OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

Dheart · 2008-05-09 19:14:18

I wonder which sound system is better? I used ALSA, resently switched to OSS4 and I seam to like it better.
I've also tried to get jack to work, but without any success... I haven't tried pulseaudio... So what are the user's impressions from each of these systems?

Hohoho · 2008-05-09 20:09:38

more like OSS4 vs ALSA and Pulseaudio vs Jack, since the latter two use ALSA or OSS as their backend.
ALSA satisfies all my needs, and they arent really that much (sound comes out of my speakers, microphone works ).
Jack is ment to be used for professional recording and mixing, main emphasis is on low latency.
Pulseaudio is meant to be universal and very functional at which AFAIK it succeeds (stuff like per-app volume control, etc).

venox · 2008-05-10 00:31:01

I used OSS4 until alsa 1.0.16 came out and fixed all the issues I had with snd-hda-intel :-)
Before 1.0.16 I had lots of problems while using alsa (sound stuttering, freezes, etc). Also, OSS4 doesn't support my tv card.

luciferin · 2008-05-10 02:52:37

I switched to OSS4 for the built in software mixing. ALSA continually has problems for me with multiple programs accessing my hardware, and this was only compounded by PulseAudio/ESD since programs like MPD and MythTV access the hardware by it's address (/dev/dsp). With OSS4 it just works. However, now I can't use SPDIF passthru.

So, in my opinion, they both are seriously lacking. I'm hoping for either PulseAudio integration with ALSA or for OSS4 to pick up in development with open source hackers now that it's had a license change.

You also might be interested in this thread on a similar subject.

Shadowmeph · 2008-05-31 19:33:37

OSS4 is the only one that works for my sound card

schivmeister · 2008-06-02 08:48:52

I think PulseAudio and JACK will co-exist fine. Apparently PulseAudio can route anything now, so it can route ports to JACK too, which is something nice. However it cannot and will not replace JACK.

Gullible Jones · 2008-06-02 15:41:16

ALSA works for me. OSS4 makes my sound chip sound noisy and awful.

As for JACK vs. Pulse, the winner seems pretty clear if you need realtime support. If not... I've found JACK to be less of a PITA, but it also has no currently maintained support for OSS mixing, which makes it less useful.

(Annoyingly, ossmix still doesn't work for Wine and certain other things. If it did I wouldn't be bothering with sound servers.)

ConnorBehan · 2008-08-09 22:08:57

Pulse lets you route audio between various sinks and sources but as far as I know almost all sources are applications and almost all sinks are devices. JACK is better if you want the output of ardour to feed the input of hydrogen and the output of qsynth to feed the input of ardour and so on, plus it has lower latency (and it tells you what the latency is whenever you adjust a parameter). The only problem is applications have to be compiled specifically for JACK. Pulse on the other hand doesn't need explicit support, anything that works with ALSA should work with Pulse (However a few programs hard code the device as hw:0 rather than ALSA's default).

So what I do is run pulse with the jack-sink and jack-source. That way when I start pulse, JACK automatically starts too. I don't have alsa-sink and alsa-source running because I think you have to choose between jack and alsa in default.pa but that doesn't matter. Pulse can still pickup sounds coming from ALSA apps and connecting them to whatever speakers and microphones I have can all be done in JACK. I try to have all apps output to JACK first (which is why I recompiled VLC with --enable-jack), but if that doesn't work, I make them output to Pulse and then Pulse outputs to JACK.

I just started experimenting with this last month but I love the Pusle + JACK setup.

SyXbiT · 2008-08-09 23:28:53

i know in debian there's a separate package to enable programs like vlc to use pulseaudio.
i noticed that vlc in arch doesn't have the Audio Output Module for pulse audio. (wiki says you have to use vlc-nightly from AUR, what a pain..)

ConnorBehan · 2008-08-10 01:06:13

If you launch it with "padsp vlc" and select the OSS output module, the regular vlc should work with pulseaudio too.

venky80 · 2008-08-10 01:27:06

how do u install oss4? I know i have ALSA how do u change th backend

iphitus · 2008-08-10 02:57:55

Kinda awkward comparison. They're not equals and can't be compared as such. And they can generally be used together too.

