In Wed, 25 Apr 2018 11:38:47 -0700 (PDT) Len Ovens <l...@ovenwerks.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Apr 2018, Philip Rhoades wrote: > > > I am not a professional LA user but I have regard for what serious > > LA users have to say. A post turned up on the Fedora XFCE list > > about removing xfce4-mixer for F29 - I responded with: > > > > "Every time I upgrade I immediately UNinstall PA and use ALSA only > > - so I still depend on xfce4-mixer . ." > > > > Someone replied that PA has greatly improved since the early days > > especially and "controlling streams separately is an added feature" > > - but I can do that with the .asoundrc I have now - are there any > > good reasons for me to reconsider the situation the next time I do > > a fresh install? (I realise I am likely to get biased comments > > here but I am not going to post on a PA list . .). > > Having some kind of ALSA mixer is still required. Pulse controls > levels as a mix of sound card and digital gain stage levels. You have > no way of knowing what it is really doing. This is great for desktop > use, absolutely useless for any kind of profesional use. Note that > input levels are worse as pulse uses a mix of input level, input/mic > boost (even on aux inputs) and digital gain stage. > > An interesting experiment is to run alsamixer and watch the audio > card control levels while adjusting pulse's one level control full > range. Input levels on the internal audio card will see the input > level go up then bounce to 0 as the boost is set up a notch then the > level goes up again, then down plus more boost. I have found that > each boost level has it's own unique noise that I can work around > with alsamixer that pulse tramples all over. > > Pulse offers no guaranty of any particular audio card being used for > sync or of any source not having SRC applied. > > Pulse offers no guaranty of no drop outs or stable latency. > > Pulse offers no guaranty that some other application (skype is > particularely bad) will not change your audio card levels for you. > > pulse makes a good audio front end for desktop applications so long > as Jackd is it's _only_ output. The Pulse-jackd bridge appears to be > set up as a client (using jack terms) rather than a device or back > end. This means that even when another device connected to pulse is > not being used for output, pulse continues to rely on it for sync :P > This means that jack free wheel will not work correctly if pulse has > a connection to any audio HW. For complemention, PA may be configured to run with jack sink/source, without alsa, udev, may be bluetooth - only necessary minimum. Not sure about PA resampler... Some examples could be found around in web (places like userquestions, stackexchange, etc). One question from me - is this enough to fix pulse->jack sync, including mentioned freewheel issue? > > I personally use jackdbus as my audio server, started at session > start. I use pulse as a desktop front end with the pulse-jack bridge, > but with the udev and alsa modules removed so that jackd is it's only > audio in/output. This means pulse does not ever control audio device > levels, and free wheel works correctly. > > Jack (or alsa direct) is the only way to do profesional audio is you > want bit perfect throughput. Pulse offers no such thing. I agree > pulseaudio has improved a whole lot, but it is no replacement for > jack or alsa direct. Alsa direct is great except if you want to be > able to mix two audio sources without stopping your proaudio > application. > > I have no comments on xfce4-mixer. I don't use it because I have an > ice1712 based card that has it's own much better control utility > (mudita24) and I find qasmixer (and it's extra tools) easier to use. > I also still use alsamix in a terminal because it is faster to access > in many cases :) > > So I am not of the "pulse must be removed" community, but I still > feel that pulse is a long way from usable in any kind of profesional > audio (or even semiprofesional) environment. I would even go so far > as to say it never will be because it's original design goal was as > an easy to use desktop application/server. The possibility to do > pro-audio would require starting over not patching. > > > -- > Len Ovens > www.ovenwerks.net > _______________________________________________ > Linux-audio-dev mailing list > Linux-audio-dev@lists.linuxaudio.org > https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-dev _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-dev mailing list Linux-audio-dev@lists.linuxaudio.org https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-dev
