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Post by Zi on Feb 8, 2023 11:14:33 GMT
I promised to gripe about Ardour so here goes. As of today, I'm on Linux Ubuntu 22.10 Gnome 43.1- my system will auto-update to any latest version of anything because I like living dangerously. In the past I've used Audacity and it's been fine. I haven't recorded anything for years and if I do, it's just me so it hasn't interested me much. However, I have recently installed Ardour and I can't get the thing to function properly. It can record its own internal metronome and play that back but it won't pick up sound externally. It thinks I'm using ALSA which actually the latest versions of Linux by-pass in favour of Pulseaudio (which sits on top of ALSA and is a bit friendlier) but whatever I ask it to use it still can't record. My system is a little more complex than usual in that I have two sets of speakers which I can switch between. This is a legacy from when there were issues with sound and Skyrim (a game I play). The updated version of Skyrim used an unusual sound set up so one set of speakers had issues with it, so I attached the second. On Linux basically the game doesn't run directly, it has to be piped through other software in order to pretend that it's running on Windows so that can cause some very exciting side-effects. I'm sure that Ardour is brilliant - it's a complete sound studio - but it won't play with me. I probably wouldn't ever use it because Audacity works to the kind of level I want but when software refuses to play with me I get a bit obsessed...  Anyway, what do other people use and why? Perfect and gripe-ridden software allowed!  |
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Post by pavane on Feb 8, 2023 11:46:38 GMT
I am an absolute amateur with all this stuff but what I think is: you need to use it with Jack because that deals with the routing of sound via alsa/pulse/whatever the new system is called (and I think Ubuntu has that).
In a way, all that does is move the problem back a notch (Linux should have one of those recursive names, given that using it is like working through an infinite recursion) because then you have to deal with Jack. This is why I'm using Ubuntu Studio, you get a nice easy Jack manager with it. You can install selected parts of Ubuntu Studio on top of any Ubuntu distro just like any other software - there is an installer on the US home page that does it all for you, and then everything updates automatically along with the rest of the system.
If you don't want to risk messing up what already works (I presume you're using Wine or something similar to get the games to work?) then I have found it works absolutely fine from a USB3 flash drive, or just a spare old hdd that you might be able to fit in your case somewhere. US seems to me to be the easiest linux to do this sort of thing on but there are some other dedicated systems, all of which would run seperately. Lots of help on Linux Musicians - some of the members are maintainers of systems specially designed for audio processing.
Ardour is definitely trickier to use than Audacity, but you can master the basics in an afternoon after which it will do such a huge range of things that Audacity won't that it will (probably!) seem worth the effort!
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Post by Zi on Feb 8, 2023 12:18:37 GMT
I use Wine and Steam uses Proton which uses Wine. My version of Wine is rock solid and has allowed me to do all kinds of things that some people are struggling with... In fact, the games that require Windows have no idea they aren't on Windows. A game editor had a whine yesterday because Steam separates the game executables from the saves so it couldn't operate without all the bits. I could have made some links but instead I copied the whole caboodle onto the desk top and it thought it was great! Edited the game and stuck it back... it was none the wiser... I love it when they say: NOT TESTED ON LINUX! Or even better WILL NOT RUN ON LINUX!  But using US would mean testing whether or not it is possible to simply replace my OS with a new one... it has been set up to do that (it has its own drive) but so far it hasn't been tested to destruction... And it's tempting. I do love getting things to work but the idea of starting again with Skyrim and its zillion mods must give me pause... like Hamlet... I might just stick US on the music-room PC and see what the difference is... getting Skyrim set up again would require about a day - realistically... then there's a few other games which can be tetchy and I play sometimes... Ardour can see Jack too - I'd never hear of it so I had to look it up. I tried that as a setting as well. It's a strange beast Ardour. I get the impression it's been put together by people who really understand the editing of music side but the interfacing is ummmm a bit squiffy. This is a technical term used by people obsessed with interfaces! Hmmmm - this needs some thinking.... |
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Post by Zi on Feb 8, 2023 12:31:54 GMT
Downloading Jammy Jellyfish - however, we have the electricity company coming today to install a new meter so I suspect I won't get it downloaded before then and realistically it's probably an evening thing. It needs two and a half hours at least here!
