ardour 6.9 on laptop (macos Monterey)
recording session
built-in microphone (ok)
built-in output
48 khz, 1024 samples
start
template setup
create tracks 1
record arm tracks x
ok
audio
input to audio
audio in 1 ← system capture 1 (default)
output from audio, master (audio out 1 → ardour / master audio in 1, audio out 2 → ardour / master audio in 2) (default)
transport red button armed
still no ambiant sound in ardour
play from playhead
doing some handclaps
stop
no sound recorded
I’m running Ardour 6.9 under Ubuntu Studio 21.10 without any issues but have noticed the following behaviour.
Open Ardour
Create new session (blank or recording)
Start the audio system with ALSA
Create a track
Arm the track
Laptop microphone is selected and the level meter next to track and Master respond to ambient sound
Now if I do the same and select PulseAudio as the audio system then no microphone input is available even though the PulseAudio control panel shows the internal microphone working and responding to input.
Not really an issue as I would always use ALSA as the audio system.
I was wondering what audio system you are using with your Mac? Are there choices you can make?
This is by design. Pulseaudio is not suitable for pro-audio. It is only for desktop sound and does not support MIDI either. Pulseaudio cannot guarantee constant latency, so overdubs don’t align, and there may be resampling and gain-staging behind the scenes (lowering the quality of the input data).
Ardour supports playback via Pulseaudio only for convenience (eg. listen to a mix via Bluetooth speakers on a Laptop on your way home from the jam session, etc).
Preferably use Ardour/ALSA or JACK – or wait until Pipewire is ready to superseded all three.
Anyway that’s off topic here, unrelated to macOS/Coreaudio
