[02:36] <DR01D-Engineer> anyone know how to record whats coming out of my computer, no mic or anything, just directly recording to a file the audio my computer sends to the speakers
[02:38] <DR01D-Engineer> i cant see anything relevant on qjack
[10:38] <sab> Hi - can anyone tell me how to configure two GPU's thanks
[11:12] <jussi> sab: is it optimus?
[11:12] <jussi> if so: http://geek.co.il/wp/2012/02/19/nvidia-optimus-on-ubuntu-12-04
[11:12] <jussi> I havent tried that, but Im told it works
[15:16] <Guest29069> so how about that low latency kernel?
[15:16] <holstein> ?
[15:16] <holstein> you mean, how is the performance?
[15:17] <holstein> i find it still depends on the hardware support to a large degree
[15:17] <holstein> Guest29069: grab the live iso, fire it up and try it
[15:17] <Guest29069> Yeah. I just started using studio. I haven't noticed much a difference in its ability to process audio
[15:17] <holstein> i find most folks dont need low latency anyways
[15:18] <holstein> Guest29069: well, thats not what hte kernel is intended for
[15:18] <Guest29069> what is it intended for?
[15:18] <holstein> its quite specifically designed to provide lower latency
[15:18] <holstein> without a compromise on the system such as the older realtime kernels did.. with laptops for example
[15:18] <Guest29069> In order to allow to more powerful processing right?
[15:18] <holstein> the lowlatency is a nice compromise for everyone
[15:18] <holstein> Guest29069: nope
[15:18] <holstein> Guest29069: just lower latency
[15:19] <holstein> Guest29069: the "power" will come from the machine
[15:19] <Guest29069> Well its certainly not intended to speed up the system. thatd be a real time kernel. or am i wrong?
[15:19] <holstein> Guest29069: i did a LUG presentation called "linux is not magic".. it will not make the machine "better" or "faster"
[15:19] <holstein> Guest29069: nothing will make the system "faster"
[15:20] <holstein> something might utilize the hardware better.. or be more appropriate for an inteded purpose
[15:20] <Guest29069> Except a better gpu, a ssd, and optimum ram
[15:20] <holstein> such as, *if* you need lowlatency.. and most people dont
[15:20] <holstein> there are 2 specific cases where latency matters.. realtime effects processing and software synthesisers
[15:21] <holstein> other than that.. it really is not needed
[15:21] <Guest29069> Before giving studio a shot, I tried researching it. and my conclusion was that a low latency kernel basically gives the process time to finish (causing lag on intensive processes) and that extra allows software like jack to add effects (in real time) to the audio in a more efficient manner.
[15:22] <Guest29069> the result is a slower system
[15:22] <holstein> if you need low latency, you'll figure out what it is and how to get it
[15:22] <holstein> if you dont, i say, dont bother
[15:22] <holstein> most folks dont need JACK.. but if you do, its handy
[15:22] <Guest29069> I'm not trolling lol  but the whole thing confuses me.  am I right about the above though>
[15:23] <Guest29069> ?
[15:23] <holstein> its tricky
[15:23] <Guest29069> Okay, gotcha
[15:23] <holstein> but, not.. its not a slower system necessarily
[15:23] <holstein> Guest29069: think of it this way
[15:23] <holstein> if i press play... how long does it take for that audio to come form the speakers?
[15:23] <holstein> half a second?
[15:24] <holstein> does it matter?
[15:24] <Guest29069> Nope
[15:24] <holstein> whay if it happened almost instantly?
[15:24] <holstein> would that be a faster system?
[15:24] <Guest29069> I couldnt tell
[15:24] <Guest29069> lol
[15:24] <holstein> not necessarily.. arguably better configured for realtime audio
[15:25] <holstein> if i wanted to play a keyboard, and have the computer create a sound and play that sound.. then the timing becomes more important
[15:25] <Guest29069> Right.  So a low latency kernel is obviously useless for functions like audio playback.  But it would give processing software more power, not speed! but power?
