Excessive XRUNS with Ubuntu Studio, jackd and Ardour.
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2019 3:31 pm
Hi:
I recently switched from Hydrogen to DrumGizmo. Using the stock DrumGizmo install in Ubuntu18 (two years and a half old) I downloaded both the Crocell and Muldjord kits and did the neccesary changes to my MIDI files so I would trigger the correct samples and loaded DrumGizmo as an Ardour plugin. When using the Crocell kit (in a 44k session, which I guess needs resampling) I got so many XRuns that the Ardour GUI froze when adding markers. Using the Muldjord kit I got better results, but still a lot of XRuns. These XRuns are accompanied by crackling noise, noise artifacts and plain noise when my computer cannot just keep up.
Following advice from an IRC member, I compiled the latest DrumGizmo from source and got marginally better results, but still a lot of Xruns on playback. I may be misinformed but it is my understanding that no XRuns should happen in a stable system (in fact, I got no XRuns in my previous workflow, which would route the MIDI data to Hydrogen and some other synths). The beat I am playing consists on 4 measures of snare count and a steady blast of 16th notes, three notes at a time, at 260BPM. The XRuns start with the blast.
A couple of interesting bits:
- Setting the buffer size to 2048 (from 256) made the XRuns decrease just a little bit.
- had DrumGizmo directed to just two Ardour buses. When I used 16 buses the XRuns decreased, but are still there.
- Setting the buffer size to the original 256 value with 16 buses still cause a lot of XRuns.
My current specs are:
.
I tried generic XRun stuff (to no avail) like:
- Removing the wireless USB stick.
- Using a single display
- Setting "realtime audio" and "CPU governor in performance mode".
My question: is this the expected behaviour of the plugin? Is there something I can do to get better performance? Of course, if you need any other data I would be more than happy to oblige.
Thanks a lot in advance.
I recently switched from Hydrogen to DrumGizmo. Using the stock DrumGizmo install in Ubuntu18 (two years and a half old) I downloaded both the Crocell and Muldjord kits and did the neccesary changes to my MIDI files so I would trigger the correct samples and loaded DrumGizmo as an Ardour plugin. When using the Crocell kit (in a 44k session, which I guess needs resampling) I got so many XRuns that the Ardour GUI froze when adding markers. Using the Muldjord kit I got better results, but still a lot of XRuns. These XRuns are accompanied by crackling noise, noise artifacts and plain noise when my computer cannot just keep up.
Following advice from an IRC member, I compiled the latest DrumGizmo from source and got marginally better results, but still a lot of Xruns on playback. I may be misinformed but it is my understanding that no XRuns should happen in a stable system (in fact, I got no XRuns in my previous workflow, which would route the MIDI data to Hydrogen and some other synths). The beat I am playing consists on 4 measures of snare count and a steady blast of 16th notes, three notes at a time, at 260BPM. The XRuns start with the blast.
A couple of interesting bits:
- Setting the buffer size to 2048 (from 256) made the XRuns decrease just a little bit.
- had DrumGizmo directed to just two Ardour buses. When I used 16 buses the XRuns decreased, but are still there.
- Setting the buffer size to the original 256 value with 16 buses still cause a lot of XRuns.
My current specs are:
Code: Select all
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7100 CPU @ 3.90GHz
RAM (free -m): 3831
External audio card: FocusRite Scarlett 2i4. (there's a crappy onboard card too).
Ubuntu Studio: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
DrumGizmo v: drumgizmo-0.9.18.1
Jack settings: 44100 - 256 frame - 3 periods, 95 priority, realtime
I tried generic XRun stuff (to no avail) like:
- Removing the wireless USB stick.
- Using a single display
- Setting "realtime audio" and "CPU governor in performance mode".
My question: is this the expected behaviour of the plugin? Is there something I can do to get better performance? Of course, if you need any other data I would be more than happy to oblige.
Thanks a lot in advance.