[PlanetCCRMA] [PlanetCCRMANews] the Planet lands on Fedora 10

[David Ford]

Hi Paul (and anyone else)

Paul Coccoli wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 2:13 PM, JOHN LYON <jalyon at shaw.ca> wrote:
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've been struggling looking for a solution to this problem:
>>
>> I have an NVidia GeForce 9500 GT video card
>>     (so I need to use nvidia drivers)
>> I want to use Ardour to do some multitrack recording.
>> I'd like to use a realtime kernel
>> I need to use X (obviously)
>> I need to use jack (obviously).
>> I'd like to be able to use my Frontier Tranzport (my recording area and control booth are in two different rooms).
>>
>> Right now I'm running CentOS, but I can re-install Fedora or any other Linux distro if need be.
>>
>> My problem is that I can't seem to find a combination of realtime kernel, nvidia driver, and X that works without hanging.  This has put me a couple of weeks behind schedule, and I just don't seem to have an answer.  I don't seem to have a problem when I don't use the realtime kernels.  But I see lots of xruns with jack. Which brings up another question.  Can I make some decent multitrack recordings WITHOUT using the realtime kernel (I"m using a Pentium D dual-core CPU running at roughly .2.8 gigahertz, 2 gig of RAM).   Or do I HAVE to have the realtime kernel.
>>
>> Has anyone solved this riddle already?  Or do I just have to bite the bullet and buy a Mac?  Or use Windows?
>>
>> I'm getting very tired to tweaking and experimenting, and I need to get back to playing music.
>>
>> Any help would be deeply appreciated.
>>
>> John
>>
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>>
>>     
>
> Do you really need low latency?  If you're only using ardour as a hard
> disk recorder, set your jack buffer size large enough (>= 1024 maybe?)
> so that the xruns disappear.  You only need low latency if you're
> doing something like software monitoring.
>   
So recording a track with jack/Ardour, playing it back while recording 
another track, and so on, then mixing it down to stereo, doesn't really 
need very low latency?
I have to admit that I just thought to record music you must have the 
lowest latency possible.
What sort of thing do I need to be doing to make full use of the low 
latency? (i.e. what is software monitoring exactly?)
Sorry if these are dumb questions!
And if I'm doing dumb questions: Why does Ardour engine always start in 
48K sample rate even when I've set jack and everything I can find to 
44K1? (Burning a CD and forgetting to convert 48 to 44.1 is my most 
common pastime!)
Thanks for any pointers.
David
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