[15:25] <holstein> i want that sound to happen as close to when i push that button as possible
[15:26] <holstein> i want it to seem like a keyboard
[15:26] <holstein> realtime
[15:26] <holstein> i did that with some software on a celeron 900mhz without JACK... just alsa... with pianoteq.. as pretty much a piano appliance
[15:26] <holstein> the configuration of that machine gave me quite low latency
[15:27] <holstein> doesnt matter that its "old" or "slow"
[15:27] <holstein> and the configuration didnt make it faster.. just more appropriately configured for the taks i wanted to use it for
[15:28] <holstein> in one hardware scenario i have, i have a USB device that performs better and with lower latency with a generic kernel rather than a realtime one
[15:28] <holstein> the kernel version matters in that case.. the generic one supports that device better
[15:29] <holstein> still... no change to the computer in any way... its still the same speed.. its just about hardware support and software configuration
[15:30] <Guest29069> Okay
[15:30] <Guest29069> I think I understand better.
[15:30] <holstein> Guest29069: its tricky... and im not a kernel dev.. i just use the software/hardware
[15:31] <Guest29069> So the kernel doesnt affect how much software uses the CPU, like throughput?
[15:31] <holstein> Guest29069: sure.. it can.. its software and its open.. it can effect whatever you want it to effect
[15:31] <holstein> but, its not magical
[15:31] <holstein> the realtime kernel isnt something that makes the machine faster
[15:32] <holstein> just helps hopefully give priority to things to faciliate low latency
[15:32] <holstein> things that would cause a drastic drain of a laptop battery for example
[15:32] <holstein> OR overheat a machine
[15:33] <holstein> its a trade off... if you are wondering why its not like that "out of the box"
[15:33] <holstein> or, why we dont ship with this setting optimally set for audio out of the box
[15:33] <Guest29069> Okay! So a low latency kernel would be beneficial if I wanted to process audio in real time.  Recording audio I know hardly uses any cpu, but processing that audio (as in adding effects in real time) can be really intensive.  The kernel would slow that processing software
[15:33] <Guest29069> down to the point where
[15:34] <Guest29069> all of its inputs find an output
[15:34] <Guest29069> no matter how long it takes
[15:34] <holstein> thats more like it..
[15:34] <holstein> kind of like a hard coded priority to the audio processing
[15:35] <holstein> when something says "lets not give priority to the audio because of x" maybe the kernel says.. "nah, we're ok with that risk, keep it rolling"
[15:35] <Guest29069> Thats mostly what I want to do with studio.
[15:36] <holstein> well, this is what i do professionally.. and i seldom need low latency
[15:36] <holstein> i have several jack profiles.. and rarely need the lower latency one
[15:36] <holstein> but, if you are doing software synths live, you'll want it
[15:36] <holstein> at least something like 8ms or so
[15:37] <holstein> if i can get close to 5ms stable, i feel good about it.. but when mixing down, i bump it up to 80+ms or so
[15:37] <holstein> i dont feel i need to unecessarily tax the machine when applying plugins or whatever when the timing isnt crucial at mixing/mastering
[15:37] <holstein> also depends on the rig
[15:38] <Guest29069> Well thank you a lot! It makes sense now, and my conclusion is that I don't really need the kernel either for most situations.
[15:38] <holstein> Guest29069: i still have a 10.04 install on my main audio production rig. i have several kernels that i boot for different reasons.. kind of like dual booting
[15:39] <holstein> back then, the differences were more drastic though
[15:39] <Guest29069> I'll keep it though, just in case.  and I understand, considering now most computers ship with dual core processors and at least 2 gigs of ram
[15:39] <holstein> i find i can do most everything i need with the current low-latency kernel, though i do get lower latency with the older realtime one in 10.04.. not that that is why im keeping 10.04 around
[15:40] <Guest29069> Did they switch to Gnome after 10.04?
[15:40] <holstein> well.. thats a different story
[15:40] <Guest29069> Why do you keep 10.04 around then? haha
[15:41] <holstein> in 10.04, ubuntu and ubuntustudio shipped gnome2 as default
[15:41] <holstein> when main ubuntu went unity, we (ubuntustudio) went xfce
[15:41] <holstein> that was around 11.04
[15:41] <Guest29069> Oh yeah, I meant unity, not gnome
[15:42] <holstein> nah.. i keep 10.04 around for stability.. and because i just havent taken the time to migrate fully
[15:42] <holstein> Guest29069: i do work on that rig occasionally.. its mission critical
[15:42] <holstein> not that i dont trust 12.04.. i just havent taken the time to migrate.. i have a 12.10 install on a hard drive in that machine and it tested OK for the time i had to test
[15:43] <holstein> i try and test the 64bit versions on that machine
[15:43] <holstein> we have more 32bit testers
[15:43] <Guest29069> I had a lot of problems with 12.04 on my rig with my video card.
