UbuntuStudio and Alesis io/2 Express

[infolix76]

Hi everybody,

I am king of a newbie with Linux, though I have been using Unix for years professionnaly (mostly HPUx).
I was also compelled to use micro$oft for my job (seems like companies can't do without)
I am an amateur guitar player.
After using Guitar Rig 5 under micro$oft win-thingy for some time, I decided to look for something similar under Linux.
I built a new machine : Mother board ASUS F2A85-V with proc AMD A8-5600K and 8 Go memory.
I started by installing a Linux Mint 14 KDE and tried to install my Alesis IO 2 Express external (USB) sound card.
No way (no asio drivers). To make it short, I recently heard about Linux realtime kernel.
So I installed Ubuntu Studio with Linux kernel 3.8.0-22-lowlatency with alsa, jackd, guitarx, the lot! ( wow).

Then I tried a few tests : no sound coming from the speakers.

googling away....

My IO2 card is Ubuntu compatible and seems to be recognized as prooves aplay -l :

**** Liste des Périphériques Matériels PLAYBACK ****
carte 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], périphérique 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Sous-périphériques: 1/1
Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0
carte 1: io2 [io|2], périphérique 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Sous-périphériques: 1/1
Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0
carte 2: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], périphérique 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
Sous-périphériques: 1/1
Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0
carte 2: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], périphérique 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD Digital]
Sous-périphériques: 1/1
Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0

googling away...

I started qjackctl and entered alsa as the driver and hw:1 (the IO2 card) as input and output peripherals.
the .jackdrc gives :
/usr/bin/jackd -dalsa -r44100 -p1024 -n2 -D -Chw:1 -Phw:1
Still no sound

googling away...

When I use alsamixer and press F6 to change the sound card and select io2, an error message shows :
Ce peripherique n'a pas de commandes (This peripheral has no command)

googling away...

Most of the posts and tips I read are refering to older systems or Linux versions but what seems to be the problem is that the IO2 card is not the default card.
How can I put the IO2 card as the default card ?
Can anybody help?

Thanks in advance

[Pablo]

When I use alsamixer and press F6 to change the sound card and select io2, an error message shows :
Ce peripherique n'a pas de commandes (This peripheral has no command)

This is not an error message, it is info. It simply means that there aren't controls that you can adjust from software, only from hardware. You have the knobs on the card

I started qjackctl and entered alsa as the driver and hw:1 (the IO2 card) as input and output peripherals.
the .jackdrc gives :
/usr/bin/jackd -dalsa -r44100 -p1024 -n2 -D -Chw:1 -Phw:1
Still no sound

So jack apparenly started?

You probably tried with the default multimedia player in Mint, which I don't think it is "jackified" by default. Try a jack-aware audio player, such as aqualung.

what seems to be the problem is that the IO2 card is not the default card.
How can I put the IO2 card as the default card ?

I think the problem is what I wrote above. There are two different audio systems, pulseaudio and jack. On the one hand, you select the default audio card for desktop use in your desktop sound application. On the other hand, you select the card jack uses in qjackctl's setup.

There are tricks to tackle this sound dichotomy such as the pulseaudio-module-jack.

Even better, there is KXstudio, a specialiased audio distro. Specialised distros make life much easier for linux musicians.

[infolix76]

Thank you Pablo for such a quick answer.

I do not have Linux Mint installed any longer as I could not figure out how to make the io2 work.
What my aim is (as far as music is concerned):
plug my guitar in my Alesis IO2 adapter, play with as little latency as possible, have the sound tweaked like by foot pedals, and record the result.

So, I installed Ubuntu Studio 13.04 which I thought was a 'creative people' distro (so they say).
In fact everything I needed seemed to come with it. (realtime kernel, alsa, jack and lots of music and video apps...)
I thought that these music apps like guitarix or rakarrack were 'jackified' by default as you say.

Even better, there is KXstudio, a specialiased audio distro. Specialised distros make life much easier for linux musicians.

Am I to understand i'd be better off with KXstudio than with Ubuntu Studio?

I don't mind installing a new distro, as these are just my first steps with Linux, but I liked the way Ubuntu Studio was music AND graphics AND video oriented.

[Pablo]

I thought of KXstudio mainly because it features KDE by default and it is very well maintained and supported by forum member falkTX. However, ubuntustudio 13.04 is fine too and at this point I suggest you stop distro-hopping and start enjoing the apps. Ubuntustudio has very good support in its users mailing list. You can also ask here.

If you like the linux audio world and are curious enough, you will probably want to experiment with the lot of choices there are, in the future. Anyway, do as you wish. It is up to you.

Sorry, edit again: Yes, almost all the music production apps are jackified. Guitarix and rackarrack, of course.

[infolix76]

Thanks Pablo,

I'll stay with Unbunto Studio. I managed to make my IO2 work.
I'm not entirely satisfied with what I did but it works.
I'll keep on googling to get exactly what I want.

Cheers

[English Guy]

I have an io2 express & have used it with various set ups without trouble & am happy with it.

[infolix76]

Hi English Guy,

Would you be, by any chance, a guitar player using your IO2 as an interface for a software effects processor ?
So far, I have sound working for video and music players (like VLC, Audacity, streams players and others)
I can edit a home made video, add a music or comments track to it and play it back.
If I plug my guitar in, I have the direct sound (if I balance the IO2 direct/usb knob) I can accompany a music playing,
again playing with the knob. But it is only the direct sound of the guitar.
I cannot get the direct sound to be processed through for instance Guitarix.
I am a newbie as far as sound processing is concerned. My only experience with software effects processing is Guitar Rig 5.
It is excellent but unfortunately only works with micro$oft.

Could you be of any help?

Cheers

[infolix76]

THAT'S IT
I still have my 'desktop' sounds and my guitar responds to guitarix.
But I still have a latency problem :
Whatever the qjackctl parameters I enter there is a delay between the plucking of the string and the sound.
Even with the most drastic settings, no difference.
The qjackctl parameter windows tells me down to 1.33 ms latency.
This should be inaudible. There must be something else...

[English Guy]

Hi Infolix76
I am a guitarist but I tend to process through a line 6 pod & just record the completed sound. I know the main school of thought is that the guitar should be recorded dry & effects added afterwards but I found this counter intuitive -the amped up sound has to feel right, especially any sustain/distortion.

If you cannot get your latency low enough you could try a distro (such as Debian) that has a real time kernel (Linux-RT). I am sure there are wiser heads than me who can tell you other ways to tweak your setup. I prefer a stock stable distro with the few modest bits of stuff I want added,

[infolix76]

I finally got it!
As I said previously I run a realtime kernel. I had all at hand but the experience.

All I had to do was edit the .jackdrc and set the -p from 1024 to 128.
(512 was better, 256 was nearly perfect 128 is perfect)
I thought qjackctl would save this file everytime I changed a parameter. It does'nt seem to be the case.
Anyway it's now perfectly running.
I can now appreciate the guitarix stack of effects. Wow. I don't need Guitar Rig any longer.
And I can now send micro$oft where I think it belongs : down the drain...
Thanks for the answers and tips, they gave me clues to get more tips and tricks here and there.
I'll keep connected with LinuxMusicians.

Cheers

[growing-0]

I finally got it!
All I had to do was edit the .jackdrc and set the -p from 1024 to 128.
(512 was better, 256 was nearly perfect 128 is perfect)

Cheers

Brilliant! You just save me from tearing the rest of my hair out! My only grumble now is that I have to be actually recording to hear what I'm playing over the backing tracks, but not the end of the world.