Page 1 of 1

Can somebody demystify JACK for me?

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:45 am
by davidgray
Honestly I think just a eli5 overview would help make sense of this stuff to me.. I freshly installed Ubuntu Studio, but cant get sound output in Ardour 5... the only thing I can think of is JACK is configured incorrectly.. also I noticed I get far more xruns and system lock ups when jamming vs when i was using just basic ubuntu 18.04. How can I troubleshoot this? Eventually I want a mini home studio I'm almost there yet still very far away it seems.. I cant really find any kind of tutorial for ardour 5 either the learning curve seems way steeper than I anticipated.. does a midi track get configured in JACK even if I'm using a plugin and not a physical instrument? Sorry I'm a noob I just wanna make songs. Anything helps thanks

Re: Can somebody demystify JACK for me?

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 9:26 am
by rghvdberg

Re: Can somebody demystify JACK for me?

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 5:24 pm
by Michael Willis
Maybe the first thing to determine is whether you really need JACK. Paul Davis (the original developer of JACK and the primary developer of Ardour) now recommends that people use Ardour5 with ALSA instead of JACK, unless there is a specific reason to use JACK.

The short story about why you would use JACK over ALSA is that JACK allows you to route signals to multiple applications. If you are able to do everything you need using plugins within Ardour, then try using Ardour without JACK.

Re: Can somebody demystify JACK for me?

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:18 pm
by khz
Possibly helpful.

Re: Can somebody demystify JACK for me?

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:44 pm
by ufug
Michael Willis wrote:Maybe the first thing to determine is whether you really need JACK. Paul Davis (the original developer of JACK and the primary developer of Ardour) now recommends that people use Ardour5 with ALSA instead of JACK, unless there is a specific reason to use JACK.
Michael is right on with this, and it seems like lots of people are not hip to it.

If you are only working in Ardour (or derivative Mixbus), just don't bother with JACK. With some certainty it's safe to say ALSA is already running on any given Linux desktop. Just start up Ardour. You have the option to select JACK or ALSA when you start a new session. You can also disconnect and reconnect to either in an open session.

Re: Can somebody demystify JACK for me?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 3:27 am
by glowrak guy
Michael Willis wrote:Maybe the first thing to determine is whether you really need JACK. Paul Davis (the original developer of JACK and the primary developer of Ardour) now recommends that people use Ardour5 with ALSA instead of JACK, unless there is a specific reason to use JACK.

The short story about why you would use JACK over ALSA is that JACK allows you to route signals to multiple applications. If you are able to do everything you need using plugins within Ardour, then try using Ardour without JACK.
There are worlds of specific reasons to use jackd. If one only uses Ardour, and Ardour compatible plugins, and only in alsa,
the liklihood is that one will have a very short-sighted frame of reference, and miss many of the great musical opportunities freely,
or inexpensively available.

Some excellent linux audio apps are jackd standalones, or optionally standalone, and the short jackd learning curve
makes them available in a variety of ways, well worth using. But you know all that, as does Paul Davis.
I would hope new linux users would embrace and implement the freedom on offer, and reject exclusivity.
Cheers

Re: Can somebody demystify JACK for me?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:03 am
by khz
For example, if you use Ardour only with ALSA, you can use carla-bridge for external programs. https://kx.studio/News/?action=view&url ... a6-is-here

Re: Can somebody demystify JACK for me?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:24 am
by tramp
ufug wrote:If you are only working in Ardour (or derivative Mixbus), just don't bother with JACK.
Ardour, is just a small part of the LinuxAudio eco system. To begin with, this advice may be valid, but, at least, when doing some more advanced stuff, you can't go around jackd. Sooner or later you need to demystify JACK in order to get stuff done.
glowrak guy wrote:There are worlds of specific reasons to use jackd.
Exact.

Re: Can somebody demystify JACK for me?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 3:07 pm
by merlyn
The trend in the wider computer audio world is to use everything as a plugin. For example VCV Rack is available as a standalone app that works perfectly well. The developer is working on VCV Rack for DAWs, which is a plugin, and people want that for some reason. It's a mindset.

When did a DAW become software? The term digital audio workstation used to refer to hardware. Your DAW was a computer with an audio interface and a range of software for all the different audio tasks. Now a DAW is software which implies that only one piece of software is being run.

I know people who use Windows for music production. They don't really use Windows -- they use Ableton. They hardly ever see Windows. They boot up and click on the Ableton icon. Windows is an inconvenience getting in the way of Ableton. Ableton can do everything -- file browsing, plugins. Their operating system is effectively Ableton. This mindset means the concept of the operating system being able to do anything is alien.

I don't think it's a good thing, but it's a thing. It's like someone strumming open chords on a guitar. You could go up to them and say "You know you can do so much more with that". They're probably quite happy strumming open chords. :D

Re: Can somebody demystify JACK for me?

Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 12:55 am
by channelite
https://youtu.be/E6LuvdDEqCA

This video helped me get set up.