Ubuntu Studio Linux

[rd2rk]

52 minutes ago, duncann said:

 

Lol. Chilled monkey brains anyone?

 

 

Too much latency even for me!

 

[gunpointmetal]

On 12/8/2018 at 9:20 AM, christroiani1 said:

I'm with you, JCPAtter.  I had lots of latency in Windows and tried everything. I reinstalled the OS, disabled all unnecessary services and startup processes, etc. and then gave up.  About five years ago, I did two things. I bought a Zoom R24 for direct recording and also went to Ubuntu Studio with the Ardor DAW.  I run it on a crappy old laptop and I have no noticeable latency.  Windows users, give up your fruitless and frustrating struggles to reduce latency and use Ubuntu Studio :)

What hardware are you using to track in Ardour? 

[zolko60]

My quirk post was a joke (as I stated) but I found Jens from Hamburg who claims he has made it:
 

Hi, me again

In between i got the line6 helix working fine with a hack, which is to 
set an arbitray rate i have readout from another interface on the same 
bus. This works reliable so far, no more clicks, no xruns over several 
hours. There must be som magic to get the true usbrate from this device, 
but i did no fond a way yet, so my hack is more something unique for my 
working situation.

I also tried to get the implicite feeback from the capture interface to 
the pb interface to get a proper sync_ep, but still the rate is plain stiff.

Another problem is the mixer, which should be a plain passthrough. Cause 
ctrl interface is somewhat broken pure alsa does not work, but jack can 
create the device just fine.

I attach below the lsusb dump from the helix + my hack and the resulting 
working proc for further investigation.

Any ideas and voodoo is welcome.

Cheers ... Jens

https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/10113121/

[gunpointmetal]

Every Linux/Ubuntu thread I've ever seen I've asked what hardware people are using to track with Ardour nobody ever answers me.

[jonandtice]

On 12/10/2018 at 10:21 AM, gunpointmetal said:

What hardware are you using to track in Ardour? 

 

1 hour ago, gunpointmetal said:

Every Linux/Ubuntu thread I've ever seen I've asked what hardware people are using to track with Ardour nobody ever answers me.

Why do you want to know?  I use a Lexicon Alpha.

[jonandtice]

1 hour ago, zolko60 said:

My quirk post was a joke (as I stated) but I found Jens from Hamburg who claims he has made it:
 

Hi, me again

In between i got the line6 helix working fine with a hack, which is to 
set an arbitray rate i have readout from another interface on the same 
bus. This works reliable so far, no more clicks, no xruns over several 
hours. There must be som magic to get the true usbrate from this device, 
but i did no fond a way yet, so my hack is more something unique for my 
working situation.

I also tried to get the implicite feeback from the capture interface to 
the pb interface to get a proper sync_ep, but still the rate is plain stiff.

Another problem is the mixer, which should be a plain passthrough. Cause 
ctrl interface is somewhat broken pure alsa does not work, but jack can 
create the device just fine.

I attach below the lsusb dump from the helix + my hack and the resulting 
working proc for further investigation.

Any ideas and voodoo is welcome.

Cheers ... Jens

https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/10113121/

Eventually someone will have it worked out and merged into the kernel for everyone to enjoy.  By the time that happens we will be on Helix firmware version 4.5.

[gunpointmetal]

3 minutes ago, jonandtice said:

 

Why do you want to know?  I use a Lexicon Alpha.

Because I keep hearing about how amazing Ardour is from people using it, but then when I ask what hardware they're tracking with they usually tell me nothing, or they are recording onto an external hard disk dedicated recorder and dumping into Ardour for mixing editing. I've tried the Windows port and it seemed like a cool program, but had some issues with Windows that made it unreliable and at the time there had to be a wrapper for regular VST/VSTis and it killed the workflow. I'm curious about what hardware actually works reliably with it because I would love to get away from the Windows/Mac tethers, but I'm not really interested in using 10 year old hardware or writing my own code to get something to work that just works when I plug it in with my current rig. Do they even still make that interface?

[TheRealZap]

I could have sworn someone necroposted a thread from 1997...  nope! 

[zolko60]

On 12/11/2018 at 10:28 PM, jonandtice said:

Eventually someone will have it worked out and merged into the kernel for everyone to enjoy.  By the time that happens we will be on Helix firmware version 4.5.

I thought compiling the kernel is just regular skill of every Ubuntu user.

[christroiani1]

  I use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 with Ardour and Ubuntu Studio.  An aside - the only bummer about the Focusrite S 2i2 that I have at least is that it HAS to be plugged into a PC USB port in order to power it, even if, for example you want to just use the mic preamps live.  Wonder how Focusrite preamps would compare to the Helix mic preamp effect block?  I've never considered using the Helix as a USB audio interface but I do use it to make my coffee.  Is there anything it CAN'T do..

  I use a Zoom R24 w/o a computer for basic recording.  8 inputs, no noticeable latency, no system configurations, and two condenser mics that I can easily use to record live drums or multi track simple acoustic guitar and vocal parts.  A little primitive and a bit awkward to use when it comes to adding effects, but you can always move the WAV to a PC and use Audacity or whatever on it. 

