alextee wrote: ↑Wed Mar 23, 2022 9:34 pm
plain ALSA is not working and ALSA rtaudio is problematic. you can run `zrythm_launch` from the command line to see any error messages. I guess it fails to open a device and then blocks - that's how rtaudio does it and it never returns control to zrythm when using ALSA. there is no reason at all to use ALSA, I might even remove the option from the binaries to avoid these issues. if you want a pro audio setup then use JACK, otherwise use PulseAudio (both are compatible with PipeWire too). I don't think ALSA is supposed to be used by high level applications
EDIT: you can run `zrythm_launch --dummy` to launch zrythm with the dummy backend so you can go in the preferences and change things
Thanks, switching to PulseAudio for the time being seems to have freed things up..
If you'll pardon my venturing an opinion I strongly disagree with you about JACK, I've recorded and had a Studio that does some commercial work with Linux for 15 years now, I have also distributed a ready to use Linux Audio Operating System for most of that time... No I'm not a coder nor an Audio API expert but I'm far from a newb. Your main competitors Ardour (+Mixbus) Reaper and Bitwig are using ALSA backends now and for me with Ardour and Mixbus performance and stability with ALSA have never been better and I'm not dabbling... we put some real hours in using various outboard USB interfaces with high track counts.
10 years ago Linux was about modularity and the state of combined Audio and MIDI was quite terrible (to be kind) and without the modularity afforded by JACK doing Audio with MIDI would not even have been possible. But in those 10 years times have changed and more people (of course not all people) are seeking a similar monolithic DAW workflow on Linux that they have enjoyed on MacOS and Windows and vendors have answered the call with Ardour maturing greatly and joining with Harrison, Reaper porting to Linux and BitWig and Tracktion providing Linux builds of their products from their inception. You have done an astounding amount of work with Zrythm and it's evolution has been nothing short of incredible! My devotion to Ardour and exhaustion with it's MIDI situation has made me sit up and take notice of Zrythm and it is obviously getting very close to sharing the same stage with all of these competitors..
JACK and the need for it is waning, PulseAudio (and JACK to a large degree) is waning and being replaced by Pipewire but it is really not a Pro-Audio solution yet. ALSA will be the core foundational Audio system for quite some time and I think in a true professional Audio context the DAW should connect directly to the underlying Audio bedrock for serious work without compromise. An actual working Studio is going to be far more concerned with rock solid direct to core performance and best latency potential than the ability watch Youtube Videos while the bass player is doing his Overdubs. I think a professional DAW should be able to use the system core Audio amenities reliably and of course also have the ability to work with Desktop Audio servers if wanted but not depend or require them being present, I think leaving off where the Desktop Audio servers end (regardless of which server we're talking about) is a very bad idea for professional Audio applications. Additionally ALSA MIDI is the superior choice for MIDI i/o and avoids some of the jitter issues associated with JACK MIDI.
For those new to Linux in the current days JACK isn't necessarily the go-to anymore when trying a system and although I have spent a lot of time creating AV Linux to be pretty much seamless to the user as far as JACK and PulseAudio I for one will rejoice when I can distribute a professional Linux Audio OS without JACK at all..