I just finished working on a project to create a Realtime Linux operating system for audio. I will eventually make it available to a wide audience, but for now I want to get it out in select places like What's Best to get some feedback.
I’m not claiming this will have you rushing to abandon your jRiver or Pure Music setup, but if nothing else it’ll give you some perspective on where state-of-the-art Linux is right now. This operating system uses a realtime kernel. The goal of realtime is to give audio processes priority, to prevent interruption by non-audio processes (those that aren’t system critical). In studio production environments these interruptions can result in latency, which is a problem for recording. We’re not concerned with latency, but we can do without audio processes being interrupted. The theory is that these interruptions could disrupt the precision of the clock timing and result in jitter. Of course there are other factors that affect your sound quality, particularly your player’s driver. However, there's no question realtime operation is different; a little Nu-Force headphone amp requires a latency setting of 17.4ns to remain stable with a generic kernel and can go as low as 8.6ns with the realtime kernel.
DAC USB compatibility can be an issue for Linux, because DAC manufacturers who develop proprietary USB drivers usually develop only for Windows and Mac. However, if your DAC doesn’t require special driver installation you can connect with USB. If you use a SPDIF connection to a soundcard that should work too (most soundcards support Linux). A Linux driver for M2Tech products is also installed, though I don’t have an M2Tech unit on hand to test.
The OS is easy to run without installation, just burn a Live DVD or create a bootable thumb drive. If you'd like to try it, send me an email and I'll forward you a download link to you with instructions. If you have questions, please respond through this thread, rather than my email, for the benefit of everyone else.
Best regards,
Darin
fork@jaguaraudiodesign.com
Update: The image file and instruction manual can now be downloaded directly from the Blog post.
http://www.jaguaraudiodesign.com/blog/2013/07/the-jaguaraudiodesign-com-free-realtime-audio-os/
I’m not claiming this will have you rushing to abandon your jRiver or Pure Music setup, but if nothing else it’ll give you some perspective on where state-of-the-art Linux is right now. This operating system uses a realtime kernel. The goal of realtime is to give audio processes priority, to prevent interruption by non-audio processes (those that aren’t system critical). In studio production environments these interruptions can result in latency, which is a problem for recording. We’re not concerned with latency, but we can do without audio processes being interrupted. The theory is that these interruptions could disrupt the precision of the clock timing and result in jitter. Of course there are other factors that affect your sound quality, particularly your player’s driver. However, there's no question realtime operation is different; a little Nu-Force headphone amp requires a latency setting of 17.4ns to remain stable with a generic kernel and can go as low as 8.6ns with the realtime kernel.
DAC USB compatibility can be an issue for Linux, because DAC manufacturers who develop proprietary USB drivers usually develop only for Windows and Mac. However, if your DAC doesn’t require special driver installation you can connect with USB. If you use a SPDIF connection to a soundcard that should work too (most soundcards support Linux). A Linux driver for M2Tech products is also installed, though I don’t have an M2Tech unit on hand to test.
The OS is easy to run without installation, just burn a Live DVD or create a bootable thumb drive. If you'd like to try it, send me an email and I'll forward you a download link to you with instructions. If you have questions, please respond through this thread, rather than my email, for the benefit of everyone else.
Best regards,
Darin
fork@jaguaraudiodesign.com
Update: The image file and instruction manual can now be downloaded directly from the Blog post.
http://www.jaguaraudiodesign.com/blog/2013/07/the-jaguaraudiodesign-com-free-realtime-audio-os/
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