Trouble using JACK as Audiodevice

[halbius]

Hi,

I'm using Jack Audio Connection Kit to connect several Audio Applications, which works quite nice.
Now i wanted to integrate Hollyhock. But when the Jack-Server is already started (as I usually do before starting any other applications), Hollyhock produces the error "Open error: is JACK server running?" It starts up, but no audio output is available.
When try it the other way and start Hollyhock first, it comes up properly with JACK as Audiodevice and all available i/o's. But after that, the JACK server itself cannot be started anymore. That means for example QJackControl and Catia as Gui's don't start anymore, no
routing is available

I followed even this procedure, but with no result: http://www.sensomusic.com/wiki3/doku.ph ... by_sephult

Did anyone had similar problems and got this working?

Thanks a lot!

[sephult]

Hello halbius!

Yes I noticed the same issues, I have not dug more into Jack yet regarding, and would like to at one point refresh my procedure.
At one point I had a solid 4 track going from Usine into Sonar, but I encountered problems with Sonar wanting to screw up the Jack connections.
At this point was where I had written the initial procedure for using Jack.

Since then I have reinstalled and had problems getting connections as you said, and I have had some other issues with Jack and my configuration as well so I have not spent much time digging into. I am in real need of getting an inter-application solution as many probably are.

I just finished doing a Dante Via trial but was very unsuccessful in my attempts, and was not impressed they dropped the channel count to 1 stereo pair.

If I get a chance in the next few days, maybe I will explore again and see if there is anything I can do to add to this, or help out.
I am now using ableton more, and maybe I can give it a shot.

-s

[halbius]

Hello -s,

I just got it working! Maybe it's helpful for you, too.

It started after I installed Hollyhock. For some reason any changes I made in the preferences were not saved, Hollyhock started always in the same state and I had to adjust drivers and so on
with ervery startup. And I got a lot of messages like "Couldn't create file c:Program Files/Usine....xx.tmp" and so on.
So started to execute Hollyhock as Admin. That worked for some time cause I used it only standalone for testing.
But started as Admin, it breaks this Jack-Stuff. After I switched back to non-Admin, it works fine.

So the solution is: run both (or all) applications as Admin or as Non-Admin, but mixing doesn't seem to be a good idea.

In my case there seem to be maybe two problems:

1. Hollyhock doesn't have the proper rigths / permissions to write / acces certain files and folders.
-> I fixed this manually by giving permission to write and change to my own user account for these folders and files

2. Maybe this happens because there is something messed with the naming of the "Program Files"- folder, cause I'm using german Windows which renames it to "Programme".
I figured out, that for example qJackControl, run as Admin, cannot find the Patchbay definitions in it's own folder (which is stored in C:Program FilesJack), but run as normal user I can
access them. More strange is that I even cannot see them using the Explorer.

[sephult]

Great news halbius!

I am interested to hear how you are applying in your system as well. I was trying to merge and use my soundcard via ASIO4ALL, but that was another issue i had later on. If you have any specific instructions or better instructions like the both admin/non-admin feel free to modify the wiki page.

-s

[sephult]

Hi Halbius!

I have good news on my end regarding Jack Audio, I have got a solid connection with Hollyhock running with Ableton Live now as well.
I will update the wiki here within the next few days hopefully, most likely just using qJack Control as the basis for setup instead of the command server.

There are some quirks such as when shutting down and opening jack server, I know ableton will freeze up if the server shuts down before it does.
Well regardless let me know how your experience is going using Jack and let me know if I can help, or you have any tips to share.

-s

[halbius]

Hi sephult,

that was exactly the suggestion I would have made when editing the wiki. qJackControl is my main tool for configuring, start/stop and patching and works quite well.
Yes, clients crash when Jack ist stopped during active connections. Even more annoying ist that some clients hang a long time when started with JACK as selected device while JACK ist not active.
I will see if I find some time and add some of my experiences.

