I’d share Matt’s view here, and suggest you make sure your playback app is in fact jack capable.
I’m on Gentoo, with fluxbox here, and 2 jack capable apps that spring to mind in my custom built environment include Amarok, and Rezound. These will both use Jack as the output option. (Rezound is my default.)
Not trying to teach you to suck eggs here, but a bit of research into jack, and components that, when added, enhance the jack capable setup, could prove fruitful. I’ll also add i use native 64bit, and run a dedicated music rig that doesn’t include a big desktop, pulseaudio, or “domestic entertainment” applications. (I use a text web browser for most of my online research, as a quick example.
However, some things remain common across distros.
1.) The limits described in the posts above, are related to using PAM in your setup. (For other options, rtirq, or rlimits provide this capability.)
This is set in /etc/security/limits.conf for most distros.
Here’s my particular /etc/security/limits.conf setup as an example
@audio - rtprio 99
@audio - memlock 2911812 (I have 4gb of ram installed, so i set this to run a large audio setup, but leave enough ram for the system to run in stable fashion as well.)
@audio - nice -19
@audio - nofile 8192
2.) The .asoundrc file is yours to setup as you want, and is usually housed in your home directory. In this file you can set all sorts of card, and setup related parameters. Do a search on the interlink for examples, but one in particular, in my experience, does a good job of helping most apps be “jack compliant”. This is the JACK plugin, and can be found in the alsa-plugins package. Install this, and then browse for .asoundrc setup in the alsa wiki, with the focus on using the jack plugin.
Here’s my .asoundrc file as an example:
pcm type jack
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave { pcm “jack” }
}
pcm.jack {
type jack
playback_ports {
0 alsa_pcm:playback_1
1 alsa_pcm:playback_2
2 alsa_pcm:playback_3
3 alsa_pcm:playback_4
4 alsa_pcm:playback_5
5 alsa_pcm:playback_6
6 alsa_pcm:playback_7
7 alsa_pcm:playback_8
8 alsa_pcm:playback_9
9 alsa_pcm:playback_10
}
capture_ports {
0 alsa_pcm:capture_1
1 alsa_pcm:capture_2
2 alsa_pcm:capture_3
3 alsa_pcm:capture_4
4 alsa_pcm:capture_5
5 alsa_pcm:capture_6
6 alsa_pcm:capture_7
7 alsa_pcm:capture_8
8 alsa_pcm:capture_9
9 alsa_pcm:capture_10
10 alsa_pcm:capture_11
11 alsa_pcm:capture_12
}
}
ctl.mixer0 {
type hw
card 0
}
This is for a Delta 44 card (ice1712 alsa module), and routes any alsa based apps that run, through the jack plugin. A highly useful addition, and it takes care of most audio challenges by default.
3.) Check the preferences for any app you choose to use. Most, with the exception of audacity it seems, have a jack capable audio option (as a selectable default output device), at least in up to date versions. Late versions of Rezound, in my humble experience, work well, and it is my default audio editor for good reason, as you not only have a plethora of editing, and sound shaping options, but also solid playback, and a variety of sound conversion components, including re-sample. Check your distro for versions, and ask in the distro based audio forum for distro based options, if the build requires some additional dependencies, as distros vary in their requirements.
2 roubles worth,
Alex.
