Calling UBPorts Musicians
-
Hello lovely people of the ubports community,
Thinking super long term, when convergence is a standard across all devices that support wired external output, what does the community think the possibility is of having a native linux DAW on an UT phone? I have tried Ardour and Audacity via Libertine with no success (Audacity crashes immediately and Ardour won't go further than the first screen). For me, having Reaper functioning on my phone would be a dream!
Older devices won't have the RAM or processing power to create actual tracks, but some of the newer Xiaomi, Oneplus or Samsung models might be capable of rendering tracks?
I have 0 coding knowledge but would be happy to help, test, or donate to a project like this, now or in the future. Until then, looking forward to the discussion!
Balrong
-
@balrong very interesting idea indeed ! But where would you plug the soundcard if you're already casting for convergence ?
-
Hi @Emphrath, thanks for the reply,
I guess if using a usb-c dock on a Samsung S10 or similar, then an audio interface could be connected. I use a Focusrite Scarlett Solo; it works with Ubuntu and Pop OS as plug and play but I suppose that doesnt necessarily mean that the same would be true for UT! -
@balrong yeah linux just loads the drivers as mods in the kernel at the start, and that's why even if you don't get the full functionality of the soundcard, you will almost always get basic hardware functionality. One of the things I love about linux. In all likelihood, the mod for the soundcard is not built in the specific UT kernel, so you would need to rebuild the image with the mod in, plus a couple others to support live monitoring and your usb-c dongle I think. That's half of the work - it will make the image bigger though and it might have trouble fitting on some system partitions of older phones.
-
@emphrath Rebuilding an image sounds hard. I don't actually own a device that supports wired external output and just assumed that all usb-c docks would work with them.
In terms of drivers, I would be interested to know how it works for Android. While I haven't used them myself, apps like FL Studio Mobile and Cubabis look really impressive. Though in fairness, I don't think I've seen them being used to record real instruments.
As always, the idea is clearly a lot more work than originally anticipated!
-
@balrong Yeah that's a good question - android is linux, to a degree, so i don't know
-
The only daw i would enjoy on linux is bitwig. But i don't think that it would run on arm. Can't remember correctly.
What i think would be interesting is vcv rack. I think there is already an arm build for Linux. One could use it as a very convenient effects processor/eurorack utility, that you can set up in desktop mode to use later on the go.
At the moment at least the ui sound latency seems really bad. But it might be possible to configure, with the headphone jack as well as usb interfaces.
Btw the latency on android is also pretty useless. On ios it is ok. -
@fungie Is vcv rack anything like Carla? That's the vst 'emulator' (if that's the right term) that I use for Reaper.
How do you envisage the headphone jack being used?
Also, annoying that android is useless. Would you say its totally unusable for recording? Would a low latency kernel help? -
This post is deleted! -
@balrong low latency kernel sounds nice, but sounds a bit hard to archive. Maybe its easier to mess with the driver at os level. I am more or less a noob regarding such things.
I am not sure if alsa related stuff has to be build with the kernel or could be patched afterwards.
In my understanding you basically would have to Install a new/another driver to reduce the processing to a minimum. Maybe you have to compile it and the dependencies for that matter.
Should be frustrating on arm. Sorry for this half backed infoMaybe they are already using the fast possible driver on ubuntu touch.
Vcv rack is a modular synthesizer, you could use that to stack a bunch of delay pedals etc (infinite) and add some weird modulation. You can use trrs adapter to get audio in and out through the headphone jack. Or you could build one yourself.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTr6mewObW10MUwUOo5XHuWRTagULEofqSiMvetKqmNG4JrNCI&usqp=CAcRecording would be nice with an usb interface, but i am not sure if the drivers are part of the kernel. For lineage os they are.
But don't forget that you would have to copy the files from your slow usb connection afterwards, if you don't want to use one of these rudimentary daws to finish your project.
I didn't try it though.
Btw the best audio mod for android is this (magisk module). it does a lot of stuff. (In my understanding from the ground)
However it does sound cleaner, but not with a better latency. But i have to admit that the audio seems messed up with the kernel i use. -
@fungie *ainur sauron mk3
-
Hi, first post. Sorry for necroing but fragmenting this small thread further didn't make sense to me so I assume it's fine?
Anyways, I didn't find any other source for this but it gets the idea across:
https://kb.audiomodeling.com/en/c/grow-your-knowledge/d/what-does-usb-class-compliant-mean/
Audio interfaces that work on Linux don't usually use special drivers compiled for the kernel, they use a generic driver that works with all 'audio class compliant' audio interfaces, so they're just PnP.
These interfaces work just as well even on iOS.
Somebody has to test this out though. I'm thinking on getting a phone soon to flash Ubuntu onto it, but I'll need to get an USB adapter, and I'll use a DAC to test it out as I don't actually have an audio interface.
However, if it works on Android, it probably does work on Ubuntu Touch as well as it doesn't run mainline kernel anyway.
-
Update:
I bought a Samsung S9, which has the necessary hardware for usb input, and tested my Scarlet Solo using a usb hub. The Scarlet Solo works natively with Linux, in my experience.
When running on /e/ OS, the audio interface worked perfectly. The S9 recognised it as a sound card and audio came through it. I plugged my bass in, which all functioned perfectly as well. I downloaded n-Track Studio DAW for free through the /e/ App store and recorded some bass, as well as putting a drum loop to it. Latency wasn't a problem, though playback always started with a horrible sound. Still, relatively speaking, all good.
I then flashed UT to the S9. On UT, the phone recognised the interface as a storage device and no audio came through it, playing through the speakers instead.
So, @animaldaydream, since it works on Android, perhaps there is hope for UT? It doesn't recognise all usb devices as storage, my keyboard and mouse function as expected.
-
Another update:
Qtractor can be installed via Libertine (with libqtcore4 as prerequisite) and functions. Trouble is that Jack doesn't work and so actually recording on Qtractor hasn't happened for me yet. I think a real-time plugin is needed. I'm hoping someone who knows more than me will weigh in, but would this be useful to us?: https://ubuntu.com/engage/an-introduction-to-real-time-linux-part-i
Or does anyone know how to get Jack working with interface?
I will mess around with ALSA and see if I can get some MIDI stuff done.
Balrong