I generally use alsa. I've never had the apparent problems in sound quality that everyone complains about. Nor do I need realtime sound. dmix works well enough for my uses these days - so long as everything is set to alsa.

Gullible Jones · 2008-08-10 03:26:33

Now that I've figured out how to get aoss working with jack, pulseaudio is basically out the window.

Granted, the alsa -> jack -> alsa -> aoss setup is kind of kludgy. I'd personally be much happier if OSS emulation supported dmix properly.

(There's also the OSS4 route; some distros, like Draco Linux, use OSS4 by default and simply skip ALSA... I'm pretty happy with ALSA though, it gives me good sound quality and unobtrusive software mixing with no configuration.)

Last edited by Gullible Jones (2008-08-10 03:28:11)

freakcode · 2008-08-10 18:22:13

I see a lot of developers saying good things about OSS API - in fact, OSS API is so better that some of them use ALSA OSS emulation instead of ALSA own API, which is regarded as poorly documented and messy.

PulseAudio promisses a lot, but delivers little. There's a pile of Fedora and Ubuntu users reporting PulseAudio broken compatibility with everything else, that it make sound lags, and that uses too much CPU. Also, PulseAudio comes to fix a broken level below, that is ALSA's lack for native mixing and per-application volume levels.

OSS, on the other hand, is a good api, UNIX compatible (instead of ALSA that is Linux specific), with native mixing support and per-application volume levels. If you ever used FreeBSD, you may also know it's ridiculous simple to setup - if your soundcard is supported, you only load the driver, it just works. Finally, OSS is the main choice for third-party and commercial applications (like Skype, TeamSpeak, games like Quake 4, etc.), as they win UNIX compatibility (instead of only supporting Linux), and a better, more documented API to use.

Jack (which is awesome, btw) doesn't enter on the discussion, as I see it aiming more features for professional software (like low latency, input/output redirection), that most people won't use on daily basis.

Also, not to confuse ALSA and OSS (sound APIs) with PulseAudio and Jack (sound servers).

Last edited by freakcode (2008-08-10 18:24:13)

Themaister · 2008-08-12 12:49:29

Had some problems with ALSA in Ubuntu (PulseAudio perhaps ...), but when I went to Arch, ALSA's been perfect for me No configuring at all, was just pacman -S alsa-utils and everything worked o.O strange.

Last edited by Themaister (2008-08-12 12:50:23)

TecnoVM64 · 2008-08-12 15:22:33

I use PulseAudio and it's fine for me, if any app doesn't have a native pulseaudio output I just use ALSA and it works, only app that doesn't work so far is pSX

ChoK · 2008-10-01 20:03:03

Last year, I used alsa with my snd-hda-intel (nvidia nforce chipset)
After spending hours (well coming from gentoo I learned patience, but it's still really frustrating),

I found an asound.conf working with :
alsa apps (yes some users can't ..)
my mic
enabling oss emulation without monopolizing the device ( can't play UT2004 with sound otherwise)
glest (don't know why, it didn't work out of the box)
java ( if you read java faq, they don't want to support software mixing, /dev/dsp, that's all)
and a working spdif

now I'm in China and I bought a new laptop, snd-hda-intel too
I install Ubuntu because I wanted something working out of the box, (it's not like I can borrow my friends internet connection 'till 6am)
guess what, alsa didn't work, and I had tried my lisp alsa config (why should we learn lisp to make alsa works anyway?) , no luck either, I tested again and again ...

well, I came across articles about how great OSSv4 was, particularly, the development of HDAudio driver, so I gave it a go
nothing to configure except blacklisting the alsa drivers. it works out of the box!!
The sound is crystal clear ( Alsa with HDA was not very loud I recall), I can even distinguish the cracking sound of bad mp3 encode on my laptop speakers with no effort (actually maybe this is not nice)

now, sadly enough, kmix doesn't yet support OSS
and plug in an head set doesn't mute automatically the rest.
I don't now about the spdif, I'll test it later
Anyway I'm totally converted to OSS

