Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Distributed audio processing
From: Ellis Breen (miminon_AT_hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Oct 06 2000 - 01:50:14 EEST
----- Original Message -----
From: Ellis Breen <miminon_AT_hotmail.com>
To: Benno Senoner <sbenno_AT_gardena.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2000 11:32 PM
Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Distributed audio processing
> (5msec "guaranteed" would be ideal, since it would allow us to run
> a MIDI synthesis engine on a beowulf cluster)
> :-)
I was thinking along similar lines actually, when I said "not the most
efficient", but my Slashdottian disdain kept me from mentioning Beo
clusters.
Obviously stacking streaming protocols on top of TCP/IP is suboptimal
(certainly nowhere near saturating our QoS requirements for networking over
modems) but I meant also that the total computational load
could be much more fairly spread. IIRC Beowulf clusters (apart from being
big scary things) require competing QoS standards, but there are certainly
big performance gains to be had from treating the network as a macroscopic
parallel computer. Maybe a functional programming paradigm (e.g. Parallel
Haskell) would be well-suited to the task. Perhaps you could employ some
neural
network style ideas to optimise performance with a scalable worst-case
overhead but I digress...
In my case I just intend to mix a few softsynth-derived audio signals
together with no particularly long audio/event chains, over a 100BT
LAN so 0.3ms latency really isn't too serious :-)
OTOH I am interested in Internet musical collaboration; I regularly
participate in jams on RocketNetwork but there are a few shortcomings
as the system stands - I'd like to see a more abstract way of exchanging
musical data without losing specificity, so softsynthesis is obviously
the way to go. According to an interview
(http://www.audiomedia.com/archive/features/uk-0900/uk-0900-newstalk/uk-0900
-newstalk.htm)
they reckon real-time collaboration is "never going to happen" but I'm not
so sure... There seems to be lots of evidence to the contrary :-)
It would be really cool if you could hook up with collaborators on the net
and pool all your resources.
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