05-02-2021, 09:59 AM | #1 |
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Babyface Mk1 with Linux
I have recently acquired a fairly decent i3 laptop & am considering having yet another go at coming to grips with Linux and audio/MIDI recording.
Anyone already using one with a particular distro, or any other suggestions? Bear in mind I am a total numpty with Linux since it is well over 30 years since I last used Unix or Linux.
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05-02-2021, 03:08 PM | #2 | |
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05-02-2021, 03:45 PM | #3 |
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Try running a live USB stick of whatever distro you choose, to see if the functionality of the hardware works. (Try media players, etc. at least.) If the interface works at all with Pulse Audio (the sound system that things connect to by default), it should work with ALSA and Jack too.
There's some learning involved, but it's nothing terrible. If you plan to run Windows VST plugins, especially ones which have copy protection and authorization schemes: you're in for some more learning, and some of those plugins might not work. Most of it isn't difficult, but you can get confused since it's not an OS you're accustomed to. Plus the idea of running Windows software in another OS as though it's native Linux software, that can be involved sometimes. |
05-03-2021, 12:31 PM | #4 |
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Raspi 3 ALSA issue dropouts
Sorry, i´m not sure if i am right here.
My Babyface pro is connected to my rasberry pi 3 B 1.2 (OS rasbian). I use ALSA for my audio device in reaper. All in and outputs are well asigned. But when i press record reaper records with certain dropouts, wether on a single mono track or a multi 4 track. My Buffersize is 2048 and i use 44100 Khz. Does anyone know about this issue? Im really new to Linux and help would be appreciated! reg, Felix |
05-03-2021, 01:04 PM | #5 | |
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https://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/raspberrypi On my Pi 3 I used a tweak guide that was on the Pianoteq site, but it's no longer there. I would maybe try a smaller block size too. |
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05-04-2021, 12:03 AM | #6 |
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Thanks, chaps! I wont be able to do this for another week, due to upcoming gigs (YAAAAAY) but am now looking forward to trying it again with a little more confidence now I know you guys have got my back!
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05-04-2021, 01:40 AM | #7 | |
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Am I getting you right? I'm supposed to use Alsa instead of Jack? I will try smaler Block size. Thanks ! Last edited by Finow79; 05-04-2021 at 01:58 AM. |
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05-04-2021, 02:01 AM | #8 | |
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05-04-2021, 07:14 AM | #9 | |
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I also switched to Manjaro by now. I am running the Babyface with class compliant mode under ALSA. The laptop I run it on is a very old dual core, though. So I haven't been very lucky with good real-time performance when using VSTi. But There is more room to go through the different kernel version on Manjaro. The OS is just fabulous! |
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05-04-2021, 07:40 AM | #10 | ||
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Soli Deo Gloria has a thread up for Manjaro tweaks that might have something to improve the realtime performance. In Xubuntu using rtirq to give the USB port with the audio device higher priority, and upping user permissions to allow 98% RT priority an unlimited memory locking made a difference. |
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05-04-2021, 07:49 AM | #11 | |
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1) install a realtime or low-latency kernel (if your kernel version is 5.10 or higher, it's low latency already) 2) CPU governor needs to be set to "performance". 3) for a USB audio device, you need to turn usb_autosuspend off. The last two of those things, you'd be doing in Windows by using a "high performance" power plan. In Linux you have to do that other ways. I use TLP (there's a front-end for it TLPUI which makes it easy). Install those from your package manager and you can change those settings with them. Once these changes are made, you can probably get low latency with your audio device and reliable performance. There are other tweaks you can do to your system, but I haven't had to do any of them. |
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05-04-2021, 08:21 AM | #12 |
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I fully agree with James. And, besides, I'd check with TLP or, in my case, cpupower-gui, that all cores are effectively set to their maximum capacity. I thought at first that I had done it but when I checked with cpupower-gui, I wasn't really at full speed. That made a huge difference in performance. Another thing, I'd add, is to check the realtime permissions once you're in the audio or realtime group. This provisory set of steps has allowed me to use an old dual core notebook that I had almost discarded for any type of live playing : https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=252092 Feel free to ask about anything... |
05-06-2021, 04:15 AM | #13 |
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James and Soli, thank you so much for your tips! Those two things actually made all the difference. Now I can play synths and guitar amp sims with very low latency. Yeaaah!!! Wow, I didn't think this would have been possible with my old machine. Linux just rules.
