JACK, qtractor and TAL Noisemaker on Pandaboard success story

[Dan MacDonald]

One of the most compelling and attractive aspects of GNU/Linux and Free
software for me has always been portability and so to that I end I have
been striving for the last 16 years to make sure that I can do everything I
need to do with a computer with open, free software. My other main hobby is
music and so naturally these have converged with my focus being put on
testing free audio software for Linux.

My first foray into running Linux on a non-x86 machine was back in '99 when
I bought the original iMac mainly so I could install and play with Linux on
something that wasn't a PC. My first exposure to ARM Linux came in 2004/5
when I got hold of a Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000 which was a mighty impressive
device at the time as it was the first Linux PDA to have a HD, USB host
etc. The C3000 only has 64MB RAM but, as anyone who has run Linux on the
original XBOX will tell you, you'd be surprised at how much you can do
under Linux with only 64MB RAM. I managed to get JACK, specimen, seq24 and
a few of the Linux trackers running on the Zaurus.

Now its 2012 and I'm the proud owner of a Pandaboard - a mini ARM dev board
with a dual core ARM Cortex, 1GB RAM, SSD and HDMI output etc. Apart from
it 'not being a PC' - what I really like about this device is its low power
consumption and total lack of fans or other cooling methods hence its
totally silent. I've got Ubuntu 12.04 running Fluxbox on it and yesterday I
achieved one of my main Pandaboard goals as I'm very happy to report it is
possible to run at least one instance of the DISTRHO TAL Noisemaker LV2
plugin under qtractor (latest svn) on the Pandaboard with no xruns! As soon
as you add a second Noisemaker track the xruns start to appear but you can
of course mix NM down to audio tracks to get more instances that way.

It should be noted that I have had to use an external USB soundcard to get
JACK running on the Pandboard as the current ALSA driver for the Panda's
onboard audio isn't working with JACK yet - in fact the onboard audio isn't
working at all with the latest TI kernel and I also had to set the CPU
governor to performance to get xrun free performance for Noisemaker. It
goes without saying that the Pandaboard is not cut out for forming the
basis of a pro-audio DAW and will not be replacing your i7 rig any time
soon but its literally sooo much cooler!

[Kaspar Bumke]

Great stuff Dan!

I too am really interested in these new ARM board appearing everywhere and
what role they could play in Linux Audio.

It seems like you are going all out for the most powerful one and seeing
how far it can go head to head with the x86s.

I have been looking closer at the BeagleBone and wondering how some of the
Linux Audio projects, that separate out the "Engine" and the GUI, such as
SooperLooper, LinuxSampler, Bristol and many more could perform on a device
like that.

While the BeagleBone does away with the Graphics it also has no onboard
sound. So I have been researching CODECs that have Linux drivers that could
be interfaced with it. So far the Analog AD1939 is coming out on top. It is
a 4-in 8-out 192Khz capable device and the drivers are part of ALSA. So I
have been gearing up making a Beagle Cape with this thing.

A major concern for me is that, even without X, even with a CODEC connected
over I2S I won't get the performance (and memory) I need to run any of the
aforementioned programs.

Have you done any tests running audio programs without X?

Another thing, have you been compiling yourself or are the repositories for
ARMv7 for this kind of stuff fairly good for Ubuntu?

All the Best,

Kaspar

[Louigi Verona]

I just hope this Secure Boot does not reduce Linux ARM devices to a tiny
number!

L.V.