Disk to slow while adding audio track

Installation & Configuration Linux
#1

I don’t know if this is considered to be a bug or if it is normal.

When I’m adding an audio track while something is playing I get the error:

The disk system on your computer
was not able to keep up with Ardour.

Specifically, it failed to read data from disk
quickly enough to keep up with playback.

It only happens with audio tracks…midi track are fine.

#2

The message is as a straightforward as we can make it. Ardour tried to the data it needed from disk. It didn’t get the data from the disk before it was actually needed (to be sent to the audio hardware). That’s it.

Sometimes this is a momentary failure that will never repeat, sometimes it’s a general problem with a disk I/O subsystem that is overloaded.

#3

Thanks. Can this actually happen with a project that only contains midi data? I tested the reading speed of my SSD and get ~500 MB/s. The track only < 10 midi tracks. Is there anything I can check / test to see what’s the problem? (System is Debian 9)

root@fox:~# hdparm -t /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 1502 MB in 3.00 seconds = 500.26 MB/sec
root@fox:~# hdparm -t /dev/sda

#4

If you add a track while playing, the actual disk-speed is not directly relevant.
The error message misleading here. The new track’s playback buffers are empty at first. Ardour always shows a “disk too slow” message when it needs to play and a buffer is empty.

In any case, adding tracks or ports or changing connections is not realtime safe to begin with.

#5

@x42: ok thanks … it’s also not reproducible …sometimes it works, sometimes not. I’ll just ignore it.