[Ardour-Users] a completely frustrating experience so far

[Chris Caudle]

On Sat, May 16, 2015 9:04 pm, Martin Holsinger wrote:

You should keep replies on list, likely no one person will have all the
pieces to figure out what is going  wrong on your system.

> I just downloaded v. 4.0 of Ardour.   Next time my computer decides to
> recognize the Tascam, I'll try running Ardour without Jack.

I'm not familiar with that model of Tascam, maybe someone on the linux
audio users mailing list can help figure out if there is some kind of
problem with consistently starting that properly.
My understanding of that generation of Tascam interfaces is that they
require some kind of firmware to be loaded by the computer when they
start, I found a few mailing list entries regarding getting it to work
reliably, but that seemed to be from a couple of years ago.  I don't know
if they are still problematic or not.

The program lsusb will show USB devices connected to your computer, so you
can use that to check whether the interface is seen, but not recognized as
an audio device, or whether there are USB problems which prevent the
device from being recognized as attached at all.

>> > I click the "play" button, and the cursor moves, but no sound.
>>
>> That sounds like perhaps you are not really connected to the Tascam
>> interface.
>
> I was referring to a recording I made the one time I got my earlier
> version of Ardour functioning.  That time, the meters moved when there
> was sound on the channel, etc.  The sound that I can't hear is the one I
> recorded in Ardour.  The Tascam is not in that loop.

Wait, so what are you listening on?  The Tascam is the only interface you
have ever mentioned.
With JACK you can only use one interface at a time, you cannot use one for
recording and a different one for playing back.  At least not easily, it
is technically possible but quite an advanced topic.  I have never tried,
but I have seen it described.  Doesn't seem worth the trouble to me, but
it obviously was to someone because someone figured out how to do it.
Sorry, bit of a digression, just wanted to make sure you weren't trying to
use the Tascam for recording and then something different for playback.

>> How are you starting JACK?  Directly from the command line, or with
>> QJackControl or a similar program?

> I'm using QJackControl

OK, a lot of people are familiar with that, someone should be able to help.
The "Messages" button on QJackControl may be helpful, it opens a window
with a lot of logging information about what exactly is being started.  
There should be messages there from the jack server about which interface
is being used, and which settings are being used.

>
>> Are you using the defaults, or
>> selecting the Tascam as the audio interface?
>
> I am selecting the Tascam as the audio interface, when the computer
> recognizes that it's there.
>
>> Are you  selecting by device
>> number (e.g. hw:0 or hw:1) or selecting by name?
>>
> I am, as far as I understand, selecting by name--from the menu accessed by
> the arrow to the right of the dropdown/type in box in Jack setup.

OK, you have a new enough version of QJackControl that it shows names. 
Older versions showed only the device number by default.

>> What distribution and version of linux, jack, pulse, and ardour do you
>> have?
>>
> Ubuntu 14.04
> Jack 0.3.10

That is actually the version of QJackControl.  The "about" window should
have that version number, then a couple of lines below should have "Using:
JACK x.x.x" with the jack server version number.


> pulse--I don't know, whatever is bundled with 14.04, I presume
> ardour--v. 4.0

I'm not familiar with Ubuntu audio quirks, so someone else will have to
chime in there.  I have heard complaints in the past that Ubuntu did not
get JACK and Pulse integration correct, but I have no idea whether that
still applies to 14.04 or not.

-- 
Chris Caudle