jackalpup 0.0 - (rc3) plug and play audio puplet

[Shortstop]

@Shortstop
Glad there is some progress. Again, this is ultimately a puppy/ventoy question not specific to jackalpup so probably better to make a thread with a relevant title to get more minds involved. Sorry I've not been able to chip in.

@Clarity
Thanks for helping
I have been pretty far from the puppy world of late. Point me to the discussion of saved sessions and I'd gladly take a peek.

I will be uploading an incremental update soon. Ardour 6.9 and a few other things.

Thanks. I've been using a dedicated USB drive for Jackalpup and its been a blast learning Ardour, and how to use it.

I have zero clue on how to actually use QJackctl, but I know it will be awesome somehow if I can learn how to use it to control drum machine type plugins with sequencer type synths (think the huge Moog type synths with plugs everywhere).

Will do more research, but for now, have been at least successful in figuring out how to create MIDI tracks for my Arturia KeyLabs 61 essential midi keyboard, as well as the separate audio input for my Novation Ultranova synth too .

Just wanted to say thanks, and if you ever could link up to where you actually host Jackalpup in terms of GitHub or where you created assets for the distro, let me know since I like the vibes and would love to either help with programming or artwork.

Tag me if you're interested in that respect since I check out tagged posts on this forum

@puddlemoon

[puddlemoon]

@Shortstop Thanks! That's great.
Qjackctl is set up and running in the background with basic settings. I've still plenty to learn about it but let me know if there is something specific you need to do.
Carla is the place to link up plugins of all sorts with the different jack apps. Like an epic pedal board or that huge modular synth (last year I fell in the modular synth hole so I get that one) plenty to explore in there...

The work is not hosted anywhere, just the end result of my workshop tinkering , slightly polished for sharing. but I will keep you posted. Thanks for feeling the love.

I will get this small update out soon in the form of .sfs files to swap. Life has been full so it's little by little.

[Shortstop]

@puddlemoon

Gotcha, if you ever want to host it on GitHub and get me involved, count me in as its the coolest Pup derivative I personally know.

Thanks for the ideas.

Yeah, I wanted to get into modular synth stuff too as the newer album I was working on was going to feature a lot of synths that are MIDI synced as well.

[puddlemoon]

Hi folks
I have uploaded some updated .sfs files for the main .sfs and for both the adrv and the ydrv. The adrv has Ardour updated to 6.9 and the ydrv has Hydrogen updated to 1.1.1. The main .sfs has Carla updated to 2.4.2 and sonobus to 1.5.1 plus a new (exciting?) addition... Cardinal.
Cardinal is a virtual modular synth as a jack standalone and a plugin based on VCVrack. It is a powerhouse and a world to explore on it's own but even more so considering one can access carla and all the lv2 plugins as a module within the synth. overwhelming possibilities!
I also uploaded the 5.13 realtime kernel ready for easy swapping. Thanks once again to @rockedge!

get the the files from the 3-31-22-update.zip at archive.org and enjoy

[geo_c]

The adrv has Ardour updated to 6.9 and the ydrv has Hydrogen updated to 1.1.1. The main .sfs has Carla updated to 2.4.2 and sonobus to 1.5.1 plus a new (exciting?) addition... Cardinal. I also uploaded the 5.13 realtime kernel ready for easy swapping.

Hey thanks @puddlemoon! I was just looking at the Ardour site contemplating an update approach.

So to update the kernel, do I just copy the fdrv, zdrv, and vmlinuz into the system directory?

[puddlemoon]

Yep, @geo_c that's about it. I keep a folder for each kernel in /mnt/home/jackalpup so I can "disable" by dragging the trio in. Then "enable" the new trio by moving back to /mnt/home/jackalpup
Ardour is mostly self contained in /opt/Ardour-6.xx (except your projects of course) but the installer will overwrite the .desktops and so mess with the jackal menu layout. I could make a .pet in the future. Perhaps a better way to update in general anyway...

[Shortstop]

@puddlemoon
Sweet, thanks for the update to this.

I will probably upgrade my Jackalpup drive accordingly by just wiping it, and using your newest rip from scratch. Shouldn't be too hard since I just need to make a FAT32 partition for the pup's contents, and then just to make a boot partition with a boot flag accordingly.

