Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

ngoonee · 2009-04-11 13:12:33

Hi all,

I'm currently running ALSA as a backend to JACK, and Pulseaudio over everything for my normal audio apps. JACK is used because I do some audio work on the side, and its also useful for redirecting output/input etc. Pulseaudio, contrary to the experiences of most, has been a gem for me, no real problems. But the only real feature I use is the per-app volume control, that and the good support for all applications (as compared with a pure JACK to ALSA setup which gave me quite a bit of trouble).

My question is, is the above setup replace-able with OSS4 and JACK alone? JACK can use OSS as a backend, it seems, and OSS also provides its own per-app mixer. The points I'm looking for is:-

1. per-app volume control (ossmix does this, I believe)
2. per-app redirection of output a la Pulseaudio (not sure whether ossmix handles this, another alternative is directing ossmix output to JACK, is that possible?)
3. app-compatibility, the wiki seems to indicate that all the common apps are supported (only skype needing a separate install).

So, any comments/advise from anyone?

skottish · 2009-04-11 13:43:34

Most of what's been asked in the thread has been covered many, many times in this forum. Search around for ossv4 and you'll find a bunch of stuff.

The third question is no, there are more. I ran into at least three or four applications that didn't work with OSSv4 on my system. Ekiga and Linphone come to mind off of the top of my head.

andre.ramaciotti · 2009-04-11 13:51:21

What kind of audio work you usually do? If it envolves Ardour, I don't think you'll be able the record with OSS4. I tried it last month and ardour would give me an error about no inputs detected.

R00KIE · 2009-04-11 14:41:12

If you intend to use snack with amsn you will need to recompile it (at least I needed to) otherwise it's a no go, but after a recompile it works fine.

ngoonee · 2009-04-12 02:53:15

skottish wrote:

Most of what's been asked in the thread has been covered many, many times in this forum. Search around for ossv4 and you'll find a bunch of stuff.
The third question is no, there are more. I ran into at least three or four applications that didn't work with OSSv4 on my system. Ekiga and Linphone come to mind off of the top of my head.

Thank you. I did search around, but NOBODY uses Jack, as far as I can see, and the arch proaudio forums seem dead. The general consensus seems to be a majority of ALSA users, since its considered default, and a minority of OSS4 advocates, who basically are very happy with the QUALITY they're getting, as well as default available per-app volume. Running OSS4 ON TOP OF JACK is not discussed, as far as I can tell, which would be my only reason for using it, since I currently have pulse -> JACK -> alsa, and replacing alsa with OSS4 in that case doesn't make sense, since per-app volume is done by pulse anyway, unless quality REALLY improves.

Also, pulse seems to be getting more and more love for apps (VBox has a Pulse output, for example), such that it seems the compatibility winner in the apps I use.

@andre.ramaciotti - I intend to use Ardour eventually (read, when I get round to learning it properly). I've heard of the OSS problems, which don't make sense to me since Ardour is supposed to connect to JACK not the backend. Thanks for your input though.

@ROOKIE - I use pidgin instead of amsn, but yes, I know that in general some programs will need recompiles, and have no real problem with that.

venky80 · 2009-04-12 09:53:23

i thought oss4 development is dead ..coz the lead developer quit

litemotiv · 2009-04-12 12:35:50

venky80 wrote:

i thought oss4 development is dead ..coz the lead developer quit

it's not dead, and he did not quit (yet). he did say he will have less time to work on it as the switch to open source lost him a steady income (yes it's ironic, since going open source was how he actually planned to get more work done on OSS). these are his current plans:

I will probably start in a new job within next couple of weeks. This job will be kernel development but not related with OSS. This is all I can disclose at this moment. However this doesn't mean that I stop developing OSS. Not at all. Getting a full time job outside OSS is just better way than any of the other alternatives. It removes the economical risks and I can focus on doing actual work instead of worrying about the economy side all the time. The other alternative is doing some side business (selling OSS T-shirts or trying to invent some web2.0 service) to fund development of OSS. However this will simply not work. The economical risks in the side business are even higher than in the OSS business itself.
I will continue working on OSS in the following ways:
1. I will continue as the maintainer of the development version of OSS (currently 4.2).
2. I will do OSS related development on contract if some customer wants to pay. This includes drivers for new sound cards, adding new features to OSS and also development of custom applications.
3. There are earlier commitments like our contract with Sun.
4. Hacking "just for fun". I will continue working on OSS features I need myself and features I see interesting in other ways.

