OSS apps vs. ALSA apps

[Gustin Johnson]

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| I hate ALSA and dmix: dmix is a userspace library plug-in, and not at
| kernel level, so not only do some apps not conform to it (they don't
| /have/ to link against that library), it has latency problems too. I
| welcome the day when the newly open-sourced OSS4, and its lovely
| kernel-level vmix virtual mixer, replace ALSA and dmix forever. OSS is
| a much nicer sound system anyway, even if it did betray us by closing
| up last decade.
|
I am still not sure what all the OSS4 fuss is about?  Currently Alsa + 
jack is unbeatable in my studio.  The old OSS really sucked (for legal 
and technical reasons) which is a big part of why we have ALSA.  The 
licence they used prevented upstream adoption which is where device 
drivers actually belong.  I still remember those days, and perhaps that 
is why I like Alsa.

At any rate, until it makes it upstream (ie. part of the default kernel 
sources) I would not bother.   What I don't need in the studio is yet 
another level of needless complexity.  If OSS4 is as good as some say, 
then work on getting it accepted upstream.

Of course if it works for you, then great.  That is what is important.

| My suggestion is to give up on Gtick if you're intent on using JACK.

Good idea.  Apps that are not written to utilize jack should be avoided 
IMO (Audacity should be avoided too, as it's jack support seems 
unstable, besides rezound works just as well if not better).  Even with 
wrappers a native jack is usually preferred.

| If you're into overkill, you could have Hydrogen give you a beat to
| the right BPM, but I'm sure there are other applications that I
| haven't heard of that are more suitable.

There is a metronome in rosegarden, and there may be one in ardour.
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