Cool stuff as always, looking forward to it.

[puddlemoon]

Hi @Shortstop
Definitely best to use an ext4 partition for the puppy install. You may need a fat32 for the boot partition. On EFI machnes I have been successfully unzipping the multiboot.zip (which uses refind boot manager) to an empty ext4 usb and boot right up with no other action. but I have only tested that on a few, you may need the boot flag.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the topic of the multiboot.zip... I have discovered that I have left out the realtime boot flag "threadirqs" on the main entry of the refind.conf. on both the full and slim versions. (only the zip, both iso versions have the flag in place)

Code: Select all

menuentry "jackalpup" {
    
    volume find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /jackalpup/initrd.gz
    loader /jackalpup/vmlinuz  
    initrd /jackalpup/initrd.gz
    options "pmedia=usbflash psubdir=/jackalpup pfix=fsck"
    submenuentry "fresh boot to ram" {
       loader /jackalpup/vmlinuz  
       initrd /jackalpup/initrd.gz
       options "pmedia=usbflash psubdir=/jackalpup pfix=fsck pfix=ram threadirqs"

As you can see it is present in the sub entry but missing from the main entry. oops

So if you have used the multiboot zip, please check in /EFI/boot/refind.conf and add "threadirqs"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a different note.. Another quick update...
Cardinal had an issue opening the save dialog so I have added the fixed version and the couple deps needed.
I have just uploaded a new main sfs to address this and add a few other things while i was at it.
latest Carla and Cardinal
latest jack2 and Qjackctl built from source
added sysex-drop, a small utility to send sysex files and Aether, one more reverb plugin..
plus, Pup-Control. (for old times sake)

Download the sfs directly here

or get the 4-16-22-puppy_jackalpup-0.0.sfs, remove the date and replace.
https://archive.org/download/jackalpup

[geo_c]

On a different note.. Another quick update...
Cardinal had an issue opening the save dialog so I have added the fixed version and the couple deps needed.
I have just uploaded a new main sfs to address this and add a few other things while i was at it.
latest Carla and Cardinal
latest jack2 and Qjackctl built from source
added sysex-drop, a small utility to send sysex files and Aether, one more reverb plugin..
plus, Pup-Control. (for old times sake)

I'm playing around with the update. Jack, Qjackctl, Ardour, and Carla all seem to be working well. But when I try to fire up Hydrogen from the menu nothing happens so I tried from the terminal:

I'm using the updated 04-16-2022-puppy.sfs, the 04-01-2022 adrv and ydrv, but not the updated 04-01-2022 kernel, fdrv and zdrv, don't know if that matters,

[puddlemoon]

Hi @geo_c
Sorry about that. That new lib is in a new location and required running "ldconfig". I did include the file it updates, /etc/ld.so.cache, in the ydrv and thought I had successfully tested that but I just checked on a fresh boot again and sure enough it still needs to be run.

So just run "ldconfig" in the terminal and it will fire up after. Meanwhile I'll try to find a better solution.

Thanks for the report and sorry for the hassle.

[geo_c]

Hi @geo_c
So just run "ldconfig" in the terminal and it will fire up after. Meanwhile I'll try to find a better solution.

Well that was easy, now it's running!

[geo_c]

@puddlemoon the PupControl is a nice addition!

[puddlemoon]

@geo_c Sweet! I used it a lot in the past and was feeling nostalgic...

I'm guessing you noticed but for clarity, you only need to run "ldconfig" once for Hydrogen to keep working.

Did you get a chance to check out Cardinal yet? It is a steep learning curve for sure, especially if you are not familiar with control voltage, but it is a fascinating and inspiring way to approach the creative process. I've been thinking of making an example patch as a starting point if there is interest.

[geo_c]

@puddlemoon , hadn't gotten around to playing with Cardinal yet. I booted it up and looked at it though. I'll be setting up my midi rig soon at the new studio! I'll have to post some pictures of the place soon.

[Shortstop]

Just swapped out the contents of my Jackalpup based flash drive's 'LINUX' partition with the latest components you posted a month or so ago.

Problem is that the initial save after the first boot is just fine.

