Post B2ndwrF6IGggY2RO8e by mosgaard@uddannelse.social
(DIR) More posts by mosgaard@uddannelse.social
(DIR) Post #B2ndwrF6IGggY2RO8e by mosgaard@uddannelse.social
2026-01-29T16:01:24Z
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I'm slowly starting to understand the whole @pipewire issue.Here is my take: People experience different problems, which is specific to a specific kind of use (like midi-issues, lack of pipewire support in apps, unsupported interface), and therefore keep using/recommending Jack.Long time Linux users are used to using Jack, can't see the issue of using it, so vendors like Reaper keeps thinking "ALSA/Jack works fine, no need for Pipewire, it's not working properly"#LinuxAudio
(DIR) Post #B2ndwsalHDbmjVaCXY by mosgaard@uddannelse.social
2026-01-29T16:04:58Z
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In comes music producers new til Linux, install Bitwig (with native pipewire support), flip the "Pro audio" switch in the audio settings app and starts producing without any trouble. We open a browser in the background, listen to a little music, while still in Bitwig (because this is what we're used to on MacOS), and thinks pipewire is awesome. No specific needs, just a class compliant audio interface which is found and routed without much trouble.#LinuxAudio #Pipewire
(DIR) Post #B2ndwtfPHQv04ClQQ4 by mosgaard@uddannelse.social
2026-01-29T16:07:05Z
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Then another might be trying out Reaper, using ALSA, and suddenly all other sound of the computer stops working, when Reaper is taking control of the audio interface.We look into Jack, ALSA, Pipewire. Get confused. What's the driver we would normally get from the interface vendor. We don't know?We find articles (or comments) of people still using Jack. It's the low latency standard. Or ALSA, so there is direct connection between software and interface.#LinuxAudio #Pipewire
(DIR) Post #B2ndwujhIxwdNnmMkK by mosgaard@uddannelse.social
2026-01-29T16:09:04Z
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It becomes this negative circle, where vendors choose not to support Pipewire natively. But all the distros turn to Pipewire to make things easier. It just keeps getting more confusing.And when the longtime software users don't need pipewire, because it doesn't support their specific needs, then they wont support suggestions from new users to get native pipewire - because you can do all that already, you just need to do write these terminal commands and gedit this file.#LinuxAudio #Pipewire
(DIR) Post #B2ndwvKD7D9TD2rWeu by mosgaard@uddannelse.social
2026-01-29T16:12:12Z
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So software vendors: Support Pipewire already. Support the transition of these functions in the development of Linux.This seems like the Xorg / Wayland fight all over."We can't support it, it's not good enough yet" - But then support it and make it good. You are missing out on competent people joining (y)our community because the price of joining is too high.#LinuxAudio #Pipewire #Wayland
(DIR) Post #B2ndwvuMwm4j1BmP1E by mosgaard@uddannelse.social
2026-01-29T16:15:40Z
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And if you think this whole discussion is worthy of your time. Take a look at this really great forum thread from the Reaper forum. It says it all.(Like the user who would rather have a dedicated interface for Youtube sound, so it's not going through the reaper-used interface...)https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=305393
(DIR) Post #B2ndwwUsl1HYqQrYvo by dazo@infosec.exchange
2026-01-29T16:22:32Z
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@mosgaard I heard a talk somewhere on Pipewire ... and the use case you describe here is exactly what drove the creator of Pipewire crazy, so he jumped into this. But went further than JACK and PulseAudio, he saw all types of media streams as something which needs to be handled with care and respect for each other - otherwise you end up with video being out-of-sync with audio, or MIDI being out-of-sync with the audio streams.Unfortunately, the Pipewire adoption is slow because too many projects don't realise that while JACK might be pretty good for audio/midi - it messes up everything else and causes a very bad end-user experience. Plus too many software vendors doesn't have focus on Linux.Bitwig is probably one of the fewer larger projects which has gone fully into Pipewire - that needs to be applauded massively! And they will be one of the few ones being ahead when the Windows 10/11 users getting fed up of Microsoft migrates to Linux. Other audio/video projects need to wake up if they want to keep traction. Because users will drop their projects if they see Bitwig and other Pipewire capable projects works well.I see that Ardour defaults to a "JACK/Pipewire" device - which works fine as well. But I also have pipewire-jack-audio-connection-kit installed. Something even more native Pipewire would be great to reduce latency risks further.Finally, a fun fact ... I've heard some studio folks heavily invested in macOS who saw a Pipewire demo, with video streams, audio and MIDI playing in parallel with audio from a browser being played on a different audio card than the audio/midi from the video streams ... they were blown away of the flexibility and the low latency and were convinced that performed better than it would on macOS. IIRC, it was OBS Studio, Ardour and a web browser running in parallel, where the OBS Studio was streaming and recording an Ardour session, with more cameras active as well.
(DIR) Post #B2ndwx5kXwlygm70Oe by PaulDavisTheFirst@fosstodon.org
2026-01-29T16:27:47Z
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@dazo @mosgaard using JACK for audio/MIDI does not "mess up everything else" because pipewire implements the JACK API (library and server). As you noted, Ardour works 100% fine with Pipewire with *zero modifications to our JACK support* except for the places where there are still bugs in the pipewire implementation. There is no reason for any application using the JACK, ALSA or PulseAudio APIs to change; that was part of the entire design spec for Pipewire and it has largely met that goal.
(DIR) Post #B2ndwxiOEHgIccBrcm by dazo@infosec.exchange
2026-01-29T16:34:22Z
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@PaulDavisTheFirst @mosgaard Except that I need fairly high buffer size that way (at least 512 samples) - which gives an annoying delay - when playing VST instruments. Probably not so noticeable when you mix things together, but when you record or do live setups, that's enough to annoy. I've tried 256 samples, but then some kind of distortion starts to appear.Starting the native JACK stack at that point and I can go to 128 samples buffer size just fine. And starting the JACK stack disables audio on all other applications ... so there's that.