OSS is still a long way of being a broadly implemented stable audio subsystem though. More info here:

http://4front-tech.com/hannublog/?m=200903

ngoonee · 2009-04-12 13:06:00

I read that info on the developer's job situation, on one of the threads I searched out. He also says that the API is stable as-is, implying that its pretty much useable. Not sure about stable, though.

litemotiv · 2009-04-12 14:03:03

ngoonee wrote:

I read that info on the developer's job situation, on one of the threads I searched out. He also says that the API is stable as-is, implying that its pretty much useable. Not sure about stable, though.

well a stable API doesn't really say much about the stability of the modules, and those are not really stable yet. also OSS4 doesn't yet support suspend/resume which can be be pain for some people.

ngoonee · 2009-04-13 00:30:00

True that. Just before I started using Linux full-time, I'd discovered the joys of hibernate/resume in Windows XP, and wondered why I'd ever chosen to sit through 2-3 minutes of boot up. It was one of my disappointments to find that hibernate/resume in Linux was mostly broken in comparison, but the fast boot times did make up for it, somewhat.

I'm thankful for everyone's contributions so far, but I'm still looking for someone to let me know if I can channel app's audio in this manner:-

App -> OSS4 mixer -> JACK -> OSS backend

Basically, getting OSS to replace both ALSA and Pulse in my previous flow:-

App -> Pulseaudio -> JACK -> ALSA backend

venky80 · 2009-04-13 01:36:24

litemotiv wrote:

venky80 wrote:
i thought oss4 development is dead ..coz the lead developer quit
it's not dead, and he did not quit (yet). he did say he will have less time to work on it as the switch to open source lost him a steady income (yes it's ironic, since going open source was how he actually planned to get more work done on OSS). these are his current plans:
I will probably start in a new job within next couple of weeks. This job will be kernel development but not related with OSS. This is all I can disclose at this moment. However this doesn't mean that I stop developing OSS. Not at all. Getting a full time job outside OSS is just better way than any of the other alternatives. It removes the economical risks and I can focus on doing actual work instead of worrying about the economy side all the time. The other alternative is doing some side business (selling OSS T-shirts or trying to invent some web2.0 service) to fund development of OSS. However this will simply not work. The economical risks in the side business are even higher than in the OSS business itself.
I will continue working on OSS in the following ways:
1. I will continue as the maintainer of the development version of OSS (currently 4.2).
2. I will do OSS related development on contract if some customer wants to pay. This includes drivers for new sound cards, adding new features to OSS and also development of custom applications.
3. There are earlier commitments like our contract with Sun.
4. Hacking "just for fun". I will continue working on OSS features I need myself and features I see interesting in other ways.
OSS is still a long way of being a broadly implemented stable audio subsystem though. More info here:
http://4front-tech.com/hannublog/?m=200903

Thanks , I am happy to see that. I use ALSa though but iam glad there is an alternative

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-11 13:12:33

Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

#2 2009-04-11 13:43:34

Re: Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

#3 2009-04-11 13:51:21

Re: Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

#4 2009-04-11 14:41:12

Re: Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

#5 2009-04-12 02:53:15

Re: Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

#6 2009-04-12 09:53:23

Re: Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

#7 2009-04-12 12:35:50

Re: Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

#8 2009-04-12 13:06:00

Re: Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

#9 2009-04-12 14:03:03

Re: Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

#10 2009-04-13 00:30:00

Re: Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

#11 2009-04-13 01:36:24

Re: Benefits of OSS4 over ALSA?

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