However, saving after the SECOND time booting takes like 15 mins.

I used this thread originally to make the USB flash drive pretty much verbatim as I boot right into Jackalpup:
viewtopic.php?p=46867&i=1

For context, I used the 'FULL' ISO from Archive.org as well.

It's probably cause its a ton of stuff on the USB drive though for the distro itself, not sure. All I have on that drive is a 'LINUX' partition containing all the necessary Jackalpup based .sfs files, initrd.gz, vmlinuz, and the save folder. All I have on the FAT32 'BOOT' partition is whatever 'Grub2DOS' put on it.

[mikeslr]

Hi shortstop,

The problem you are running into is that the more stuff you have in your SaveFile/Folder, the longer it takes to (a) add new stuff; (b) boot-up; and (c) shut-down. Avoiding that is one of the reasons to keep your SaveFile/Folder ‘small’.

I recommend your use of nicOS-Utility-Suite, viewtopic.php?p=12983#p12983 and some advanced planning.

The Suite has modules for remastering and for creating/updating adrv.sfs and ydrv.sfs. Every recent Puppy, Jackalpup included, will recognize and use (if present) both/either an adrv.sfs or ydrv.sfs.

As you know, Puppys employ a 'merge-file-system', merging in RAM the file-systems on storage such that what's in the SaveFile/Folder has 2nd highest priority (=will be used); adrv.sfs has 3rd highest; ydrv.sfs has 4th highest and core/base has 5th highest. I believe the core/base SFS in jackalpup is named puppy_jackalpup_xx.sfs. The 1st highest is the changes you just made in RAM and applied by Restarting-x (AKA Graphical Server).

Your SaveFile/Folder should only include your customizations, settings (including which application SFS to load), links to portable-applications and links to external folders where you store data-files. [Ask if you need help moving data-folders out of /root or linking data-folder into /root]. Your SaveFile/Folder is also used for testing applications before you commit them to lower ranking file-systems; or discard them.

When possible, prefer SFSes, AppImages and portables to installing pets/debs. Pets/debs occupy your SaveFile until you discard them or include them in lower ranking file-systems. SFSes, AppImages and portables don't, and require little or no RAM if they are not being used. [The RAM required is just the link to them, if linked, e.g. a menu entry created.]

The first step is to decide whether there are applications in your core/base which you’ll never use. [An example might be abiword or a built-in full-featured* Web-browser; see below. A light-weight browser for reading html files is fine]. Use Menu>Setup>Remove Builtins to ‘remove’ them. Create a SaveFile/Folder to preserve that change. Next decide if there are applications not offered by jackalpup which you will always want. An example is masterpdf-editor4 –perhaps the best free pdf-editor available. It can be run as a portable or SFS, but requires qt4 libraries. Several other applications also require qt4 libraries. Qt4 libraries are not available in Fossapup/Jackalpup’s repos. So I install those libraries and execute a Save. When satisfied, run nicOS-Utility-Suite’s Remaster.

Move the SaveFile/Folder so that it won’t be used and make sure your system is OK. If so, you can delete the SaveFile/Folder.

The Save2SFS module will 'capture' an application you installed (and restarted-x) but haven't Saved to a SaveFile/Folder. But if you're adding several applications creating a SaveFile/Folder during that process can make things easier.

Next use nicOS-Utility-Suite’s Save2SFS module to create a ydrv.sfs. This will hold applications you may eventually update/upgrade, but expect not to have to for a long time. I can’t tell you which applications you’ll place in that category. But I can tell you which I would not: Web-browers. Web-sites increasingly insist that only recent Web-browser will be allowed access. So Web-browsers have to be frequently updated.

If you boot a Puppy which doesn’t use a SaveFile/Folder (i.e. pfix=ram) after it reaches desktop no partition will be mounted. If you have a recent web-browser in your adrv.sfs, you can use it without having to mount any partition, never exposing your hard-drives to malware; and on shutdown whatever malware you may have unknowingly picked up will not survive a reboot. nicOS-Utility-Suite’s Save2SFS module can quickly update an adrv.sfs so that a newer version of a web-browser replaces an older one.

