Silent pc (Re: [ardour-users] Session export ?

[Matthew Sewell]

On Thu, 2005-02-24 at 12:17, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > That sounds fine. Stay away from reiserfs for your audio disk though. ext3
> > of XFS is better for big files like audio files.

Dammit!  How come I can never get consistent advice on this subject?  I
put reiserfs on that drive because I read that it performs better for
audio work.  What do you suggest then?  Vfat or ext3?

> > Unless you have a massive multichannel soundcard, you can easily move all
> > the tracks you want from a single modern ide disk.
> > I just tested and I got 48 tracks playback without problem. It is only
> > when there are also a soundcards moving 24 channels or more at the same
> > time that you may run into trouble.

No.  My projects usually top out around 16 tracks total.  I don't think
I've EVER gone over 24 and I only have 8 inputs.

> Yeah, I pretty much agree. I use an external 1394a (400Mb/S) drive for
> both Ardour and LinuxSampler. I have two partitions. The audio
> partition is set up as VFAT and allows me to move data pretty easily
> between Ardour and Pro Tools. The LinuxSampler gig files are on a
> second partition done with ext3 since GigaStudio under either Win ME
> or Win XP won't work worth a darn using 1394 so that machine has a
> second drive in it for just samples.
> 
I have a problem where, after about 14 tracks or so, the disk can't keep
up while recording and I get an error message to that effect from
Ardour...then the track is ruined and the vocalist curses my mother.  I
really have to solve this.  My drives test (after hdparm tweaks) around
40 mB/S (320 Mb/s).

> Using the same 1394 drive I have no problems using 4 sample libraries
> (4 gig files) in LS and recording 8 channels of audio in Ardour. I've
> never had an error message so far and it all streams off and on the
> same drive.

Is that an IDE drive enclosed in a firewire enclosure?


> I have a  'massive multichannel soundcard' (HDSP 9652) but I seldom
> move more than about 8 channels in and 12 channels out at the same
> time. Probably Jack is still moving 26 in and 26 out - I don't know.
> Anyway, it works fine in an Athlon XP 1600+ machine using 'the dreaded
> Via chipset'! ;-) ;-)

Crap.  I keep reading that the VIA chipsets are to be AVOIDED.  What is
the truth?  All I know is that the disk can't keep up...although I
haven't had this problem since I changed to reiserfs, but I haven't
stress it very hard yet.

Learning about hardware issues and JACK is like trying to navigate a
maze full of mirrors and fog with a patch over one eye.  These things
have to be cleared up before its use becomes common.