Use Alsa + Jack instead of Pulseaudio

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asbak
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Use Alsa + Jack instead of Pulseaudio

Post by asbak »

Pulseaudio's OK for consumer / multimedia purposes but it's not ideal to have around when using jack, even though it is possible to redirect Pulse to jack. It's a bit CPU inefficient and there's some latency.

A workaround is to use Alsa instead. The problem is that Alsa grabs the existing audiodevice and locks additional applications out unless measures are taken to circumvent this. One way is to use a loopback device ie a virtual audiocard and to then redirect audio to and from it, and eventually back to or from alsa using *alsa_out and *alsa_in plugins.
Last edited by asbak on Mon Feb 15, 2016 8:15 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
Bree
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Re: Use Alsa + Jack instead of Pulseaudio

Post by Bree »

Thank-you for posting this:) You mentioned this is not ideal with Jackdbus. I have UbuntuStudio 14.04 installed, Jackdbus is enabled, and use some of the packages from the KX Repos -- especially Carla. Does this mean I need to reconfigure the system, and if so ... how is that done?
asbak
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Re: Use Alsa + Jack instead of Pulseaudio

Post by asbak »

I think KXStudio / Cadence may already have some mechanism which does something similar, I don't know for sure. So there may be some reconfiguring involved on such a system which isn't covered in my original post.

Applying this procedure to a 'Linux Audio Production distro' may cause issues unless you understand how that distro works and make the necessary changes or use the components in a suitable way. What those may be, I don't know. You'd have to experiment or ask for support from the suppliers.

This howto applies more to 'vanilla' Linux distributions. It will work on KXStudio as long as one understands how to reconfigure things if and where necessary. And that's not something covered in the original post.
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
Bree
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Re: Use Alsa + Jack instead of Pulseaudio

Post by Bree »

Thank-you for the quick response:) I'm glad I didn't jump the gun. Guess I have some homework in store:)
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