[gmpi] Re: NAMM follow-up, some major decisions to make

  • From: Paul Davis <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: gmpi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 11:17:55 -0500

>>FWIW, using the 2.6.11 linux kernel with the new "Realtime Preemption"
>>patch, I now know of at least a couple of people successfully running
>>their linux systems as real time fx processors with a dropout-free
>>interrupt interval of 16 frames at 48kHz (0.3msec per buffer = 0.6msec
>>roundtrip latency). Processor load is a bit high (around 25%), but it
>>seems perfectly viable given the right hardware.
>>  
>>
>Surely tho', the load is proportional to the cost of the context switch 
>times the number of context switches (i.e. number of clients running, 
>multiplied by the number of buffer interrupts per second).

indeed. when i said "its a bit high" it was relative to the situation
with higher latency. no suprise there. it just points out the
non-linear scaling of this stuff and the inevitable limitations even
with fast contemporary hardware.

>Seems this would be a good way to run "a few" instances of "big" 
>plug-ins (thinking Kontakt and suchlike), and in-process GMPI would be 
>better for smaller and simpler plugs. It might make good sense to run 

this is what we've been pushing torward for JACK environments. you can
run any VST plugin (well, anyone that will run on Linux) as a JACK
client, so it runs in its own process context but with full
connectivity to everything else. you wouldn't do this when scalability
matters (e.g. an EQ+reverb in a dozen or more tracks of some DAW), but
when its an instrument or something "big", its a nice way to do things.

>safety. I'm amazed nobody has yet come up with a DAW host where the 
>audio engine runs in a seperate process from the project / arrange 
>stuff, so that a plug-in crash will only kill the mixer and not the 
>whole app..

See the roadmap for Ardour :) I've had broadcast people pushing for
this feature for some time.

--p


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