4 ms·

I've never been a fan of PulseAudio, and always remove it and replace it with Jack on my Linux DAW systems, so this article wasn't really of interest to me .. u

by mmjaa 9y ago

I've never been a fan of PulseAudio, and always remove it and replace it with Jack on my Linux DAW systems, so this article wasn't really of interest to me .. until I started reading it. I think its the first time I've actually had any respect for PulseAudio as a framework .. but I'll be darned if I'm going to ever try to use it again. Jack just works so much better and with far less fuss and overhead .. still, I'm yet to see a "Jack under the hood" article nearly as impressive as this one.

baldfat 9y ago
> JACK = less fuss WHAT? That is crazy talk. JACK is the most complected audio setup I have ever worked with. I owned a Record Label and a small studio. If you have to setup JACK from scratch it can get crazy complicated. Once you get it working it is an AWESOME framework but I only would ever see people needing low latency to ever really use it. JACK is 100% for a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and it is for low latency. Pulse is for the rest. I have found that the legacy of a poor initial deployment has been a heavy chain around its neck just like KDE 4, RPM (for having an issue for a few months over 10 years ago) and now Systemd (Systemd had a fine performance roll-out but philosophy issues).
- aleden 9y ago
  Pulse has excellent integration with jackd: /usr/lib/pulse-11.1/modules/module-jack-sink.so /usr/lib/pulse-11.1/modules/module-jack-source.so /usr/lib/pulse-11.1/modules/module-jackdbus-detect.so I can use pavucontrol with ease to redirect an application's audio output (e.g. chromium's) to the jack sink. It's a painful process to accomplish the same thing without using pulseaudio, because you're going to have to mess with ALSA configuration files- and believe me, that's no fun at all.
- mmjaa 9y ago
  Honestly, I guess its because I chose my hardware wisely - i.e. I use only very well-supported hardware components (in my case, Presonus/BridgeCo.), where high-capacity, low-latency audio was sort of implemented on Linux first and then ported to the other platforms .. so I'm looking at a current Firewire- based rig of 2 19" racks, full of gear, summing up to 40+ channels of audio over a single cable to the main DAW controller running Ardour. In other words, I don't need no stinking' "game/consumer Audio", which is what Pulseaudio represents to me .. Therein lies the beauty, I guess, of Linux - and of F/OSS creative-tools, in general ..
  - AsyncAwait 9y ago
    > Honestly, I guess its because I chose my hardware wisely In that case, you can also chose hardware that works well with PA, so I don't see JACKs benefit there. Also, I don't think they're equivalent in functionality.
    - mmjaa 9y ago
      Perhaps the point is that I set up jack for my system first, and Pulseaudio lags behind in terms of, jack is my dependency. However, its moot - this is not consumer audio. Its more, "studio production audio"...
- katastic 9y ago
  Yeah, so far, every time I've even TRIED to get Jack to work... I can't even get the damn thing started on my system. I've read numerous SO posts, tried numerous things (YES. I've shutoff PulseAudio first.), and it's still sitting in my list of "Eventual annoying things to keep spending time on to get working."
  - baldfat 9y ago
    No idea why you were down voted. JACK is certainly a VERY hard thing to get working. Why were you trying to use JACK? http://jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html http://jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html
clouddrover 9y ago
> but I'll be darned if I'm going to ever try to use it again You probably won't have to. I think the long term plan is for Pipewire to replace PulseAudio (and be an alternative to JACK). Pipewire also does video. The initial release of Pipewire is video only with audio support to come: https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2017/09/19/launching-pipewire/ https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2017/09/19/launching-pipewire... http://pipewire.org/ http://pipewire.org/ https://github.com/PipeWire/pipewire https://github.com/PipeWire/pipewire
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- throwaway2048 9y ago
  cant wait for another 10 years of broken linux audio. Why not fix what we have rather than yet another rewrite with all its attendant exciting bugs.
  - mmjaa 9y ago
    For 15 years, I've had a totally stable, rock-solid, perfect Audio environment on Linux. My main DAW is Linux-based, and completely stable. Best latency of any platform, to boot. So, just as a counterpoint, I'm guessing you're a Pulseaudio user ..
    - digi_owl 9y ago
      Nah, more a general observation of the CADT that is so painfully prevalent in Linux userspace...
- mmjaa 9y ago
  Thanks for the heads-up, that is indeed useful and interesting to know .. hadn't heard much of it, but I suppose its because A) my Linux DAW is rock solid and I don't need to change it much, and B) I'm an iOS/AVFoundation developer by day-job, so this is not on my radar as much as it should be. Therefore, I'm quite grateful for the introduction to Pipewire; its going to make a very interesting, Monday-morning/train-ride read .. ;)