[It can also quickly update a ydrv.sfs. But you'll want have have booted pfix=ram and without using the adrv.sfs].

Which leaves your SaveFile/Folder for testing other applications, linking to other Web-browsers, customizations, links to portable-applications and links to external folders where you store datafiles, And settings: if you change computers, the settings you Save to a SaveFile/Folder will take precedence over any you may have preserved to lower ranking file-systems.

[Clarity]

@Shortstop; on your next boot, would you watch the boot progress and share which of the SFSs the process is slowed on?

It could reflect the element that impacts slowed operations on your platform.

[geo_c]

So I've been doing some DAW work tonight, seeing what tools I'm really gravitating towards, and all I can say is WOW! Jackalpup (with updated ydrv) is rockin' it!

Tonight I imported some of my pigtronix loops, that were originally constructed as multi-tracks midi-synced to a Boss-slicer, into Lupp and wired it through Carla, very nice! It's like Lupp was built for that exact purpose. Then I needed to trim some of the loops so I imported the wave tracks into Q-tractor. I never messed with Q-tractor much in the past, but it's very well put together. It also mixed down eight 32 bar 24bit audio tracks in about 2.5 seconds. Really, can't beat that.

I also played around with the demo of Bitwig which I had downloaded. That has potential, very slick. I may need it in my studio just to show that I can do the "logic/ableton" vibe. But really I have more fun on the native jack approach. Especially with Carla in the mix, the patch bay built in makes all the difference. Really all the packages in jackal are up to the task.

Thanks again for this re-master @puddlemoon!

My pupsave configuration runs all the jackalpup apps along with @mikewalsh's portable Musescore, Reaper, Audacity, Gimp, and LMMS, along with some of the visual applications like Gimp-portable, Openshot, Kdenlive, XnviewMP-portable. I've installed Bitwig, lilypond, Frescobaldi (all current latest releases) and beefed up with 5 or 6 portable browsers. What a powerhouse! And my 10 year old Dell i7 doesn't even break a sweat running this stuff, 8gb of ram barely ever goes above 3gb.

[Shortstop]

Updated my post to reflect the fact that I used this thread to install Jackalpup initially to create an EXT4 partition for the various Puppy Linux files, and then just used a FAT32 partition for the 'boot' partition:
viewtopic.php?p=46867&i=1

I will keep that in mind, @mikeslr in terms of NicOS utilities.

Honestly, its one of those things that I have to take a step back and think, "Well, there's a ton of stuff being installed in terms of music stuff, and its loading from USB, so clearly this is the reason why it takes 20 mins to make the save file itself".

I could try to limit the programs being used to go from there, but honestly, I don't have the energy for this kind of things these days. I'm getting slowly burned out from my job and juggling family weird stuff these days but both will be better if I actually get a web dev job sometime in January onward after my software engineering bootcamp is done with then.

However, I really still always feel like I want to contribute to Puppy Linux and Emacs Org Mode, always say to myself that I will one of these weekends, and never do for some reason. I really have to change that :/

Its always just doing schoolwork or kind of hating my job at the moment. Really should actually be working on my work portfolio to pad it with more projects from the bootcamp though that are modified accordingly.

Anyway, I still just boot into Jackalpup to record music though, and just mount a local LAN server containing my HDD of recordings so there's no need to save anything locally anyway, so to be completely honest, the save file is almost useless in comparison other than the first boot of Puppy to ensure networking and other stuff works.

Its either an issue of the whole thing being way huge for a distro loading off a USB, or its just the USB itself. Honestly though, its not really affecting my workflow right now, so I just ignore it and move on.

[Shortstop]

So I've been doing some DAW work tonight, seeing what tools I'm really gravitating towards, and all I can say is WOW! Jackalpup (with updated ydrv) is rockin' it!

Tonight I imported some of my pigtronix loops, that were originally constructed as multi-tracks midi-synced to a Boss-slicer, into Lupp and wired it through Carla, very nice! It's like Lupp was built for that exact purpose. Then I needed to trim some of the loops so I imported the wave tracks into Q-tractor. I never messed with Q-tractor much in the past, but it's very well put together. It also mixed down eight 32 bar 24bit audio tracks in about 2.5 seconds. Really, can't beat that.

