From nobody Thu May 25 06:07:44 2023 X-Original-To: questions@mlmmj.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mlmmj.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4QRczX43bMz4CjsY for ; Thu, 25 May 2023 06:07:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ralf-mardorf@riseup.net) Received: from mx1.riseup.net (mx1.riseup.net [198.252.153.129]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256 client-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits) client-digest SHA256) (Client CN "mx1.riseup.net", Issuer "R3" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4QRczW1GYFz4Lq2 for ; Thu, 25 May 2023 06:07:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ralf-mardorf@riseup.net) Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; dkim=pass header.d=riseup.net header.s=squak header.b=G8AQqirE; spf=pass (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of ralf-mardorf@riseup.net designates 198.252.153.129 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=ralf-mardorf@riseup.net; dmarc=pass (policy=none) header.from=riseup.net Received: from fews02-sea.riseup.net (fews02-sea-pn.riseup.net [10.0.1.112]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits) server-digest SHA256) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.riseup.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4QRczS5s0kzDqjC for ; Thu, 25 May 2023 06:07:48 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=riseup.net; s=squak; t=1684994868; bh=iAjraH/MMq7g0n0amplGyiumusTP3Ix/QOG8hpu02bM=; h=Subject:From:To:Date:In-Reply-To:References:From; b=G8AQqirEfNESmPkFwsSZSbDgxK+O65MhZBhewJlR0aNSul7uRgPNxlYk7p0OCBuo+ mIDJIBH3RCoOBkD8/L3aEzWNIadd2vJ+Spb+7wj8ujwhyVs0wYxS3YbIiabAGLVOYd r46RAL0tezyuwX4vh7dMLiUy9IzVmcY6REC7niUA= X-Riseup-User-ID: F07F7679702F0375D2B0560A6AC696E346D09F91419FF66F5610973782B85CE1 Received: from [127.0.0.1] (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by fews02-sea.riseup.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 4QRczS1Yv8zFpsR for ; Thu, 25 May 2023 06:07:48 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: Subject: Re: Overview of Linux and FreeBSD sound systems? From: Ralf Mardorf To: questions@freebsd.org Date: Thu, 25 May 2023 08:07:44 +0200 In-Reply-To: <718e2b3e-3c57-d9b5-642e-6f6b54b896ce@Gmail.com> References: <718e2b3e-3c57-d9b5-642e-6f6b54b896ce@Gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable List-Id: User questions List-Archive: https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-questions List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-3.19 / 15.00]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.00)[-1.000]; SUBJECT_ENDS_QUESTION(1.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_SHORT(-1.00)[-1.000]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-0.99)[-0.994]; DMARC_POLICY_ALLOW(-0.50)[riseup.net,none]; R_SPF_ALLOW(-0.20)[+mx]; R_DKIM_ALLOW(-0.20)[riseup.net:s=squak]; RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW(-0.10)[198.252.153.129:from]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; RWL_MAILSPIKE_GOOD(-0.10)[198.252.153.129:from]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_ALL(0.00)[]; RCVD_VIA_SMTP_AUTH(0.00)[]; RCPT_COUNT_ONE(0.00)[1]; PREVIOUSLY_DELIVERED(0.00)[questions@freebsd.org]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; MID_RHS_MATCH_FROM(0.00)[]; RCVD_COUNT_THREE(0.00)[3]; TO_DN_NONE(0.00)[]; DWL_DNSWL_NONE(0.00)[riseup.net:dkim]; DKIM_TRACE(0.00)[riseup.net:+]; ASN(0.00)[asn:16652, ipnet:198.252.153.0/24, country:US]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; MLMMJ_DEST(0.00)[questions@freebsd.org]; RCVD_TLS_ALL(0.00)[] X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 4QRczW1GYFz4Lq2 X-Spamd-Bar: --- X-ThisMailContainsUnwantedMimeParts: N Hi, in simple words: On Wed, 2023-05-24 at 21:16 -0400, Steven Friedrich wrote: > ALSA Driver level, usually only one app can grab/use an audio device. Multiple audio streams can be used by the dmix plugin. > Sox A converter to convert an audio file from one to another format. > Pulse Pulseaudio is a desktop environment sound server, it doesn't allow to be used with low-latency, but can resample and more. It does use the ALSA backend and allows different apps to access a single audio device by the ALSA backend. The apps can use different sample rates. aRts was kind of a precursor to pulseaudio. It's discontinued. > Phonon KDE multimedia API, not really a sound server. > Jack Jackd is a real-time, low-latency sound server used with the ALSA backend for PCI, PCIe and USB audio devices, for firewire another backend is used. It doesn't resample or do other things. It allows several apps to access a single audio device by the backend. All apps need to use the same sample rate. Pipewire has also existed for some time, but AFAIK it's still not ready for production environments. "PipeWire is a project that aims to greatly improve handling of audio and video under Linux. It provides a low-latency, graph-based processing engine on top of audio and video devices that can be used to support the use cases currently handled by both PulseAudio and JACK." - https://pipewire.org/ On Linux I'm either using plain ALSA for "normal desktop usage", since to me it doesn't make sense to use more than one audio stream at a time, unless I'm producing music. To make music I'm using jackd with the ALSA backend. However, nowadays I usually use a proprietary fruit when making music. Regards, Ralf