Re: [linux-audio-dev] Re: disksampler ...

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Re: disksampler ...
From: Kai Vehmanen (kaiv_AT_wakkanet.fi)
Date: Fri Jul 14 2000 - 02:48:25 EEST


On Thu, 13 Jul 2000, Benno Senoner wrote:

> regarding the soundserver war I am still standing to my opinion:
> general purpose soundserver will not cover the needs of high-end audio
> applications, and it doesn't make sense to wait forever until the
> "holy grail" soundserver is found , which fits all possible scenarios.
[...]
> So let KDE use arts and GNOME esound, but
> high-end applications eg: a low-latency softsampler/synth which communicates

It sounds like you haven't even tried aRts...? You aren't really being
fair comparing esound and aRts. Esound was made for generic purposes as
far as I know, but aRts (Analog RealTime Synthesizer!) has a different
background. It is going to be KDE's soundserver, but it was not designed
for mixing occasional pling-plong sounds when you are opening your
windows. Give Stefan's efforts a little credit, please.

I admit that there might (and probably will be) problems in using any
existing soundserver. But you can always fix and tune things, as long as
the basic design is good enough.

This reminds me of LADSPA development. We managed to keep it
simple-and-stupid, and now we have a plugin API. Many said, that
development will continue, and we will see LADSPA-v2. Ok, this will
probably happen, but as we all know, nothing has happened yet. I think
this is the reason why we should try to develop the current designs rather
than start from scrath. Developing a non-trivial project always takes
time. The sampler-sw project is a different thing, as we don't have any
existing (free) implementations at our use.

And as for the high-end <-> low-end separation, I just don't see much
sense in it. Developers can do what they want, but I as a user,
want all my apps to work without clitches. And surpring or not, many "low-end" toy
programs are much more suitable for creative use than these "professional
apps". It's a damn shame if a program has latency problems, but if it
produces nice sounds, I'll still use it - one way or another.
 
So, what I suggest now:

- specify our requirements for the soundserver (*)
- check the current status of aRts, esd, X-audio, etc
- list things that have to be fixed
- make a decision whether to use an existing soundserver or
  start a new project

(*) I guess these are clear...:

> If he disagrees then he has to show me that he has an alternative to
> run serveral concurrent apps with 2-3msec latency at the same time and without
> ANY dropout during heavy load.

PS Just to make sure, I don't use KDE or GNOME, and I've just started to
   use aRts. So no strings attached.. ;)

-- 
Kai Vehmanen <k_AT_eca.cx> ---------------- CS, University of Turku .
 . audio software for linux .. http://www.eca.cx 		 .
 . armchair-tunes mp3/wav/ra . http://www.wakkanet.fi/sculpscape .


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