Re: [LAU] good linux distros for audio

Hi all.

I have been following this thread and meant to add my own .02 units of
time and neural activity but was a bit swamped with work. I take this
opportunity because since Windblows is being dragged into the debate,
it's getting even more fun.

Disclaimer: I have never tried to use Windblows for pro audio.
I have been in recording studios that relied on windows and I have
seen frequent crashes and issues with audio latency, compatibility,
driver installation and reinstallation and stuff like that. Just last
night I went to see a friend's demo of a VJ system he's developing
which was delayed because of some video driver setting that was not
compatible with the projector. It took 2 hours of fiddling with XP to
get the demo going (including intricate tweaks and several reboots).
Far from user-friendly if you ask me. I have seen countless blue
screens of death in performances, art installations, studios, demo
kiosks, publicity panels etc.

The only time I used Windows for an installation where performance and
stability was an issue it had to be stripped down to a minimum,
offered a lot of RAM, etc. So basically we had a bare Windows XP
Professional system running only the components that were being used.
In that situation we have actually achieved the performance and
stability we required (but the machine still needs rebooting from time
to time in order to ensure perfect functioning). Since the computer
was dedicated to that installation it was not a big issue but it took
use quite a bit of effort to actually make it perform to our spec.

The only people that I have known to have stable and reliable Windows
system for audio and/or video were people who knew Windows inside-out
and performed the necessary tweaks (which often were very intricate)
to ensure the proper functioning. Also, having a dedicated windows
machine to do audio or video is a must. That's a waste of resources
if you ask me.

However, if you are referring to the fact that in windows you do not
need to hunt for video codecs or perform separate flash installation
to watch youtube, then feel free to disregard the above rant.

Now, on to Linux. I have been using Ubuntu for the past couple of
years and I have been generally happy with it. I was running 7.10
until around November or December last year. All was fine, including
-rt kernel and low latency performance. I moved on to 8.04 and
that's when my problems started. Lots of problems with -rt kernel.
The vanilla kernel unusable for realtime audio work. I upgraded to
8.10. Bunch of other problems (bluetooth stopped working, file
sharing with XP stopped working, bunch of other annoying little
problems) greeted me every day. Some of them have been corrected and
I am slowly getting back to a usable system. The -rt kernel (again
from ubuntustidio, IIRC) was total mess. I decided to give vanilla a
run. I am now running a kernel identified as 2.6.27-11-generic #1
SMP. I run jack with 11.6 ms latency, this was the best setting I
could come up with in 44.1 kHz. It's good enough for me right now. I
get an occasional xrun but no more that 3-4 a day and most of the time
they happen when loading or closing applications (or surfing the net
with firefox). I have been able to run Pd, process multichannel audio
(2-4), and simultaneously record 4-6 tracks into ardour. no glitches.
 All this on a CoreDuo 1.8G laptop. I do not do any overdubs so I
don't know if my setup would be sufficient for a typical studio use.

I seem to be the only other user (besides Jostein Chr. Andersen) who
is satisfied with Ubuntu (vanilla kernel in my case!) as an audio
platform. I am not satisfied with it as a desktop, however, it is
beginning to feel like windows, but I am biased (hey, I have been
using linux since 1997 and developed nasty habits such as typing
commands into the terminal window and editing configuration files by
hand. I still find it weird to configure stuff with a GUI, sometimes
even annoying). I run xfce or awesome anyways so I don't get to see
most of the GNOME bloat.

So, why is it that vanilla kernel works for me and nobody else? Have
I done something wrong?

./MiS

On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 11:25 AM, mikk <michiel33@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
> Who can explain to me why it seems to be so hard to get a stable audio and
> video environment in Linux (not requiring recompilations and intricate
> tweaks) while this problem seems to have been solved quite satisfactorily in
> Windows? What is the fundamental reason for this?
>
> Michiel
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-audio-user mailing list
> Linux-audio-user@email-addr-hidden
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
>
>

-- 
./MiS
514-344-0726
http://www.creazone.ca
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