Hi there, I’m setting up a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo based SFF PC as a general purpose box, but with a leaning towards audio applications & music. I also have openSUSE on a much more powerful AMD Phenom 2 X6 based box, and with the default kernel in that box I get pretty good audio latency (approx 10ms with almost no XRUN’s) with a PCI audiophile soundcard - latency in Windows with the supplied Windows ASIO driver is barely 2ms. I’ve not bothered putting a realtime kernel on that box as 10ms latency is fine with me.
My new box however has a Behringer USB UCA202 soundcard - in Windows I get around 5-6ms error-free latency on that, but in Leap 42.2 it still gets XRUN’s at 20-30ms. I tried a prebuilt preempt-rt kernel from software.opensuse.org, but the system will not boot with that kernel - I note that rt kernel is v 3.14.79 vs the v4.4.46 default.
I’m no expert on kernels etc, but it is obvious that I probably need the rt one for my new box, as 30ms or greater is noticeable when playing MIDI devices or playing guitar/bass into the audio system.
A couple of questions:
Is there a reason why a preempt-rt kernel available for Leap 42.2 would be so much older version that the default kernel? Surely that would cause issues?
Could the default v4.4.46 kernel source be patched with the rt patches? I’d contemplate building an rt version of 4.4.46 if it meant my sound latency could be improved.
If anyone has any suggestions for improving my latency, please let me know…
Before I tried Leap 42.2 I tried KXStudio 64-bit 14.04.2 and I liked it, but the showstopper was that it couldn’t open VST’s in LMMS/VeSTige (I want to use a couple of FX and instrument VST’s in a live situation) - I’ve tried multiple fixes but to no avail. I tried KXStudio 32-bit (suggestion from some is that x64 environment causes issues running 32-bit VST’s), but the current 32-bit KXStudio 14.04.2 DVD has a buggy installer that for some people (including me) leaves a borked install and non-booting PC. There is a bugfix version of 32-bit KXStudio (14.04.3) that is buried in the forums, but on my big openSUSE box LMMS/VeSTige actually works with plenty of VST’s so thought I’d try that solution first.
I’ll look at further options to reduce latency on Leap 42.2 first, then failing that I’ll download the bugfix version of KXStudio 32-bit, and failing that…I’m running out of hair to pull out! :sarcastic:
