Pipewire, Ardour, and Arch - Fully working as of July 2021

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

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz

folderol
Established Member
Posts: 2069
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 8:06 pm
Location: Here, of course!
Has thanked: 224 times
Been thanked: 400 times
Contact:

Re: Pipewire, Ardour, and Arch - Fully working as of July 2021

Post by folderol »

Just as a matter for comparison, the YoshimiPi (Pi4) uses ALSA directly for both MIDI input and audio output with a buffer size of 128 frames and using a cheap and simple 16bit USB/audio device. It gives dramatically better performance like this than any other combination - and I've tried quite a few.

With Rosegarden running a fairly complex 10 part session I get no Xruns at all.

I've no way of measuring the round-trip latency, but all I can say is it's unnoticeable to me :)
The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
christobal
Established Member
Posts: 108
Joined: Sun Sep 01, 2019 12:58 pm
Has thanked: 21 times
Been thanked: 11 times

Re: Pipewire, Ardour, and Arch - Fully working as of July 2021

Post by christobal »

So finally got around to trying it again. And the annoying issue I have had on jack where whenever i go below 64 in buffersize i just got a constant stream of xruns. With pipewire I can now record with 32 no problem. Cool. Cool cool cool.


Btw, what jack packages can I remove after installing pipewire?
OS: Manjaro
Amp: Echolette M40 / NG51S Tape Echo
Strings: Martin D15M, Yamaha FG-180, Alhambra 5P, Yamaha Revstar
x42
Established Member
Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:59 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 5 times

Re: Pipewire, Ardour, and Arch - Fully working as of July 2021

Post by x42 »

christobal wrote: Mon Aug 09, 2021 3:40 pm So finally got around to trying it again. And the annoying issue I have had on jack where whenever i go below 64 in buffersize i just got a constant stream of xruns. With pipewire I can now record with 32 no problem. Cool. Cool cool cool.
Usually PipeWire uses a different period size for the ALSA device than it does for its own internal buffer. So more likely PipeWire still runs very large buffers for I/O but only calls JACK clients using smaller buffers.

With PipeWire, by default, 32 sample cycles results in a round-trip latency of 35ms. That is like running jackd with a period of around 840 (!) samples/cycle at 48k. An order of magnitude higher latency. https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire ... nt-latency has information about this.
folderol
Established Member
Posts: 2069
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 8:06 pm
Location: Here, of course!
Has thanked: 224 times
Been thanked: 400 times
Contact:

Re: Pipewire, Ardour, and Arch - Fully working as of July 2021

Post by folderol »

x42 wrote: Mon Aug 09, 2021 6:05 pm
christobal wrote: Mon Aug 09, 2021 3:40 pm So finally got around to trying it again. And the annoying issue I have had on jack where whenever i go below 64 in buffersize i just got a constant stream of xruns. With pipewire I can now record with 32 no problem. Cool. Cool cool cool.
Usually PipeWire uses a different period size for the ALSA device than it does for its own internal buffer. So more likely PipeWire still runs very large buffers for I/O but only calls JACK clients using smaller buffers.

With PipeWire, by default, 32 sample cycles results in a round-trip latency of 35ms. That is like running jackd with a period of around 840 (!) samples/cycle at 48k. An order of magnitude higher latency. https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire ... nt-latency has information about this.
Interesting, but how does it compare with using ALSA directly - I can't seem to find any info on that.
The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
User avatar
thetotalchaos
Established Member
Posts: 211
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:29 pm
Has thanked: 53 times
Been thanked: 9 times
Contact:

Re: Pipewire, Ardour, and Arch - Fully working as of July 2021

Post by thetotalchaos »

How can i make pipewire to jack & jack to pipewire bridges?
You can listen to my music at: https://totalchaos-music.bandcamp.com/

Take a journey to wonderland with The Butterfly Effect 2016
https://totalchaos-music.bandcamp.com/a ... fly-effect
x42
Established Member
Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:59 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 5 times

Re: Pipewire, Ardour, and Arch - Fully working as of July 2021

Post by x42 »

thetotalchaos wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:33 pm How can i make pipewire to jack & jack to pipewire bridges?
You don't. Just run pipewire and it acts as JACK server.
Post Reply