[gunpointmetal]

13 hours ago, christroiani1 said:

  I use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 with Ardour and Ubuntu Studio. 

Did you have to do much work in Ubuntu to get that to work, or was it plug and play? 

[hideout]

19 hours ago, christroiani1 said:

An aside - the only bummer about the Focusrite S 2i2 that I have at least is that it HAS to be plugged into a PC USB port in order to power it, even if, for example you want to just use the mic preamps live. 

 

I wonder if you could power it with a USB charger?  Have you tried that?

[christroiani1]

I have tried a USB charger.  The version that I have unfortunately can only be powered by usb computer connections.  I called the company about it at some point and they confirmed.

[hideout]

Dang. Seems a bit limiting. 

[christroiani1]

gunpointmetal, regarding focusrite and ubuntu, it's been a while but as I recall it was pretty much plug and play.  I relied on the following link for guidance:

 

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio/SupportedHardware

 

[zolko60]

 

[3rdear]

On 12/5/2018 at 8:27 PM, cruisinon2 said:

 

Just trying to be emphatic ;)....I want stuff that's easy to use, too... and I certainly don't claim to be a genius. But the sad truth is there are a whole lot of people roaming around out there, for whom using a Linux system would produce nothing but a blank stare. That's why it'll never sell, and is also what Linux proponents don't seem to grasp... they think that because they understand it, and enjoy the process of making machines bend to their will, that everyone else is similarly capable,  and willing to spend the time doing so. That just ain't the case...

 

 

What's funny about this response is that it's a red herring. Users of Mac will use software compiled for Mac. Users of Windows will use software compilied for Windows. Users of Linux will use software compiled for Linux. Users who would look at Linux with a blank stare wouldn't be using Linux software, but those who don't look at Linux with a blank stare would be. The argument is a distraction. I happen to use all three operating systems, but go to Linux and Mac first. What's also interesting is how much like Linux Mac is under the hood, but I doubt most of you Mac users have actually opened a terminal window to notice. At the very least, Line 6 could expose the underlying Helix core functionality to Linux developers so that Linux software to work with Helix can be developed. THAT is how you leverage the open source community! If Line 6 did that, I can almost guarantee that HeNIX Edit would arrive on the scene for people like me and the OP, possibly having solved problems we already wanted solved, and or a new feature set to solve problems we don't even know we have yet that the proprietary software doesn't support. That is also the beauty of open source. We have a whole world of devs at our finger tips. Line 6 only has who they employ.

[rd2rk]

33 minutes ago, 3rdear said:

At the very least, Line 6 could expose the underlying Helix core functionality to Linux developers so that Linux software to work with Helix can be developed. THAT is how you leverage the open source community!

 

Oh, yeah, I'm sure they're going to risk their IP to leverage <>3% of the PC user base. Uh-huh.

 

The rest of your post is the same sort of mis-direction that you accuse cruisinon2 of. The reason so few people use Linux is not JUST that modern PC users don't know, and don't WANT to know, what to do with a command line. It's that there are so few applications that work across all distros without the NEED for command line intervention. And the reason for THAT is that THERE'S NO MONEY IN OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPMENT! Sure, there's a few success stories. But Linux is still a geek's hobby horse. Until they fix that and settle on some standards, it always will be.

 

The ultimate irony would be if Microsoft's current interest in Linux leads to the solution.......

[gunpointmetal]

Yeah, I wouldn't just pass my source code out to the open-source community for such a tiny number of users. Outside of server applications Linux is hobby for most of its users who find some joy in having to fix problems, lol. 

[lungho]

2 hours ago, 3rdear said:

That is also the beauty of open source. We have a whole world of devs

 

That is also the beauty of open source. We have a whole world of software and hardware incompatibilities.

 

Fixed that for you.

[cruisinon2]

5 hours ago, 3rdear said:

 

What's funny about this response is that it's a red herring. Users of Mac will use software compiled for Mac. Users of Windows will use software compilied for Windows. Users of Linux will use software compiled for Linux. Users who would look at Linux with a blank stare wouldn't be using Linux software, but those who don't look at Linux with a blank stare would be. The argument is a distraction. I happen to use all three operating systems, but go to Linux and Mac first. What's also interesting is how much like Linux Mac is under the hood, but I doubt most of you Mac users have actually opened a terminal window to notice. At the very least, Line 6 could expose the underlying Helix core functionality to Linux developers so that Linux software to work with Helix can be developed. THAT is how you leverage the open source community! If Line 6 did that, I can almost guarantee that HeNIX Edit would arrive on the scene for people like me and the OP, possibly having solved problems we already wanted solved, and or a new feature set to solve problems we don't even know we have yet that the proprietary software doesn't support. That is also the beauty of open source. We have a whole world of devs at our finger tips. Line 6 only has who they employ.

 

Not sure why I'm bothering to respond, as I don't think I can improve on the 3 guys who already beat me to it... but here goes:  If you want to spend hours on end trying to get the editor to work again every time there's a firmware update, more power to you. I don't have that kinda free time...