I also played around with the demo of Bitwig which I had downloaded. That has potential, very slick. I may need it in my studio just to show that I can do the "logic/ableton" vibe. But really I have more fun on the native jack approach. Especially with Carla in the mix, the patch bay built in makes all the difference. Really all the packages in jackal are up to the task.

Thanks again for this re-master @puddlemoon!

My pupsave configuration runs all the jackalpup apps along with @mikewalsh's portable Musescore, Reaper, Audacity, Gimp, and LMMS, along with some of the visual applications like Gimp-portable, Openshot, Kdenlive, XnviewMP-portable. I've installed Bitwig, lilypond, Frescobaldi (all current latest releases) and beefed up with 5 or 6 portable browsers. What a powerhouse! And my 10 year old Dell i7 doesn't even break a sweat running this stuff, 8gb of ram barely ever goes above 3gb.

Does your save file take forever to save upon the second reboot?

Also, would you ever post gifs of your workflow for your setup? Would be curious because I am a total newbie when it comes to QJacktl, and still don't have any idea how to really really really even attempt to use it for the life of me other than to make it work for my given USB audio device (Focusrite Scarlett Solo Gen 2).

[Shortstop]

@Shortstop; on your next boot, would you watch the boot progress and share which of the SFSs the process is slowed on?

It could reflect the element that impacts slowed operations on your platform.

How would I get that boot info for you? Happy to share it with you somehow. I'm assuming its stored in some kind of 'systemd' based log right?

[puddlemoon]

Thanks so much @geo_c! It really means a lot to me that you have had such success with this labour of love (:
Glad you are enjoying luppp too. It has been a favourite, a bit old but still great. I have been testing the nightlies of ardour and 7 will have a new function very similar to luppp. Good stuff coming there.

@Shortstop definitely worth trying another usb, I see quite a difference between them, but I have never seen such a long wait. Also consider putting the save on another drive, it is only one folder so easy enough to keep tidy.
I believe clarity was suggesting to just watch the boot process to see which files take a long time but it seems you have noticed it to be the save which, to me, indicates that it would not be specific to jackalpup. Also it is the shutdown you are talking about here right? Could be interesting to see if it behaves similar with fossapup with the same usb but then... I very much get there is only so much time and attention.
But thanks for sticking around (:

On another note...
-------------------------------------------------- UPDATE TIME -----------------------------------------------------------
I have been tinkering at some more updates and refinements of late and ended up with a few done that had been on my list for a while. Cardinal is moving right along and is of particular interest to me and I've been building it but I was holding out till this release was official. Meanwhile I got those other things in.
Namely, updated to the latest; LSP plugins (much improved ui), DPF plugins, Dragonfly reverb, x42 plugins, patchmatrix, DIN (a big difference), Zynaddsubfx and Palemoon to 29.4.6.
Note on Cardinal, it's focus is as a plugin (in fact there are 3 variants to work with different DAWs) however I find the standalone very useful and all connectivity still available in carla (or patchmatrix etc) so, for the sake of space, I have included only the one plugin variant and only in the adrv as it is matched to ardour (and can be used there without jack running). It is in "utilities" for audio tracks but a midi port can be added for full integration. (note the plugin only has 2 ins and 2 outs where the standalone has 8 of each)
I also fixed the issue of Hydrogen not starting for the first time with the adrv loaded. oh, and changed the default server to libera.chat in hexchat (:

I have added a new multiboot.zip to archive.org and removed the older ones. This has all the new files and should be used to update other installs as well by by replacing the puppy and a/ydrv .sfs family in your install folder. I have kept the 5.4rt kernel in the zip for now but the other kernels can be swapped in the same manner once unzipped to usb of course.

https://archive.org/download/jackalpup/ ... tiboot.zip

[geo_c]

@Shortstop; on your next boot, would you watch the boot progress and share which of the SFSs the process is slowed on?

It could reflect the element that impacts slowed operations on your platform.

How would I get that boot info for you? Happy to share it with you somehow. I'm assuming its stored in some kind of 'systemd' based log right?

