not using pulseaudio?

Post by Kott »

if You have to keep jackd running all time - yes, in common
this can be workarounded by using dmix, not best solution imho

I use two separate soundcards, one for entertainment with pulseaudio, second - for sound work with alsa (+jack)
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Re: do I miss anything if I just use jack but not using pulseaudio?

Post by tavasti »

jsomedon wrote:
Kott wrote: But if You run jackd daemon then it may occupy soundcard so other apps couldn't use it. But recent pulseaudio (if You use it) can deal with it automatically.
So that means, if I only have jack and no pulseaudio, I cannot, uh, say listen to music and play steam games at the same time?
It is possible that steam games or your music app do not have any jack support at all, so they don't work at all without pulse. And if they have jack support, then they both work same time ok.

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jsomedon
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Re: do I miss anything if I just use jack but not using pulseaudio?

Post by jsomedon »

I see, then I'd better keep them both.

Thank you guys for clarifying this for me! :)
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Re: do I miss anything if I just use jack but not using pulseaudio?

Post by thetotalchaos »

You are not gaining anything either.

A few years ago i made a custom Archlinux installation. With FLuxbox as WM, and Jack2 + Alsa. Nowadays Firefox has a native Jack support, and there is a app/script called "apulse" that can run pulse apps without pulse itself. Fluxbox was useful, because i am writing the command i needed to execute the particular application. This Linux configuration was for producing music exclusively.

But on a general purpose operating system, a properly configured Pulseaudio and Jack are something that are giving you options and usability.
If pulseaudio is giving you trouble, from my experience the problem is most often in poorly functioning "Cadence". So if you feel that pulseaudio and jack do not function properly, start with checking if Cadence delivers what its expected from it.
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