by mmjaa 9y ago

baldfat 9y ago

> JACK = less fuss WHAT? That is crazy talk. JACK is the most complected audio setup I have ever worked with. I owned a Record Label and a small studio. If you have to setup JACK from scratch it can get crazy complicated. Once you get it working it is an AWESOME framework but I only would ever see people needing low latency to ever really use it. JACK is 100% for a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and it is for low latency. Pulse is for the rest. I have found that the legacy of a poor initial deployment has been a heavy chain around its neck just like KDE 4, RPM (for having an issue for a few months over 10 years ago) and now Systemd (Systemd had a fine performance roll-out but philosophy issues).

aleden 9y ago
Pulse has excellent integration with jackd: /usr/lib/pulse-11.1/modules/module-jack-sink.so /usr/lib/pulse-11.1/modules/module-jack-source.so /usr/lib/pulse-11.1/modules/module-jackdbus-detect.so I can use pavucontrol with ease to redirect an application's audio output (e.g. chromium's) to the jack sink. It's a painful process to accomplish the same thing without using pulseaudio, because you're going to have to mess with ALSA configuration files- and believe me, that's no fun at all.
mmjaa 9y ago
Honestly, I guess its because I chose my hardware wisely - i.e. I use only very well-supported hardware components (in my case, Presonus/BridgeCo.), where high-capacity, low-latency audio was sort of implemented on Linux first and then ported to the other platforms .. so I'm looking at a current Firewire- based rig of 2 19" racks, full of gear, summing up to 40+ channels of audio over a single cable to the main DAW controller running Ardour. In other words, I don't need no stinking' "game/consumer Audio", which is what Pulseaudio represents to me .. Therein lies the beauty, I guess, of Linux - and of F/OSS creative-tools, in general ..
- AsyncAwait 9y ago
  > Honestly, I guess its because I chose my hardware wisely In that case, you can also chose hardware that works well with PA, so I don't see JACKs benefit there. Also, I don't think they're equivalent in functionality.
  - mmjaa 9y ago
    Perhaps the point is that I set up jack for my system first, and Pulseaudio lags behind in terms of, jack is my dependency. However, its moot - this is not consumer audio. Its more, "studio production audio"...
katastic 9y ago
Yeah, so far, every time I've even TRIED to get Jack to work... I can't even get the damn thing started on my system. I've read numerous SO posts, tried numerous things (YES. I've shutoff PulseAudio first.), and it's still sitting in my list of "Eventual annoying things to keep spending time on to get working."
- baldfat 9y ago
  No idea why you were down voted. JACK is certainly a VERY hard thing to get working. Why were you trying to use JACK? http://jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html http://jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html

clouddrover 9y ago

> but I'll be darned if I'm going to ever try to use it again You probably won't have to. I think the long term plan is for Pipewire to replace PulseAudio (and be an alternative to JACK). Pipewire also does video. The initial release of Pipewire is video only with audio support to come: https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2017/09/19/launching-pipewire/ https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2017/09/19/launching-pipewire... http://pipewire.org/ http://pipewire.org/ https://github.com/PipeWire/pipewire https://github.com/PipeWire/pipewire

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
throwaway2048 9y ago
cant wait for another 10 years of broken linux audio. Why not fix what we have rather than yet another rewrite with all its attendant exciting bugs.
- mmjaa 9y ago
  For 15 years, I've had a totally stable, rock-solid, perfect Audio environment on Linux. My main DAW is Linux-based, and completely stable. Best latency of any platform, to boot. So, just as a counterpoint, I'm guessing you're a Pulseaudio user ..
  - digi_owl 9y ago
    Nah, more a general observation of the CADT that is so painfully prevalent in Linux userspace...
mmjaa 9y ago
Thanks for the heads-up, that is indeed useful and interesting to know .. hadn't heard much of it, but I suppose its because A) my Linux DAW is rock solid and I don't need to change it much, and B) I'm an iOS/AVFoundation developer by day-job, so this is not on my radar as much as it should be. Therefore, I'm quite grateful for the introduction to Pipewire; its going to make a very interesting, Monday-morning/train-ride read .. ;)