Hi Luigi,
Quoting luigi rensinghoff luigi_r001@yahoo.com:
Does anybody have a running system (it means, no clicks, no crashes, stable) with PD 0.37, Jack, ALSA, Multiface, Hammerfall DSP ????
Yes: me. I am using Gentoo, PD 0.37-devel, compiled from source with no additional patches, and ALSA, Jack and a PCMCIA-cardbus Multiface HDSP. I just performed with it last week, and the only major issues I faced were due to CPU-usage and denormalized numbers which caused them. [Keep waiting for this to get seriously addressed on the object- and external-level, but this is not related to your question...]
What can i still optimize, check if sthg is wrong ???
From your PCI arrangement, I can see that all your Human Interface Devices
[mouse, etc] are at IRQ 9, whiile the HDSP is at 10. Is this a laptop? If you have any way of getting the HDSP to IRQ 9 and all the other stuff to IRQ 10, you will be doing really good. Swap cards in the PCI slots if you can, or check your BIOS.
Failing that, I would try compiling PD 0.37-devel [get it via CVS] with --enable-alsa and --enable-jack flags. Usually, the Planet CCRMA packages are pretty good, but you can never be sure. I think Fernando is just starting to get more into the PD world, as can be seen by the only recent additions of many crucial PD externals.
Also, as Tim mentions, use a light-duty window manager like Fluxbox [my personal fav] or Window Maker rather than a flashy, full featured one like KDE or Gnome.
I noticed that my performance improved when I switched to Gentoo. This not necessarily because of the Gentoo packages per se, but instead because you can install a very stripped-down system with Gentoo [or Debian, or Slackware...] Red Hat tends to install lots of stuff you don't need when doing audio. Do you really need a mail server running while trying to do realtime audio? Cut down on all of your overhead and background processes and you will see improvements.
Small things: ---increase your buffer size in PD ---increase your frames per period in Jack ---run at 44100KHz instead of Linux-default 48000KHz sampling rate ---trying running as sudo or root and see if it makes a difference ---always use the -rt flag in PD ---always use the -realtime mode in Jack. ---make sure you have low latency kernel with capabilties patch [CCRMA should have that covered] ---do you need all those HDSP channels in PD? Try using the -channels flag. ---investigate ways to change the latency of your IRQs and the priority of processes [renice, for example in the latter case] ---don't run any apps which make constant updates to the screen [such as Gkrell system monitor, or anything with animations!] while PDing. ---keep your patches clean! Visible arrays of samples, for example, are death to audio performance. Put things in subpatches, and ask yourself how many graphical elements are really *necessary* for your patch to run. Graphics which are updated frequently by PD are just as destructive to sound as graphics in other applications!
Unfortunately, running Linux for audio is not like plugging in a Mac. Yet. A lot of rocket science is still pouring into the field, so for the time being, your setup will probably be as experimental as your sound.
Good luck! D.