# realtime audio



## a59303 (Jun 18, 2010)

have a fairly complicated question which I'm hoping I can get some basic answers to.

I recently downloaded puredyne(live cd) and found it to be quite a bit faster with Rezound in particular.

I have a poorly configured FreeBSD installation, so I realize this may be a silly comparison.

But.  I saw some mention of the debian being faster or 'better' for real-time audio, I think because of the 'real-time' kernel.

-- my question;  Would I be able to.. or would it be fairly easy to configure FreeBSD to be more real-time oriented for sound processing.

Or, is there information for this purpose that someone can point me to?

Thanks in advance for any info-

a5'


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## loop (Jun 18, 2010)

There is a freebsd-realtime mailing list, but it hasn't seen any activity since late 2009.

puredyne uses the JACK sound system, so using JACK on FreeBSD would be a good start.  I don't think there is any difference between having sound drivers loaded as modules or compiled into the kernel.

Have you attempted to measure the audio latency?  There is a command-line app for JACK called Jack_delay here which may work for you.

Also (because this is an interesting topic) I found some stuff here


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## a59303 (Jun 18, 2010)

I found some info, maybe this will solve or improve my problem.

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=14371&highlight=realtime+audio

will investigate


thanks,

a5'


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## a59303 (Jun 18, 2010)

Thanks for the reply


I've actually tried jack - a while ago, I think I had similar problems (the computer slowing down, glitches in performance)- although I don't clearly remember.  will investigate.

I've also noticed that, using puredyne now, firefox works smoother than seamonkey on the freebsd installation.  Although it seems to cause glitches with audacious on this system.

To be more specific::

when I use rezound on the freebsd with blackbox, I have trouble opening the menu's, here the menus work fine and the sound processing is smooth.

its a laptop (hp pavilion with a celeron processor)-- 

I thought that this was sort of a general question about freebsd so I asked here.

a5'


ALSO:  I just saw below, "audio in Freebsd" will check that.


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## a59303 (Jun 18, 2010)

sorry for my hasty post-- I am now reading 


```
man sound
```

the basics,  handbook to the rescue.

thanks for any help though.

a5'



> Also (because this is an interesting topic) I found some stuff here




will check, thanks.



*
found this:
http://forums.freebsd.org/archive/index.php/t-10816.html

looks like 
	
	



```
info snd_hda
```
 might help...

*more:


```
# pciconf -vl
```
may help


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## a59303 (Jun 19, 2010)

OK, running freebsd 8.x, 

found in faq 


```
pciconf -lv
```
revealed that I have a AC97 Realtek SoundMAX

I found it in the hardware notes

that I should use 


> kldload snd_ich



for that,
 so Rezound appears to work much better.


not sure but I think.

thanks,

a5'


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## Beastie (Jun 19, 2010)

Don't forget to add *snd_ich_load="YES"* to /boot/loader.conf.


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## a59303 (Jun 19, 2010)

Thanks for the reply,

although I *think, and I'm fairly confident.  That it is one or the other

```
kldload snd_ich
```
or

-loader.conf-

```
snd_ich_load="YES"
```

currently looking at--

```
man [url=http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=snd_ich&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+8.0-RELEASE&format=html]snd_ich[/URL]
```


I think that my card was listed on the computer as ICH4, have to check that.

Thanks,

a5'


+
+  because I am starting to suspect that it is an issue with RAM, I am checking the output of vmstat as well. Also thinking about my xorg configuration,(blackbox) 
+


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## Beastie (Jun 19, 2010)

It's both. The first loads the kernel module allowing you to use the sound card. The second ensures the module is loaded every time the system is started.

And yes, snd_ich(4) is the right driver for that card.


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