Ok so long story short, I installed a new ssd today for the express purpose of installing linux on, so I still have my old windows install I can go back to without having to partition drives and whatnot. I’m trying to get Renoise setup and I am just really failing here. I’m struggling pretty hard to wrap my head around Jack and ALSA and the seemingly endless configuration software for them.
I have:
-One install of Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon
-One audio interface (Scarlett 2i2)
-One midi keyboard M-Audio KeyRig 49
What I have accomplished so far:
-Renoise installed
-Midi keyboard works
-Can get sound out of Renoise
What I am having trouble with:
-Recording input
-Crackles unless I set a stupidly high buffer
-Sometimes sound stops working, not even any meter action
-Plugins, but then, I’ll leave plugins for another day.
In Preferences, the Device type options are ALSA and Jack. If I choose ALSA it bitches at me about RT threads, but it lists my audio interface. Ultimately no sound. But if I choose Jack, it won’t let me select my audio interface. But sometimes I get sound. Well, it will work at first (with crackles) and then inexplicably stop working until I log off and on.
I followed the instructions in the wiki for editing limits.conf and
As I type this I went back and that folder after relogging has a bunch of shit it in now whereas before it was just the limit.conf file, and the contents of that file are completely different, so I added the instructed lines and I’m going to relog again to see if that fixes it BRB
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Ok partial success. It no longer bitches at me about RT threads, crackles are gone (I think, for now at least), and line input works. So now my problem is, and now I have almost no idea where to begin troubleshooting this, is that the input sucks. It’s has this digital distortion on top of it.
Ok so that gets better if I play with the buffer and periods… is there a trick for balancing these for optimal latency, or do you just kind of have to guess and play with it until it’s as good as you can get it?
edit: Ok, so, changing the buffer and periods seems to be completely random. Sometimes increasing the buffer increases the distortion, sometimes it decreases it, toggling a period back and forth can end up with completely different results in distortion amount…
edit: Ok everything is having the bitcrushing style distortion now after trying to adjust the buffer and periods. Honestly I have no idea what to do here, changing these settings does change the distortion, but it’s really inconsistent. A setting of 64 and 3 can sound almost completely perfect except for some light hissy crackle (that I definitely still want to get rid of) and then I try to adjust it from there and horrific bitcrushing distortion is back. Change it back to 64 and 3 which sounded better before, but that sounds terrible now, nothing but digital noise. I can’t find any kind of pattern to this…
edit: Ok I feel like I’m in a horror film. Line input works on Jack now, and so far no crackles. I have no idea why it works now.
edit: My… sound no longer works at all, I literally don’t have a speaker icon anymore?
edit: Relogged, no speaker icon still, all my sound devices are missing from sound settings window now. I have absolutely no idea. I had previously launched, recorded a riff, then closed Ardour without saving, then tried to use Festige, and opened Renoise and that’s when I noticed my sound had just, gone away.
edit: I ran the command that checks if alsa is running and that fixed it for some reason.
edit: Spoke too soon. Sound works in Renoise, and nothing else. But speaker icon is back, and it lists my devices, just, no sound (except in Renoise).
edit: and midi keyboard no longer works.