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Linux and ASIO

post #1 of 7
6/22/06 at 7:04pm
Thread Starter 
Just wondering, is there any way to get ASIO output in linux?
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post #2 of 7
6/22/06 at 7:35pm
jack -a
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post #3 of 7
6/22/06 at 8:02pm
Thread Starter 
I don't actually have linux yet, but I hope to get it set up soon. I will probably be using PCLinuxOS. That looks very confusing, and it looks like I will have to download the source and compile it, which I don't know how to do. What is the command to do it? And once it is compiled, how exactly do you set it up? An audio server? It seems confusing. And is it actually ASIO or something similar to it?
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post #4 of 7
6/22/06 at 9:33pm
Linux is very confusing to a newcomer. I recommend choosing a distribution with a lot of community help, otherwise you might be out of luck getting stuff to work. If you have to compile your distribution, that can be a big inconvenience for a newbie. The kernel itself is a monstrosity in itself. Then you will have to figure out which features/packages you want to compile and hopefully you got the compiling done correctly. But this is the fastest way towards becoming a linux adminstrator guru.

You will probably also encounter something called ALSA as your sound driver/sound manager. Have fun playing with it. You can check ALSA's web page to see how much support they have for your sound hardware.
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post #5 of 7
6/22/06 at 9:55pm
Hi 003,
according to distrowatch PCLinuxOS is a live CD distribution so it should simply be a matter of downloading the iso. then burning it to disk.
PCLinuxOS 0.92 is the latest stable release (released on 2005-11-22, so its quite old now) there is a link to its iso. images here http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=03062#0

A quick look around www.distrowatch.com will give you a brief introduction to the individual linux distributions available. They come in so very many variations that there is bound to be one that fits you, with the complexity (or ease) that you require.
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post #6 of 7
6/23/06 at 12:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 003
I don't actually have linux yet, but I hope to get it set up soon. I will probably be using PCLinuxOS. That looks very confusing, and it looks like I will have to download the source and compile it, which I don't know how to do. What is the command to do it? And once it is compiled, how exactly do you set it up? An audio server? It seems confusing. And is it actually ASIO or something similar to it?
Try Ubuntu, or Kubuntu if you prefer KDE over gnome. It seems to suit most people who try it - from beginners to folk who've used Linux for years. Loads of support available - Google for Ubuntu forum .

I can't see any need for using ASIO on Linux - ALSA is low latency already. All jack does is add the ability to have multiple programs access the sound device at the same time - from what I can make out. If you want your audio upsampled, or even downsampled, then add one of the following lines to .asoundrc...

Quote:
rate 44100
rate 48000
Pick one or the other, it's that simple. ALSA won't upsample unless it is told to do so - it'll just go with the defaults set by the device, or the programmer who implemented it within ALSA.

ALSA card matrix
.asoundrc information
An introduction to ALSA, jack and Ladspa

If you're going to look at using Linux, then expect everything to be awkward and difficult. Everything is generally rather different to Windows - more often than not, it is better IMO, but I'm pretty used to Linux these days.

--Rich
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post #7 of 7
6/23/06 at 2:53am
ASIO in the Windows world is used to bypass the default of upsampling audio via the imposed function of the Windows OS K-mixer. I presume this is done to allow multiple sounds to simultaneously output to the soundcard. linux can be likewise configured to bypass its upsampling function (via disabling the dmix for the sound device) so its audio stream is similarly unadulterated.

As always in linux, you can pretty much configure literally anything on the computer you're willing to figure out how to use. A very helpful guide is on head-fi on setting up the Chaintech AV-710 in linux, (thanks to that head-fier for sharing that info). That can be a good launching point.

I'm not sure you need to implement JACK if your goal is music playback. AFAIK JACK is low latency sound capability crucial for real-time DAW recording & mixing functionality.
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