[SOLVED] Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!

[hansdevr]

I am an ex-windows user. I switched to Linux Kubuntu because I was sick and tired of viruses, hacks and having to pay for bogus software all of the time.

I love Kubuntu, but there is really ONE thing that really frustrates me: audio and MIDI.
I would LOVE to try Ardour and/or Rosegarden. I am used to using Steinberg Cubase 5. Everyone tells me that when I use Kubuntu, I should be prepared to invest extra time and effort to get things working. (Why?!?) But this is ridiculous. I understand I need Jack server, and that I need to start it using qjackctl, but it simply DOES NOT WORK. Hence: Ardour and Rosegarden do not work. I must have visited a 1,000 threads, but I simply never get a straight answer. HOW to configure jack, qjackctl etcetera to simply get a working DAW. I see my problem over and over and over on hundreds of sites, so (luckily) I'm not the only one being frustrated... But WHY is there not a SIMPLE and COMPLETE instruction on how to get jack working with/talking to these apps?

I am tempted to take back all the Windows hassle, just to do some more happy recording again...

[rfakhrai]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

edited because I didn't mean to be nasty. sorry.

[hansdevr]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

Well, I don't think I complained. I said I loved Kubuntu. And both Rosegarden and Ardour look promising - more than sufficient for my needs. So who is complaining?

The question was clear, I think. I want to get jack working with those apps. Is that such a hard question?

[Snowhog]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

The question was clear, I think. I want to get jack working with those apps. Is that such a hard question?

Yes, it was. No it is not. Don't get to frustrated by any 'short' comments. They do tend to be few here. I'm sure that someone will be able to provide you with some tips/guidance on your question.

[vinnywright]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

you may want to have a look at this ...........

http://ubuntustudio.org/

dont know if it will help but thar ya go

VINNY

[Bolly]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

This may help:

http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Issues/2006/67/KNOWING-JACK/(kategorie)/0

[hansdevr]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

you may want to have a look at this ...........

http://ubuntustudio.org/

dont know if it will help but thar ya go

VINNY

Thanks Vinny, but that would involve kissing Kubuntu goodbye and starting all over with a stripped down Ubuntu version. That is not what I want. But thanks anyway.

[hansdevr]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

This may help:

http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Issues/2006/67/KNOWING-JACK/(kategorie)/0

Thanks! There's a lot of info there. But I tried most of it already and always got error messages from qjackctl that it could not start jack.. I am going for the definitive instruction on how to get qjackctl talking to jack and subsequently jack talking to rosegarden and ardour.
I'll have a look into the info you provided and I'll be checking the links I saw there. Thank you very much!!

[vinnywright]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

I dont do a lot of pro. recording (some streem riping with VLC but?)
I think jack and the rest you want neads a real time kernel runing (I think I read that some ware when cheking up on the ubuntustudio)... do you ?
I dont know mutch about it and may be showing my ignorence but check into it.

VINNY

[abalone]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

You can run JACK without a realtime kernel, but you can also install the realtime kernel (package: linux-rt) without installing Ubuntu-Studio.

[hansdevr]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

Excuse my total ignorance, but what IS a real time kernel?!? And why would I need one?

[dibl]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

I think its more current name is "low-latency" kernel. Here's a starter site for your studies:

https://rt.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page


and in case you haven't seen it yet: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio

which includes: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ub...RealTimeKernel

[abalone]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

The one in the "official" repositories is the "rt" kernel. Looks like "low-latency" and a few others are distinct from it, albeit usable for similar (audio) purposes.

I understand I need Jack server, and that I need to start it using qjackctl, but it simply DOES NOT WORK.

I probably can't help you (read those docs), but I do have some small experience with jack. It's never been very hard to get running for me, though.

Are you running pulseaudio at the same time?

What does the messages window on qjackctl say after it fails to start jack?

IIRC, there's been a bug lately where jack would always want to start in realtime mode, even with the realtime option unchecked.

Without the Ubuntu-Studio packages you may yet need to make preparations for realtime mode in /etc/security/limits.conf by adding these two lines:

@audio  - rtprio   99
@audio  - memlock  unlimited

(In my experience, the rt kernel is not actually required to make jack start and run in realtime mode... though it's probably highly recommended anyway... I'm not too clear on the technical details.)

If you don't mind the higher latencies, you can run jack without the realtime benefits. Bring up qjackctl's setup window and uncheck "realtime". Once you've got jack running at all, go back to the setup and increase the frames/s setting (and restart jack) until you get no more xruns.

If jack still tries to run in realtime mode even with the realtime option unchecked (check the messages window), you might've encountered aforementioned bug. There's a workaround that I forgot... I think it involves changing the jack command line so that it'll not try to use realtime mode.

[hansdevr]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

OK, I will do some experimenting with this information. Better wait untill after the 29th..

[lcorken]

Re: Jackd/qjackctl/jack/Alsa/qtractor/rosegarden/ardour HELP!!!!!!

I use jack ,rosegarden, qsynth and several other softsynths in kubuntu. For me it works better with kubuntu than ubuntuStudio. Haven't learned ardour yet. My CPU gets overloaded if I try too many track. Using an old and slow Pentium 4 2G, 1G ram.

I add the following lines to /etc/security/limits.conf (as superuser)
@audio - rtprio 99
@audio - memlock 512000
@audio - nice -19

Then add yourself to the audio group (systemsettings > advanced > user management)

The jack server will run with generic or rt kernels but rosegarden will complain about timing as I recall but still run with generic.

I get the rt-kernel from synaptic.

For Jack settings:
Open QjackCtl and click Setup. This will take some experementation.
For my system I check boxes for
Realtime, Force 16bit
Change Frames/Period to 256, and Periods/Buffer to 3 or 4
Sample rate needs to match your softsynths (otherwise they will be out of key).
For me jack will not start if Frames/Period is at 1024 (May be default)
Periods/Buffer and Frames/Period settings will give a trade off between latency and X-run errors or ever failure of jack server to start. You need to trial and error these settings.

ZynAddSubFX is a cool softsynth but jack would drop it for some reason until I set Jack timeout(msec) to a hi number (2000).

ubuntuforums.org/ has a category for ubuntu studio. A search there may help. I noticed some of the ubuntu studio users use Kubuntu as I do. This may be preference or to avoid the pulseaudio problems that are forced on ubuntustudio by gnome or some politics I don't understand.

Let us know how it goes.
Ken.