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Post by pavane on Feb 8, 2023 14:09:17 GMT
Wow, that's terrible - we are in the middle of nowhere and I downloaded the latest kubuntu yesterday with a view to trying in on the entertainment computer and it downloaded in about 2 minutes.
I know what you mean about Ardour but I think it's similar to alternatives that do the same thing, so presumably they are all sound rather than interface oriented.
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Post by Zi on Feb 8, 2023 14:35:17 GMT
Wow, that's terrible - we are in the middle of nowhere and I downloaded the latest kubuntu yesterday with a view to trying in on the entertainment computer and it downloaded in about 2 minutes. Ummm obviously someone doesn't think you are in the middle of nowhere! The guy from EDF turned up and fitted a new meter to replace the one that was broken and switched off the power so I have to start over again. I'll get it eventually. It may be that US is not that much different from the version of Ubuntu I've effectively 'made'... edited to add - we were both used to much much faster systems in the past but it doesn't bother us these days - it is as it is... Even I am patient with it!  And it probably affects me the most... |
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Post by pavane on Feb 8, 2023 16:33:15 GMT
I think partly it's different in Ireland because the rural population is bigger as a percentage of the whole, and for various reasons I won't bore you with it's become politically expedient to provide decent broadband to rural areas. We are lucky because we have fibre going past us up the road (mains water, on the other hand, stops about a km before it reaches us) but even where there is no cable almost everyone can get wireless via a dish and that's still a lot faster than you get. Our phone signal is rubbish, we never get better than 3G and sometimes nothing at all for days on end if the wind is in the wrong direction. Our only mains services are electricity and internet. The electricity is also a bit weather dependent, though we haven't had any blackouts this winter (so far, touch wood). Internet though is great!
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Post by Zi on Feb 8, 2023 16:55:40 GMT
We have mains water and electricity. No gas. Septic tank. The connection here is actually quite reliable - it had a wobble last year but it was damage to a cable and quickly fixed. But it would drive some people to despair, I'm sure. I'm used to it even though some games take a long time to download as do any mods for them. I just schedule them in. We've been power-cut free as well. I've been put on some weird list because of my hearing issues and they're supposed to warn me via phone (their preferred means) which is pointless as I wouldn't understand them likely! It's kind though. It means we don't like buying anything that requires a download - we prefer it to come on something that arrives by post! It's faster in some ways!  15 minutes to go. I think I'm just going to wipe the music-room PC and see if it copes. This is quite funny because in order to try to get a (game) mod to work on Linux I tried downloading on the music room PC by installing Windows. I had an elderly version, then I had to find all the service packs on line. It took me a couple of days to get it working and running Windows 7 to the point it could cope... There were really interesting issues along the way which I had to keep solving - some of them became circular. But eventually I got it to work and talk to the web... Interestingly Windows wanted to update it to the latest version of Windows which wouldn't then have been able to run the game without considerable intervention... I wiped Mint that time... Cinnamon desktop - nice system. I shan't feel any regrets this time! edit to add - The Windows solution didn't solve the problem either and I eventually found a fix via Linux... |
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Post by pavane on Feb 8, 2023 17:06:00 GMT
Who was it who said that computers would reduce the amount of work that humans would have to do??
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Post by Zi on Feb 8, 2023 18:37:58 GMT
The same person who talked about paperless offices! But just imagine trying to figure out what a rhythm sounded like before the advent of Muse! |
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Post by Zi on Feb 9, 2023 11:34:15 GMT
Well installing US on the music room machine goes down in that list of failures... Not sure why yet. But I wiped Windows 10(?) or whatever - it was the latest version last year somewhen and it's now sporting Mint and Cinnamon for the time being. I'm thinking of either upgrading my study PC or buying a new one which means US can then go on this one... I'll take a look at what US is really doing to see how different it is from my set up which is no longer a conventional Ubuntu set up in any case... I won't bore people with the exciting journey I had to get a bootable DVD... |
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And it probably affects me the most...