Ubuntu, Firewire and Music

[Thad E Ginathom]

I am now working with Ubuntu 11.04, with the addition of KX-Studio and using 2.6.38-8-lowlatency kernel.

For firewire support it is necessary to add libffado2, ffado-dbus-server, jackd-firewire, ffado-mixer-qt4, ffado-tools. Make sure to have the KXStudio version of jackd-firewire.

For the past few weeks I have been using this just like any other soundcard. It just works. I have digitised a couple of LPs, too: recording is also good. Xruns (buffer over-/under-runs, the pain of Jackd) stand almost permanently at zero, whatever else I am using the machine for at the same time. It is 99% stable, and the other 1% is an occasional stoppage of Jack, and two minutes of reboot is time better spent than trying to coax it back to life. The only negative is that I seem to have lost it with Wine, and I have to confess having chosen to boot XP to record using Cool Edit Pro. There is no problem recording on Ubuntu with Audacity.

The next line is especially for Google. Ubuntu Forewire Audio seems to be a minority interest, and I've noticed Google picking up my posts sometimes...

Ubuntu, with KXStudio works very nicely with Firewire Audio, at least with the Echo Audio AudioFire2 interface that I have.

:yahoo:

I have not bothered to try for minimum latency, as it is something that really does not matter to me, or to anyone else who is primarily doing playback, or even recording if they are not overlaying tracks

Unused/untested: the SPDIF digital i/o and the MIDI capabilities of the unit. I am using the analogue (Balanced) i/o* and the headphone out.

Apart from Wine, which I'm not too bothered about for now, this is, I'm happy to say, no longer a research/ordeal --- I am now just enjoying the music

As an aside, I have now settled on Aqualung as my standard audio player. VLC, and a number of other Linux players, will not do gapless playback, which is fine if all your albumshave gaps between the tracks, but useless if, as in live performance or classical, they do not. It looks simple, but is actually quite powerful.


*No, I do not plan on any additional dac. I'd spend money on upgrading the monitor speakers first. As the sort of thing I'd like to have is considerably more expensive than what I do have, I don't think it will happen.

Oh... but a new phono stage (Musical Fidelity V-LPS II) is on the way, for the vinyl digitising
.

 

[gobble]

For the past few weeks I have been using this just like any other soundcard. It just works. I have digitised a couple of LPs, too:
...

Congratulations!! A first post on HFV where you reported that everything just appears to work!! :clapping:

The only negative is that I seem to have lost it with Wine, and I have to confess having chosen to boot XP to record using Cool Edit Pro. There is no problem recording on Ubuntu with Audacity.

Didnt getit. So do you prefer CoolEdit or Audacity? Which one of these has the crackle and pop remover btw?

As an aside, I have now settled on Aqualung as my standard audio player. VLC, and a number of other Linux players, will not do gapless playback, which is fine if all your albumshave gaps between the tracks, but useless if, as in live performance or classical, they do not. It looks simple, but is actually quite powerful.

I always prefer a few moments of digestive silence after the previous track to allow the mood of the song to linger and settle itself. This is particularly true of Kutcheri recordings where I even relish the water drinking / throat clearing break or where the violinist or mridangamist is tuning their gear.

Oh... but a new phono stage (Musical Fidelity V-LPS II) is on the way, for the vinyl digitising
.

I hope you are using 24/192 for digitizing LPs? Why another Phono for just recording? You already have a studio recording card ...

--G0bble

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Congratulations!! A first post on HFV where you reported that everything just appears to work!! :clapping:

I'm think of celebrating --- with some new fans!

Didnt getit. So do you prefer CoolEdit or Audacity? Which one of these has the crackle and pop remover btw?

I much prefer Cool Edit.

Audacity, mind you, will do just about everything. It even has a built-in RIAA-curve eq which does an excellent job.

Digging a little deeper, though, Cool Edit is better at stuff like noise reduction and click/pop removal. And ... I just prefer the way it works. Probably because I'm used to it.

