Comment by padenot
6 years ago
Hi, I work at Mozilla doing audio programming for Firefox, I see in your about page that you have issues with the Web Audio API, ping me (same nick a bit everywhere on the web, and also @mozilla.com) and we'll answer any question or fix any issue you have. Lots of things have happened in the audio space on the web since 2018!
In particular, low latency (like native roundtrip latencies, so <10ms easy, but depending on the OS) no-jitter/real-real-time audio programming is now something that developers can do. Lock-free/wait-free programming and SIMD are coming in the next weeks/months.
Very cool project in any case, I'll use it when I need to quickly do very high zoom on wave forms to debug things for Firefox.
When can have we web midi (and no not sysex ;)
Sooooo?
Seconded, web midi is a big showstopper for Mozilla and should have more priority than the various bells and whistles that Mozilla does seem to prioritize but that ultimately are not part of a browser.
Not being able to use Midi from FireFox means that for a whole raft of possible applications Chrome is the only option, which is a real pity.
Please, please, pretty please, give web midi a higher priority.
The use of the phrase "bells and whistles" seems pretty ironic here.
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Curious, what applications need web midi?
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you can actually use it today - there is a plugin for it which adds Web MIDI API to Firefox - https://jazz-soft.net/download/web-midi/
I have tried some Web MIDI demos (and online CSound IDE) this way.
Will we get jack support back on Linux one day ? :/
The mess with audio servers is one of the main reasons I could never stand Linux as my primary laptop OS. Jack, ALSA, OSS, Pulse, etc. Far too often the answer to my problem was that it didn't work on that specific audio server, or that I needed to compile my own server/kernel/app from source.
Easily, reliably, and quickly playing audio is table stakes for Windows and Mac OS. They've been doing it for years. But instead of improving one or two audio APIs, on Linux it is time for a new audio server that will, but doesn't, solve all of the problems of every predecessor.
> Easily, reliably, and quickly playing audio is table stakes for Windows and Mac OS. They've been doing it for years. But instead of improving one or two audio APIs, on Linux it is time for a new audio server that will, but doesn't, solve all of the problems of every predecessor.
I mean, I have currently 5 soundcards on my desktop computer, 1 pro over PCIe, 2 pro over USB, 1 standard HD Audio and 1 output in my screen's HDMI, and I can assure you that even on windows it's definitely not a smooth ride between WASAPI, ASIO, MME, WDMKS... things crash or get stuck routinely, and I sometimes get random loud buzzes or no sound until I reboot. With my band we had tons of issues with a M-Audio card on windows fixating itself on the wrong sampling rate as soon as a desktop music playing was launched (this includes web browsers), entirely preventing playback on Ableton Live for instance.
It's barely better on macOS, e.g. look at that shit: https://github.com/OSSIA/score/issues/778. macOS also sacrifices some low-latency when comparing the same hardware on it versus Linux (with raw ALSA or JACK) and Windows with ASIO.
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I've had many issues with OS X audio on Catalina - all of my USB audio devices skip and pop on it. It's also a pain to configure, with options bizarrely hidden in the MIDI app.
Windows probably has the best audio stack of them all (battle tested, easy to use UX). In comparison, JACK/pulse are pretty good as well and people use it professionally. Like most things on Linux, the initial UX is a bit of a pain, but once you get past it you get amazing customization, even more so than Windows.
These are the only abstractions I'm aware of on Linux systems - and they are simply built on top of ALSA which is the kernel's core sound API. Almost all desktop environments simply install PulseAudio, and you never have to worry about sound.
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After a bit of struggle I found that Pulseaudio over Jack adresses my needs. Music production software connects directly to Jack and all other software (browser, video player, etc.) uses Pulseaudio. Also the Cadence GUI really helps to set this up correctly.
My Chromium plays audio to my external and internal cards fine without Pulseaudio, I have just ALSA and don't know who still uses OSS (no judgement, I just use the default). I think your comment can only have an adverse effect on the conversation if you don't give specific examples.
(Nitpick: Linux has nothing to do with Pulseaudio, it's just the kernel.)
It's already enabled and lots of people use it, although it's not compiled in on the mozilla-provided builds (but downstream builders enable it).
What really? How do I get it?