[07:32] <BrianHechinger[m> What is a reasonable number for the DSP to be running at under minimal load? (ardour, no other jack plugins/applications)
[08:16] <rgh> Brian Hechinger: dsp load is how much of the audio buffer is used 
[08:17] <rgh> So it totally depends on how you set up your audio backend. 
[08:19] <rgh> Please remember that low latency / small buffers is only needed when monitoring your audio during recording. And only that if you don't monitor through your hardware sound device. 
[08:21] <rgh> Since I hardly record / monitor live audio / midi I use a fairly large buffer (1024) and my dsp load is about 2 to 4 %
[09:17] <BrianHechinger[m> I only ask because I'm playing with Liqourix and I can now run 32/3 which uses 20% DSP (64/3 only used 10%) and unless I'm misremembering on the old system even 16/2 wasn't using that much DSP.
[17:39] <BrianHechinger[m> 12% with 64/3 (had to drop down due to xruns)
[17:39] <BrianHechinger[m> so, I guess 20% isn't too far off base.
[17:41] <rgh> Brian Hechinger: I've never got lower than 256 I think 
[17:43] <BrianHechinger[m> I couldn't reasonably get below 256 with USB audio. FireWire FTW. :-D
[21:58] <OvenWerks> BrianHechinger[m: if you are doing firewire using the alsa drivers, 256 is pretty much minimum. The same device using ffado drivers will do 16/2 solidly. USB devices must have their own irq and a clear USB bus. Many new mother boards will not allow this at all. The only way around may be to add another USB port with a PCIe card. Also, whichever USB bus you are using needs to have a higher priority 
[21:58] <OvenWerks> than your mouse, webcam, etc.