Rasi · 2008-10-01 23:19:04

ChoK wrote:

now, sadly enough, kmix doesn't yet support OSS

But you got it to work otherwise? Phonon simply does not show my oss4 devices... tried changing it to gstreamer, because i read that it helps.. but nothing

ChoK · 2008-10-02 07:04:19

Oddly it works for me with the Xine backend in phonon so I didn't bother to install gstreamer (in kubuntu)
I'm installing archlinux now OSS is installed but I don't have yet a desktop. I'll keep you informed

output from lshw
description: Audio device
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
configuration: driver=oss_hdaudio latency=0 module=oss_hdaudio

For alsa the card is Realtek ALC888, phonon shows ALC883 ( under Alsa and OSS weird ... but it works ... well)

Rasi · 2008-10-02 13:55:48

ChoK wrote:

Oddly it works for me with the Xine backend in phonon so I didn't bother to install gstreamer (in kubuntu)
I'm installing archlinux now OSS is installed but I don't have yet a desktop. I'll keep you informed
output from lshw
description: Audio device
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
configuration: driver=oss_hdaudio latency=0 module=oss_hdaudio
For alsa the card is Realtek ALC888, phonon shows ALC883 ( under Alsa and OSS weird ... but it works ... well)

hmm this is VERY odd, since the xine backend has no oss support... and ineed i got it to work with gstreamer now, but xine still shows nothing

Last edited by Rasi (2008-10-02 13:56:31)

ChoK · 2008-10-03 09:14:40

Actually at the start of KDE I have a notification from phonon that say :
Phonon can't connect to HDA Intel ALC883, switching to HDA Intel ALC883 ( maybe he switch to gstreamer backend automatically)
This is with KUbuntu (Note that Phonon detects 2 instance of my sound card, while lspci and lshw only one)

with Archlinux and KDEmod I don't have sound with phonon although mplayer, wesnoth works.

Last edited by ChoK (2008-10-03 09:16:48)

Rasi · 2008-11-17 00:10:07

http://4front-tech.com/hannublog/

:(

That is very, very sad....

Gullible Jones · 2008-11-17 02:28:59

Yeah... Bad news, and I feel sorry for the guy.

Perhaps the FreeBSD devs (or Net, Open, etc.) could take up the slack? OSS was available under a BSD license among others.

Last edited by Gullible Jones (2008-11-17 02:29:45)

Army · 2008-11-17 12:17:58

Oh noooooooooooo :'-( I started loving oss4 just a few days ago and now this?!?! So alsa bullcrap will stay the default forever ... Damn f***ing sh**, really!!! Does BSD have a better soundsystem? They need to have a different one, alsa is incompatible with it.

allbluedream · 2008-11-17 12:53:23

Just tried OSS4 today. Not able to get the mixer up and running (no device or something...) but mpd with OSS worked. However, sound quality was no better, and sometimes there were noticeable distortions, which never occurred with ALSA...

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-09 19:14:18

OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#2 2008-05-09 20:09:38

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#3 2008-05-10 00:31:01

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#4 2008-05-10 02:52:37

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#5 2008-05-31 19:33:37

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#6 2008-06-02 08:48:52

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#7 2008-06-02 15:41:16

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#8 2008-08-09 22:08:57

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#9 2008-08-09 23:28:53

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#10 2008-08-10 01:06:13

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#11 2008-08-10 01:27:06

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#12 2008-08-10 02:57:55

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#13 2008-08-10 03:26:33

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#14 2008-08-10 18:22:13

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#15 2008-08-12 12:49:29

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#16 2008-08-12 15:22:33

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#17 2008-10-01 20:03:03

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#18 2008-10-01 23:19:04

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#19 2008-10-02 07:04:19

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#20 2008-10-02 13:55:48

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#21 2008-10-03 09:14:40

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#22 2008-11-17 00:10:07

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#23 2008-11-17 02:28:59

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#24 2008-11-17 12:17:58

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

#25 2008-11-17 12:53:23

Re: OSS4 vs ALSA vs Pusleaudio vs Jack

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