From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: asbjs@stud.ntnu.no (Asbjørn Sæbø) Subject: Lowest latency: JACK, or ALSA directly? Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 15:41:53 +0100 Message-ID: <20041111144152.GA12443@stud.ntnu.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Content-Disposition: inline Sender: alsa-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net Errors-To: alsa-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: To: alsa-devel@lists.sourceforge.net List-Id: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org As I understand it, JACK acts as a middle layer between a (jack-aware) application and the underlying ALSA libraries. But it is also possible to program against the ALSA libraries directly (which I am doing now). I am writing an application for audio transfer over network, where the main goal is to achieve the lowest latency possible. I would assume that, as JACK adds an extra layer, it may also introduce extra latency. =20 Is that so? And in that case, how much may be gained by using the ALSA libs directly, instead of going through ALSA? Although I so far barely have gotten into ALSA programming, it does seem to be manageable in difficulty. (Don't laugh, I am an acoustican, not a=20 programmer.) How is programming against JACK in comparison? As far as I understand it, the main advantages of JACK are the=20 possibility to connect together several applications, as well as the=20 ability to keep these applications in sync. That is however not very=20 important to me now, as I will probably not need to connect to other=20 programs. Are there other important advantages? And what are the=20 disadvantages? (As an aside, if anybody knows of any open source applications for very low latency transfer of audio over IP, I would appreciate it if you let me know. Although this audio programming is some of the most fun I have=20 had in years, I can hardly defend spending my time duplicating work.) With kind regards Asbj=F8rn S=E6b=F8 ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: Sybase ASE Linux Express Edition - download now for FREE LinuxWorld Reader's Choice Award Winner for best database on Linux. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=5588&alloc_id=12065&op=click