I always prefer a few moments of digestive silence after the previous track to allow the mood of the song to linger and settle itself. This is particularly true of Kutcheri recordings where I even relish the water drinking / throat clearing break or where the violinist or mridangamist is tuning their gear.

It doesn't run the tracks together if they have silences. It plays them just like the CD player would. It's just that when, in a symphony, for instance, it doesn't break the sound when a track change is just there to refer you to the notes --- it plays just like the CD would. Or like Foobar would. Or like any reasonable, half-decent media player would.

I hope you are using 24/192 for digitizing LPs? Why another Phono for just recording? You already have a studio recording card ...

I don't think the Grateful Dead need my copies of their vinyl for the archives. I'm working at 48,000, 32-bit. 44.1/16 would certainly exceed my hearing range, so I think it's a conservative choice. Of course, I'll never be able to show anyone a frequency graph showing something happening at 50khz ...

 

[manoj.p]

Very cool, Thad. Your patience and perseverance paid off. Enjoy the music.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Like so many things in my professional and personal life with computers, the answer was not difficult, but it was trying everything else first that took the time and caused the pain.

Now I have to find something else to occupy the brain. Hey, it's linux, I only have to start fiddling with something

 

[hydra]

All's well that ends well, huh? Congrats on getting it all working, and that too to your satisfaction!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Cheers

Whilst I wish that more people would explore audio and Linux, I don't think anybody would go down this particular path without a wish to play with and explore Linux itself --- which is, of course, a very different thing to wanting to listen to music.

Let me reiterate, though, that, whilst not every company rushes to support Linux like they do Windows (the commercial reasons are obvious; the practical reasons of diversity also have to be admitted), between the companies that do, and those that just hack anyway, there is a lot of support for PCI and USB devices.

 

[Bluu]

Congrats Nick!

Can I request you to post a couple of screen-shots of what the media player looks like?

I work on RHEL5 all day but I have no technical knowledge of Linux. This probably sounds weird but it's because I'm an artist

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

It's my general PC, Bluu: a Gigabyte MB (integrated graphics) with AMD chip in an Antec P183 case. The "coolest" thing on the inside is the massive Noctua CPU cooler, with its two 140mm fans

The interface is this one: Echo Audio Audiofire2.

It is a tribute to Red Hat Linux that you can work on it all day without technical knowledge of it. That is how it should be. As a self-taught Unix Systems Manager, I had a lot of interest in learning all that stuff --- but I forgot most of it again, over the past few years of not using it.

 

[Bluu]

Er, I meant a screen-shot of the software you're using to play the music.

About RHEL 5, DreamWorks employs a lot of people to massage the OS so we artists can get by with just a basic knowledge of it. In fact, I know nothing about Linux itself. Rather, I know and use a ton of proprietary commands to help me do my job.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Er, I meant a screen-shot of the software you're using to play the music.

!

Aqualung screen shots

The default skin is plain: the others are ugly!

 

[cha_indian]

One thing i noticed with Ubuntu 11.10 is that system becomes very noisy (probably due to increased processor fan speed) after some time. Is that everyone faces or is it only my machine ?

Win 7 runs silent.... occasionally the CPU fan goes crazy but 90% of the time it is very quite when compared to Ubuntu. One thing i miss in Ubuntu is a easy way to access installed applications.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'm sticking with 11.04, and no intention of upgrading. In some ways, I am regretting Ubuntu as my Linux-of-choice. The developer of KXStudio is going to focus on 12.04, but I am not interested in moving away from the basic menu+WIPMS, and would preferably remain with Gnome2/Compiz, as I have so very many comfortable customisations.

I don't know 11.10; I don't know W7, but it seems odd that Ubuntu should stress your processor more than Windows does. On my Gnome2 panel, I have an app called CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor. My CPU is almost always at 25% only.

My CPU fan is under BIOS control. It is a biggie, so it could run a lot faster than it does and still not make noise. I have one fan under Ubuntu fancontrol control; it is a tricky thing to set up, though. I wouldn't trust the CPU itself to anything else but the BIOS.