[15:43] <holstein> that can happen
[15:44] <holstein> we dont have any control over those drivers
[15:44] <holstein> Guest29069: keep in mind, ubuntustudio *is* ubuntu.. for generic things like that, you can sometimes get better support searching "ubuntu" instead of "ubuntustudio"
[15:45] <holstein> Guest29069: not that im kicking you out of here.. its just that it can be slow here, if you are not finding help for things like graphics and other non-audio specific things
[15:45] <Guest29069> I understand
[15:45] <holstein> i got dual head configured in 12.10 easily enough with the proprietary nvidia driver
[15:46] <holstein> that was one of the things i needed to learn to implement in xfce since i was used to gnome2
[15:47] <Guest29069> Well thanks for your help. I must get going.
[21:24] <pecc> my audio dies randomly when connected to dock, disconnect/reconnect helps every time but only until the next time, audio worked 40 min perfectly when disconnected from dock, after reconnecting failed in 10 min -- anyone have any ideas?
[21:27] <pecc> visited #ubuntu but they're having a shortage of audio-knowing peeps
[21:32] <len-dt> whats "dock"?
[21:36] <pecc> docking station for my laptop
[21:36] <len-dt> Ah, so the audio doesn't go through the dock then?
[21:36] <pecc> (also known as "the thing that has all the connections and jacks I lost when my lappy blew up)
[21:37] <pecc> apparently it doesn't... which is hugely annoying because I don't have an integrated audio jack these days
[21:38] <pecc> I need to get my dock and my Quantal playing nicely together because no dock = no music, no Net
[21:38] <pecc> any ideas? :/
[21:39] <len-dt> Does the dock have much in the way of circuitry? or is it mostly like a "breakout box"? That takes a big connector and breaks it down to smaller plaugs?
[21:39] <pecc> (this also happened when I had Precise... I updated the system in hopes of fixing this specific problem)
[21:39] <len-dt> I guess I am asking if there are any changes to the kernel modules that are loaded with the unit docked or not.
[21:41] <pecc> uh.... it's pretty much just a glorified USB hub with a bit of board, a LAN card, and some additional connections for audio in/out, serial, parallel, and old type keyboard and mouse
[21:41] <pecc> plus a fan
[21:42] <pecc> giffen 46753
[21:42] <pecc> and I have no idea whether there's anything affecting kernel modules or not
[21:43] <len-dt> but you are using the onboard sound card?
[21:43] <pecc> I'm not entirely sure
[21:43] <pecc> I think it's possible the original sound card went with the power button board
[21:43] <pecc> = dead
[21:43] <len-dt> Does the dock just plug into a USB port or is it a bigger connector?
[21:43] <pecc> USB
[21:44] <len-dt> Not internal sound then.
[21:44] <pecc> o.o
[21:44] <pecc> cat /proc/asound/cards
[21:44] <pecc>  1 [Set            ]: USB-Audio - C-Media USB Headphone Set
[21:44] <pecc>                       C-Media USB Headphone Set at usb-0000:00:1d.7-1.4.5, full speed
[21:45] <len-dt> I would guess you are not trying to do low latency sound stuff, just listening to whatever sound there is.
[21:45] <pecc> yeah
[21:46] <len-dt> I have not had problems using a USB audio interface.
[21:47] <len-dt> But I am very careful to make sure I use a USB connector that is not used for anything else. That is not a hub. But the only problem I have had when I had other things using the same port was xruns.
[21:48] <len-dt> (pops and clicks some times)
[21:48] <len-dt> My netbook wireless interferes with the audio :P
[21:49] <pecc> I'll try switching the dock directly to my lappy (it's now connected via hub)... I might drop off the channel but will be back
[21:49] <len-dt> k
[21:49] <pecc> yay no disconnect
[21:50] <pecc> now... have to wait
[21:50] <pecc> to see if the audio starts acting up again.
[21:51] <len-dt> I figured
[22:05] <pecc> *sigh*
[22:05] <pecc> it acted up again
[22:05] <pecc> more ideas?
[22:16] <len-dt> when it acted up did it add anything to dmesg?
[22:16] <len-dt> or syslog?
[22:29] <pecc> how do I check?
[22:40] <pecc> found syslog
[22:40] <pecc> cannot submit urb (err = -27) seems to happen consistently before disconnect-usb messages
[22:52] <pecc> och dem, some googling and an audio dev say this is not a simple issue :I