Ircquotes

both technical and funny

on xruns:

<Terence> falktx: what do you think about carla not logging xruns when a project/vst is loading?
<@falktx> Terence: how is that a question?
<Terence> falktx: would you accept a PR for not logging xruns while something is loading?
<@falktx> Terence: no, that does not seem right
<Terence> falktx: it's because I see myself resetting the xruns in carla after loading plugins because it causes a bunch of xruns and then I don't know when new one happens because I forget the initial number
<@falktx> Terence: ah so "reset xruns after project load" option is what you want
<Terence> falktx: probably then yeah what did you understand?
<Terence> project load or maybe even plugin load
<Terence> maybe for plugin load, just not count xruns and leave the current number as is
<@falktx> if loading a plugin causes xruns, it is either a bug in the plugin or carla
<@falktx> we should fix it, not hide it
<@falktx> I am okay with an option to reset xruns after loading a project though
<Terence> Ok
<Terence> Well I thought xruns while loading a project were normal because it increases cpu usage and disk io
<Terence> It does it for heavy plugins
<nilshi> xruns on program load is super common though
<nilshi> that is something I tell every beginner I show linux audio to.  Xruns are bad, but only if they happen regulary or at the same place in the song. Not in bursts when something unrelated happens
<Terence> Yes exactly
<Terence> That's why I thought Carla could just ignore those are they are not relevant
<@falktx> I understand the idea, but I disagree with it
<@falktx> on a well-tuned system, xruns should not happen while loading a project
<alextee[m]> ^ why would xruns happen? the app/plugin should return immediately in the audio thread while it's doing work
<strogon14> alextee[m]: many plugins probably do allocations, file loading etc. in their constructor
<alextee[m]> strogon14: but that doesn't happen during processing
<alextee[m]> not even in the audio thread
<strogon14> maybe they do these things improperly the first time "run" is called, instead of in "activate"?
<strogon14> probably hard to pinpoint a single cause
<alextee[m]> sounds like a bug then, im pretty sure the lv2 docs say you do those things in activate or maybe even earlier
<@falktx> might be some plugins lock during audio while reading stuff from disk, for example
<@falktx> and loading a project is a heavy IO operation.. so...
<alextee[m]> fun times
<@falktx> some hosts also do nasty stuff, so plugins compensate for it. and then other hosts will have to do similar things to match
<@falktx> it is all very amazing really. amazingly bad, but still amazing