THis is what Gemini told me
This is a classic “clash of eras.” Renoise is a powerhouse of a tracker, but its Linux backend defaults to the old-school way of doing things (talking directly to ALSA or JACK), whereas Asahi Linux lives in the future where the hardware is managed by a complex software-defined DSP.
Claude is 100% correct: if you force Renoise to use ALSA to talk to your M1 Pro speakers, you might actually blow them out because the software safety limiters are bypassed.
Here is exactly how to fix this for Fedora KDE (Asahi Remix):
- The Solution: Use the PipeWire-JACK Wrapper
You should not use the “ALSA” driver in Renoise. Instead, you need to trick Renoise into thinking it is talking to a JACK server, which is actually just PipeWire in disguise.
Make sure the PipeWire-JACK compatibility layer is installed:
Bash
sudo dnf install pipewire-jack-audio-connection-kit
Restart your session (or reboot) to ensure the JACK libraries are being redirected to PipeWire.
- Configure Renoise
Open Renoise.
Go to Edit → Preferences → Audio.
Under Device Type, select JACK.
If it asks for a “Server Name” or “Autostart,” leave them at default (usually “default” and “off”).
Click Initalize.
Because PipeWire is already running on your Fedora KDE desktop, Renoise will now “plug into” the PipeWire graph. PipeWire will then handle the M1 Pro DSP and the rtkit real-time priority for you.
- Fixing the “Realtime” Error
Renoise complains because it wants to set its own “Realtime Priority,” but on Fedora, the security settings (ulimits) often block user apps from doing this.
Since PipeWire handles the real-time heavy lifting, you can often just ignore this, but to make Renoise happy:
Open a terminal.
Add your user to the realtime group (if it exists) or check your limits:
Bash
ulimit -r -l
If the “Realtime” error persists in Renoise, go to Preferences and uncheck “Realtime priority”. On Asahi, PipeWire is already giving the audio thread high priority via rtkit, so Renoise doesn’t necessarily need to request it manually to get low latency.
- Performance Tuning (Quantum)
To get that snappy Renoise feel without “crackling” (Xruns), you can tell PipeWire to run at a lower latency from the terminal while Renoise is open:
Bash
pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-quantum 128
(Try 128 first; if it’s stable, you can try 64 for even lower latency).
Summary for your MBP M1 Pro:
Driver in Renoise: JACK
Realtime setting: Let PipeWire handle it; disable the checkbox in Renoise if it keeps erroring.
Why? This keeps the speakersafetyd (Safety Daemon) in the loop so your MacBook speakers stay healthy.
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