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05-08-2021, 11:31 AM | #14 |
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Toes dipped in the murky waters but I have yet to try Xubuntu. I may well have a go with it after having whittled down all the Distros I have tried today to AV Linux Ubuntu Studio and er um Manjaro. I am still very much overwhelmed - downloaded Reaper but it wont install & I have yet to hook up the babyface!
Did get Ardour and the other @A@ audio app going but I have yet to address ALSA or Jack, etc. I am using it on an old third series i3 lappy with 8gb of ram and a 480gb Crucial SSD that arrived today. So far I havent installed anything on it. edit: Weird. I can only find versions of Xubuntu claiming to be exclusively for amd cpus! Surely there has to be a site where I can still get a D/L for my intel 13?
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05-08-2021, 12:10 PM | #15 | |
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https://xubuntu.org/release/20-04/ |
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05-08-2021, 01:29 PM | #16 |
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Yeah... I downloaded on of that & it wouldnt do a live run, sadly. Starting with Ub untu Studio 21.04 instead. Can always switch later when I know what I am doing.
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05-09-2021, 12:18 AM | #17 |
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Ubuntu Studio is running happily, plus Reaper (!) thanks to you guys pointing me in the right direction.
Amazingly, I actually figured out why the Babyace was not showing up. Due to Covid and Brexit, I havent been to France in a very long time & had overlooked updating the firmware and drivers! So I did the update, plugged in my bass....still no signal. Turned out I was using a defective mono jack lead. It now works, but I was too knackered to actually do any proper recording with it. Next step is going to be figuring out ALSA and Jack & how to use regular VST plugs with it.
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05-09-2021, 07:14 AM | #18 | |
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05-09-2021, 08:54 AM | #19 | |
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If you mean Windows VST plugins, as in "plugins that shouldn't actually work in another operating system other than Windows"... Look for any thread on this forum about Yabridge, starting with the most recent ones. Depending on the Windows VST plugin, how it is installed (product manager, etc.) and if it has some kind of copy protection scheme, you might have more troubles than you expected. Hopefully you have read about this in advance, specifically about the plugins you intend to use and if they have challenges to get working in Linux. You can also go to the Yabridge github page and read the info there. Don't install any version of Wine until you read the info on the Yabridge github page. I wouldn't consider it difficult to do in general, but I'll put it this way: whatever you've just faced in terms of learning and effort to get to this point with Linux, dealing with Windows VST will exceed that. |
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05-09-2021, 10:20 AM | #20 |
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HmmmmYeah. Already decided the smart thing to do is to review my most-used plugins and see if there are Linux compliant versions available.
same goes for Jack. All I can recall over the years of idly browsing Linux fora is that people struggle with Jack! I am on the little i3 laptop typing this and the performance has gone through the roof since I dumped W10 and went to Ubuntu. Quite amazing the difference it has made. ...and frankly I don`t give a shit about losing the MS Office I use on my other computers (Mac & PC) as Libre office works great.
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05-09-2021, 10:58 AM | #21 |
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Yeah Linux is a fresh of breath air in some ways.
I use ALSA and it's a no-brainer. When I first started using Reaper for Linux, ALSA was sort of an afterthought (to my surprise) and the focus was more on making it work with Jack (because so many other DAW applications in Linux use it). I'm glad Justin was convinced to do some more testing with ALSA directly to get it solid. Think of Jack as a system to interconnect various applications for audio and MIDI. That's useful, but probably something you've never needed before so you probably don't need it now. I want to make my projects within Reaper only, not interconnected to other "standalone" apps/synths/etc. Feel free to list the plugins you use and maybe we can suggest some alternatives. I'm fully disillusioned about what plugins seem to be (nice graphics, claims of their sound, etc.) and am laser-focused on what they really can do. The only Windows VSTs I'm currently using are for drums. I could use Linux plugins for that (including the drum bank I made for DrumGizmo), but I want more variety in the sounds (and flexibility in the features of the VSTi) and currently Linux VSTi are behind. Likewise if you use Kontakt, it's likely you won't want to replace it with anything else. Last edited by JamesPeters; 05-09-2021 at 11:04 AM. |
05-09-2021, 11:34 AM | #22 | |
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