I'm going to give you my two cents on running a heavy duty audio/video studio from usb. If it's the latest and greatest USB (either 3.0 or C or whatever, I don't keep up) then it can definitely work, especially if your USB storage is something like a Solid State Drive. In the long run, installing jackal (or any other puppy) on a ext4 partition on the internal hard drive will give you the best boot/shutdown times, and certainly backup and data read times also.

I am using a 10-12 year old Dell Precision laptop with an i7 processor (and I also run it on laptops with i3s and dual cores). The sda1 drive is 220gb SSD, and it's blazing fast, I can backup my frugally installed pupsave directory (which is now pushing 4GB) in under 10 seconds, even closer to 5 seconds. It's not a pupsave compressed file, but rather a directory on an ext4 partition. This is important especially when it comes to using real time audio, as the system needs to be able to write the audio data quickly without jamming up the ram. That's the point of the real time kernel I believe.

On some of my other laptops with older USB ports, those same backup times are closer to 30seconds or a minute. It's just not something that can be overcome, the write speed of the media I mean.

If you were having similarly slow save times on an internal HD, I'd say some troubleshooting needs to happen. But if it's just a matter of the slow USB ports or flash memory, that may be difficult to improve.

Of course you may also be inclined to try a frugal install with a savefile on a Windows NTFS partition. That will be quite a bit slower than a pupsave directory on ext4. I don't recommend it. I've been using puppy for audio since about 2008 or 2009, maybe 2010? I'm not sure, but the pioneer was @l0wt3ch who created some of the very first "puppy-studios" and they ran 100 percent better than any of the other distros that I tried at the time. Jackalpup is the next incarnation, being built off of Fossapup which is stable, and versatile.

So that's my two cents.

[Shortstop]

@geo_c
That's a pretty fair assessment.

To be honest, its a USB 2.0 drive, specifically a 'SanDisk 64GB Cruzer Glide USB 2.0 Flash Drive':
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007YX9OA8/
This being said, your point to use an SSD is on-point, even when using an external one.

I have a 'Sabrent' adapter that can utilize an internal SSD and convert it into a USB 3.0 drive for scenarios like this where I just want to plug and play.

If anything, you're right, I could totally store the save internally on a drive.

To be fair, that desktop is frankenstein of sorts where I have a few HDD setups present:
1 HDD is for Windoze, to load occasional games every 5 or 6 months
1 HDD is for storing said Windoze games from Steam
1 HDD is for a ton of art course stuff including books and videos

Either way, I could probably store the save file somewhere else that's faster, and try to figure out how to reference it on the BIOS page each time or something. For now, I just plan on not making a savefile and just rolling with it.

When I asked for your workflow though, I asked more so on how you use Qjackctl and related plugins in addition to DAW usage. If you could share any points you would find useful, I would appreciate it since I just mostly use Jackalpup for Ardour and to load the plugins through that instead of trying to wire everything together since there's not too many YouTube videos on how to do this, etc without using a DAW.

[puddlemoon]

@Shortstop it seems like you have the means there, with a little trial and error, to get a very snappy setup. Also consider installing on an internal drive. On uefi I use rEFInd to boot pups, dogs, windows and mainstream linux. It takes a little setup but worth it in the end. I can't give much advice about grub2 as it's not my weapon of choice but there is some good info out there.

As for the jack workflow... the default jack settings shouldn't need much tweaking except to change soundcard perhaps. The connections and interactivity between the apps running can be approached a few ways, the "graph" button in Qjackctl as well as the "patchbay" tab in Carla, both give the visual representation of each app and it's ins and outs. Patchmatrix gives the same connections in a different visual language. Much of the "gold" is in the plugins, which can be loaded and then connected from within carla. Similar to the way you would load them in ardour but outside of a DAW.
What to connect and how is an explosion of possibilities of course, will just take poking around to see what fits your style of expression. So many angles of approach that really depend on the aim. You can start jack capture at any point to get a raw recording of your discovery and you can save the patchbay state from in carla to return to the session. (note any standalone apps used in a session would need to be started before carla with it's own saved settings to get back exactly, there are session managers to do this but I don't use one as plugins are the focus in jackalpup and most of the standalone also have a plugin)

Just a start, but check in with specific questions about what you'd like to do along the way and hopefully someone has tried it too (:

[geo_c]

@geo_c
When I asked for your workflow though, I asked more so on how you use Qjackctl and related plugins in addition to DAW usage. If you could share any points you would find useful, I would appreciate it since I just mostly use Jackalpup for Ardour and to load the plugins through that instead of trying to wire everything together since there's not too many YouTube videos on how to do this, etc without using a DAW.

