LinuxMusicians

Hi everyone,

last Christmas I finally dumped my trusty, 9+ year old PC in favor of a brand new, (almost) top notch power engine that probably will stay with me for the next decade. And together with this major upgrade I once again tried to switch tracks and bet my future on Linux instead of Windows.

I tried several times before and always gave up on it. Either I was not brave enough, or not smart enough to make it. But this time I already managed 2+ months and I think I could stay with it this time (mostly).

I have 40 years background in computing, working my way up from soldering discrete chips into some primordial calculator, so I'm confident that I am capable to grasp that all, once I find my way through the jungle of a totally different ecosystem where my previous knowledge is worth nothing.

But why here, why with LinuxMusicians? Pretty late in my life I found that playing an instrument would have been a great idea - if I had started several decades earlier. Meanwhile I'm allowed to play the Saxophone with a local orchestra without disturbing them too much. I will probably never call myself a "Musician", but I still have the need to wire my recording equipment internal and external sound devices, tablet, webcam and other stuff in a way that should work at least as good as in Windows.

As I already have learned - you can do EVERYTHING in Linux. Seasoned Linuxians keep saying "it will be easier and much better". Well, the last one seems to be a long range target as for a newbie it is all but straight forward to handle that. And regularly getting off the main road of fancy GUI into the swamps of totally unknown command line tools with mysterious and cryptic glyphs is not what I am used to. It's like trying to read The Book of Necromancy. And having the option to do this in a zillion different ways depending on distro(?), taste(?), weather(?) does not help either.

What have I done so far?
I have a running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. I first tried my luck with "Jack". Until I found "kxStudios" that promised to get me over the first hurdles. Which it did, but I just got different problems, not less. Once I found about "Ubuntu Studio", I first dumped the kxStudio installs and let the "Ubuntu Studio" installers do their magic. Again with mixed results. That "Jack" thing and his family turns out to be a monster that does refuse to get domesticated by me.

Even in 2021 "the Linux" feels rather like a hut to me, quickly nailed together with a few wooden shelves, than a solid house. Probably I just don't recognize the beauty in in this all for now, but I want to try how long I can survive in the wilderness, equipped with a potato peeler and a box of wet matches.

Here I am. It "works", but I am still not entirely happy with the results, especially when I try to use both internal and external sound interface together. Which is a no-brainer in Windows, if you use VoiceMeeter.

So probably I am going to ask some really silly questions from time to time.

Welcome here. We should be able to help you sort things out.
Oh, and there are no silly questions - sometimes you get back silly answers though

bebob99 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 20, 2021 2:40 pm ...I am still not entirely happy with the results, especially when I try to use both internal and external sound interface together. Which is a no-brainer in Windows, if you use VoiceMeeter.

Enjoyed reading your condensed hardware software journey report above. Sounds like you've set your expectations fairly realistically already so asking around here will probably get you sorted with any audio related Linux question I hope.

Re. distros I've done the same as a newbie and tried Ubuntu Studio and AV Linux (based on MX Linux = debian stable). Their default jack settings haven't failed me yet. The only thing needs changing is default soundcard and requested samplerate. If that succeeds and you're prone to dabbling with different setups or combinations of apps for your sound chain use the Jack Graph (opens from qjackctl) and something like Raysession to easily connect, store and recall everything.

Re. multiple interfaces I haven't figured that out as well yet. The vets mention alsa_in and alsa_out bridging (https://jackaudio.org/faq/multiple_devices.html) and zita-a2j (https://kokkinizita.linuxaudio.org/linu ... guide.html). Last night using Ubuntu Studio I saw two USB devices open on Jack but couldn't bridge any sound through them (only to their own outputs). Not sure what's under the hood there.

VoiceMeeter on Windows is obviously a somewhat nicer interface but the latency involved is at least 50+ms on my system (http://sar.audio with ASIO4ALL solved that). So I do hope you get Jack going as needed.

Hi bebop99. I also had midi and audio problems when starting with linux. My system is a fast octacore with 16GB RAM. Ubuntu Studio 20.10 with WINE installed to run old Win software.

I first connected the built-in motherboard HD audio toslink spdif optical output to monitors. I think this caused problems with the linux audio system where JACK isn't able to make default startup connections since there isn't a matching optical input port on the motherboard. As a test, I installed ubuntu studio on a laptop. I could record and playback audio and midi upon startup.

So I bought a USB 2.0 compliant interface, in my case with matching optical input and output ports. I turned off the motherboard audio in the CMOS setup, plugged in the USB audio interface and booted up Ubuntu Studio. It worked out of the box with default JACK audio and midi connections. I now have 2.7ms latency through a cheap noname USB 2.0 audio interface.

So, if you're using a motherboard with a single built-in optical output port, it could consfuse the JACK audio system and give you fits even if you're not using the optical port.

Jim

Fmajor7add9 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 21, 2021 11:17 am

bebob99 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 20, 2021 2:40 pm ...I am still not entirely happy with the results, especially when I try to use both internal and external sound interface together. Which is a no-brainer in Windows, if you use VoiceMeeter.

Re. multiple interfaces I haven't figured that out as well yet. The vets mention alsa_in and alsa_out bridging (https://jackaudio.org/faq/multiple_devices.html) and zita-a2j (https://kokkinizita.linuxaudio.org/linu ... guide.html). Last night using Ubuntu Studio I saw two USB devices open on Jack but couldn't bridge any sound through them (only to their own outputs). Not sure what's under the hood there.

Bridge breakthrough report:
Ubuntu Studio uses alsa_in, with the right settings applied on the 2nd USB soundcard the jack bridge actually works!
*edit: alsa_in is rather empty on the jackd status screenshot below. Reckon the USB bridge is actually from zita.



I'll post a new thread as it develops, some more screenshots shared here till then:
https://nextcloud.webo.hosting/s/NNFoCM6wyX4C5PD?

Wow! That is great help!

I have been on some Linux boards before where I got friendly hints to first learn all the basics before molesting the geeks with trivial stuff as you learn most if you discover it yourself. Sort of. Not exactly this words. But you know when you are told to just RTFM, even if they call it more friendly. Which I usually do, when there is one available. But learning a completely new operating system ecosphere is still a bootstrap process where I not even have a clue where to start reading.

I will try this soon. Not right now, as it is late at night here and monday is coming with a full week of work.

Thanks so far!

Welcome to geekland audio, where the bugs ARE features! I'm only half kidding. Linux audio users are sort of like hot rod mechanics: you have to love your garage time as much as you love the drag races.

Happy to have you here, amd I hope we can help you with specific questions on the subforums. I really dig this forum. It is a super helpful and friendly place (for the most part).