[damstraversaz]

another option is to use an Asio router ( If I understand your issue) . I'm using this one since years , and I found it very good and stable http://odeus-audio.com.au/Odeus/ASIOLinkPro.
In the next version ( actually in RC) there will be an option for looping audio ( for exemple audio out from a DAW, routing this audio out to the audio In of another asio app etc) . This is in my opinion a modular way to route audio , like usine , but between audio software. and No audio latency added.

there is too voicmeeter banana http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Vo ... banana.htm ( donationware) but routing is a lot more difficult ( you must use asio insert driver, asio driver in the other DAW , reconfigure the bus input etc) . It works, but this is not the sam quality than Asiolink pro, at least for me. It will add too a buffer of latency , so it may be an issue, depending of your asio buffer size.

[sephult]

Thanks for sharing damstraversaz,

Quite possibly could update the wiki section and maybe add a procedural about how you will use the RC version to inter-connect audio apps?
Multi-ASIO Loopback devices is one thing that Windows severely lacks, and would be great to have options to do so.

I'll have to try asiolink pro out sometime it sounds interesting, so as of now do you just use as an input/output merger/mixer?

Halbius,

It seems I was having issues running the server and connecting to QJack post server connection. I am thinking there are some bugs here in doing so.
Also, there is the section I need to add to change the default IO so you have more connections....plus definitely like more time to see how latency and performance is.
As of last nights test at 128 buffers it was dead on feeding Usine into Ableton.

-s

[damstraversaz]

When John, the creator of asiolink will release the new version, I will make a wiki post on this.
the general idea:
you can share an asio driver between several software:
routing the hardware input (ASIO DRIVER IN) to the asio input of each software ( ASIO HOST IN MIX) , and with the loop fonction, routing the asio output of a DAW to the asio input of another software ( DAW, visual software, etc).
Asio link pro is multiclient so you can do this with several software, all the audio will be send to the main client ( usually you main DAW) . Looper fonction just add one buffer of latency ( it make sense for routing) but all the other routing are latency free.
the software is very stable, I never had a crash. There is too a lot of others option , but not really useful for my use of audio software, but I'm using it sometimes :
Speaker in routing from windows ( not asio) to the asio driver, output to speaker sound ( from asio to windows sound, useful for exemple for visual: the FFGL format use the default speaker output by definition, if you're using ISF or GLSL ( OpenGL Shading Language) that's useful too)
there is too a nice network fonction ( very stable and easy to use) for local network or not.

[halbius]

@ damstraversaz: That sounds very interesting, I will have a look at it when there is more time. In my case I'm bound to JACK cause there is a piece of software that
only works with JACK... I will see, if this AsioLink solves some of my problems/needs or if additional software makes it just more complicated...

@ sephult: Here are some of my settings for a quick start:
1. Driver: use portaudio
2. check "Realtime" (this is the topmost priority)
3. Frames/Period + Portmaximum: I haven't checked out what this does exactly. I suggest to start with low values and in case of dropouts increase until they are gone (in my case Frames 512 and Port 256 works fine)
4. Timout: should be set 10000 (says Jack-manual)
5. Input / Output Device: Select your favorite Audio Device. Be sure to use ASIO.
6. Audio: Duplex
7. Sample Rate and Dither: what you like and need
Now the tricky thing:
8. Channels I/O: Here you set the available System I/O Ports! If you go to the "connect"-Tab, your computers hardware connections appaear under the label "system". This number is limited by the physical availabel ports of your used Audio-Interface (for example my motu 828mk2: 8* analog, 8*adat,2*spdif, 2*Insert, 2*MainOut/2*MicIn = 22 I/O)
9. Interapplication Ports: Go to C:/Program Files/Jack/32(-64-)bits/ open JackRouter.config in your favorite editor. Here set in the [IO] section your max. used number of ports for input and ouput. The numbers set here are available for every(!) application that connects to Jack.

Extra:
10. If you need interapplication MIDI, go to "Server Prefix" and change "jackd" to "jackd -X winmme". I haven't worked with it, so i can't say much more about it.
11. If you want to use JACK with 64-Bit-Apps, you have to register it manually: regsvr32 "C:Program Files (x86)Jack v1.9.864bitsJackRouter.dll"

I hope this helps a little bit... If you have more trouble using jack, feel free to let me know.