Jack has some settings that can be tweaked of course, and some need to be set a certain way to do certain things. So there's no 'standard procedure' per se, yet, I can give you an overview of a few things that are possible with jack and especially using the Carla interface. What's so nice about Carla, is once I choose a certain set of applications and route their ins and outs through Carla, tailor it for a certain project and load and setup my plugins and effects, all of those settings can be saved in an instant from the Carla file menu. Then reloading the project with all of the chosen plugins and settings is as easy as booting up the correct applications and loading their project files followed with loading the Carla project into Carla, everything is then routed and setup to go. The same as if working from inside one DAW that stores all of that information, only the application tools are of my own choosing.

Ardour is BIG, and loads like a big program normally does, with choices to make and sample rates to consider etc.

For a much easier, quicker example let's say I want to load some of my tracks from an ancient Reaper recording project into Qtractor, apply some effects and mix them them down.

First open Qtractor.

Then import the tracks from Menu>track>import tracks. For this example I'm going to load tracks dumped into reaper from my pigtronix Infinity looper. (Ask me later how I use the Infinity to record individual tracks!) Notice how each wave file is ragged at the ending.

My first task will be to save the project, and clean up the 16 bar loop so I can loop it and mix it down to a longer song in another application in real time. Note: be sure to save your audio projects outside of the pupsave!

contd...

[geo_c]

So for example purposes after trimming the files to loop back to the beginning without too much an abrupt seam, and setting the loop using 'select all' and 'set loop,' I mixed down the raw loop audio by using menu>track>export tracks. And I mentioned earlier how fast it was, well, that was an understatement, this mixdown appeared to be instantaneous and I immediately opened it in Deadbeef from Rox just by clicking the file. I like Deadbeef, but it has to be setup in Options to the correct sound card, so once you do that it's a great player.

raw Ambient Loop wav file:
https://mega.nz/file/rb5lxQAT#ZC18q4iw2 ... 77MLAJg1Ms
(this file doesn't play straight from Mega, I had to downloaded it first)

contd....

[geo_c]

Next I will shutdown Qtractor, then fire up Carla and Lupp, and wire it all together with a plugin.

Carla:

The Jack Patchbay inside Carla:

And here's Lupp with each of the loop tracks loaded on a Lupp track as a clip. I only started using Lupp last night so I have a lot functionality left to unpack:

contd...

[geo_c]

So with that setup I got carried away playing around, but what I decided to do was add digital delay in carla to the lupp send and return, and pump the drums and a pattern-slicer track through the Carla rack plugin effect, and mix all of that down in realtime using a very simple tool called Jack Capture, which will capture any audio headed toward the system output, no need to connect in jack, it does that automatically, has only a start button and stop button, and saves the file in /root.

Then I imported the captured mix into a very simple wav editor included in a lot of puppies called gWaveEdit, and cut off the dead space in the beginning, normalized the audio to 0db and faded out the end.

contd....

[geo_c]

And here's the final product, the tracks appear in stages, delay clicked in on the fly with the Lupp effects send and return button, volumes mixed in real time etc...

Ambient Loop mixed in realtime wav file:
https://mega.nz/file/qXogxQaJ#GDBoHrvFv ... X7oijlLtc0
(this file doesn't play straight from Mega, I had to downloaded it first)

That's just one sort of project. It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish. With a system like this it's make it up as you go along. Ardour is a nice package that has features to do most of this work in the single DAW. But like I said, it's a big package and there's a lot of organization to building a project that doesn't happen as easily on the fly as using other tools like Qtractor. However you might notice Qtractor only has two outputs, in Ardour every track, monitor send, effects send, aux send and returns appear in jack, so there's lots of options there also.

note: if you are into a quazi-console gtk/jwm theme like the one I have, I could upload it. I've tweaked it a lot in the last week.