tseaver wrote: ↑Fri Mar 25, 2022 2:42 am
I'm puzzled by those who say that Linux DAWs should just prefer / require ALSA, in an environment where the best possible Linux software-emulated guitar pedal-amp chain **cannot** be replaced by one or more DAW plugins: the standalone Guitarix app, functioning as a JACK source, is infinitely more configurable / customizable than the equivalent mess of chained LV2 plugins. That leaves aside all the other possible JACK-centric usecases.
Those whose needs do not extend beyond what is already supported by in-DAW plugins aren't really in a good place to throw stones at the houses of users who have (for years now) relied on the routing capabilities of Jack.
FWIW: as a long-time developer / maintainer of (over-engineered) "pluggable" frameworks, I can certainly "feel the pain" of those having to support multiple back-ends.
Literally nobody said that, I'll assume you're talking to me for the most part since I presented the 'why not ALSA' question..
I was interested in Zrythm... I tried it and it presented me with an ALSA backend option which I'm used to using with Ardour and it locked the program... The developer
@alextee said (paraphrased) I am having difficulty getting the ALSA backend working if you want to do Pro Audio on Linux you should use JACK... I said but the other Pro Audio apps I've tried don't require JACK and connect to ALSA... Then I explained in some detail why JACK may not be the
only Server to be used in a Pro Audio context any longer and how that view is changing and how other DAW products are handling Audio i/o.
I never said JACK was inferior or that JACK should be discontinued or that DAWs should solely support ALSA or that routing DAWs in whatever way you prefer should be changed in any way.
@Kott basically said nothing except that he also likes ALSA support.. Every post of mine here takes into consideration that (JACK specifically) is important for other DAWs and alternate Routing workflows and that it is generally a great thing about Linux Audio. That doesn't change the fact that some Pro DAWs no longer need it.
To be honest I'm baffled by the pushback about it, nobody said anything about eliminating any of them or actually adding a feature.. Zrythm came to me with an ALSA backend to select already! As far as frameworks and backends ALSA is the core and the others are added on top as others explained it's making ALSA direct friendly requires writing an intermediate API that is already similar to what JACK is doing but with that said I don't think that ALSA support is exactly like adding a 'new' backend either.