Re: [LAU] Arch Wiki Professional_audio

From: Len Ovens <len@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Thu Mar 30 2017 - 18:57:51 EEST

On Thu, 30 Mar 2017, Ralf Mardorf wrote:

> On Thu, 30 Mar 2017 11:07:35 -0400, Robert Edge wrote:
>> Latencies between 1ms and 5ms are ABSOLUTELY wide spread values in pro
>> audio.
>
> Not in my experiences, but ok, then we simply don't remove it from the
> Wiki. Should we stay with the Wiki as is, or are there at least a few
> other points we should edit?

Then people should be aware that using most USB audio interfaces on a PC
originally made for windows is not a pro audio solution... at least not in
a plug and play manner. Loading Linux on such a box will allow one to
trouble shoot at least and adding an extra USB card in the right slot on a
mother board without too many bells and whistles (always choose a MB with
the full 7 slots to give lots of choices). So yes things can be tweaked to
do well but in the end PCs are designed by people whos concept of "low
latency" is 30 ms.

Also remember latency as given by qjackctl is only one way through jack.
It does not include latency introduced by the ADC/DAC for example. My
Delta66 spec is 1ms through the ADC and internal mixer either direction
(no I haven't measured it). This means that even though I can (if I hold
my mouth right) get it to run on jack with 16/2 (qjackctl calls this .66ms
at 48k) the actual round trip time (mic to speaker) is at least 3.5ms.
Very few audio interfaces can run at 16/2 though 32/2 is more common
(> 4.66ms). When I say "can run at" in a pro audio context that means no
xruns. So special kernel, cron off, hyperthread off, audio IF has it's own
irq, no wifi, non-intel USB port (if using USB IF), stable cpu speed, no
pulse-jack bridge...

In any case, in the Linux world as represented by the emails in this list
and the few irc channels I watch, 64/2 with a round trip latency of over
5ms (7.33ms on the delta44/66/1010 for example and I have a USB no mixing
IF that claims .65ms codec delay so 6.65ms) is about the lowest people
seem to achive in a stable manner. Many people run 128/2 and at least one
of my internal HDA (not pro at all) will not run jack with 64/2 at all
(jack crashes).

PCs are not designed for low latency audio, getting it means selecting
each part of that PC with care and a willingness to buy another if the new
one you just got has a problem. PCs are designed for high throughput and
really so is the generic Linux kernel.

--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net
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Received on Thu Mar 30 20:15:05 2017

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