Hello,
I have a problem with my TASCAM US-122 audio/MIDI interface and Ardour5 with or without JACK running. FYI, this post started as a comment on this Ardour forum thread here >>> https://community.ardour.org/node/15551 <<< but I though I’d expand it a bit in this new post. I have also posted more or less the same question here >>> https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18866 <<<.
I’m using Ubuntu Studio 18.04 on a DELL E6230 with a TASCAM US-122 audio/midi interface.
I’ve followed this guide >>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/TASCAM_US-122 <<< to install my US-122 up to and including step 7 (sudo usx2yloader) and the US-122 lights up as it should. Using Ardour5 and QjackCtl I can record / monitor / process live audio and midi via the US-122 using Ardour 5, no problems, (I’m using a fully wired 5-pin MIDI cable between my controller keyboard and the US-122).
The is little problem that I cannot seem to solve though…
My startup sequence:
Power up laptop, login etc
Plug in the US-122
Go into a Terminal and run the command ‘sudo usx2yloader’, the US-122 lights up
Run QjackCtl then start JACK with the US-122 selected as the Interface, MIDI as raw
Use Ardour, record audio, monitor audio, playback audio, record midi whilst the plugin generates tones from the midi notes etc…
So now I want to quit my session and I close down Ardour, JACK is still running at this point. I stop JACK and the whole system freezes. Not even ctrl-alt-F1 works. I have to force my laptop off, and when it boots back up again some of my preferences like the Firefox bookmarks toolbar is not enabled etc.
If I action a shutdown instead, when the OS tries to shutdown JACK it freezes again. This also happens if I pull the USB plug of the US-122 when JACK is running.
If instead I choose ALSA instead of JACK in the Ardour Audio System setting and the US-122 interface in the Audio Driver setting, everything is fine until I click the Start button to the right of the Audio System. The dialog box disappears and the Ardour loading logo appears and again the system freezes completely.
I do have windows 7 and Reaper installed as a dual boot on the same PC and there are no problems when I use that boot option.
I was just wondering if anyone else has had similar freezing problems with this interface, or is there some kind of workaround?
I retried my setup without using JACK, only Ardour directly with ALSA and the US-122, without success…
Test sequence…
Boot up PC and login
Plug in the US-122
Open a Terminal and run the command ‘sudo usx2yloader’, the US-122 LEDs light up.
Start Ardour with a New Session
On the Audio / MIDI setup screen the I set the Audio System to ‘ALSA’. The Input Device is already set to ‘HDA Intel PCH’. The OS is running with no problems at this point. Window grab here >> http://poqasoft.com/poqapics/Ardour-test-pic-1.png <<.
Immediately after selecting the Input Device as ‘TASCAM US-X2Y’, the lights on the US-122 go out and the system freezes.
I had the same problem with Ubuntu Studio 18.04 but at least AVLinux doesn’t crash when I stop JACK (when using JACK with Ardour).
I tried a different way, same as above but I chose ALSA and the Input Device as the default ‘HDA Intel PCH’ then Start audio device - no problems. Then Ardour started up and I selected Window > Audio/MIDI Setup > ‘Stop’ Audio System.
As soon as I changed the Input Device to ‘TASCAM US-X2Y’… instant crash. I didn’t even select Start. Strangely, the US-122 LEDs stayed lit this time!
I’m quite happy using Ardour with JACK, and using ALSA directly within Ardour would be cool but I think it’s just not going to happen on my setup.
Unless you need to exchange audio or MIDI with other applications, we generally reocmmend that you use Ardour’s ALSA audio/MIDI backend. If your comfortable with JACK, feel free to keep using it, but there’s no benefit to it without inter-application communication and some complexities.
Hi Paul,
I tried a live USB iso-tester of 64bit AVLinux but I had trouble installing the ALSA firmware (couldn’t get root privileges). So I deleted my Ubuntu Studio partition and did a full install of 64bit AVLinux. From there I was able to install the ALSA firmware and US-122 firmware. When I loaded in the ALSA firmware for the first time I did get a crash, but after that it worked fine !?!?
I can now login to AVLinux then issue the ‘sudo usx2yloader’ command and the US-122 lights up. Then I can start JACK then Ardour using JACK as the audio subsystem, record audio and midi with low latency and also quit Ardour then JACK with no system crashes or freezing .
If I try to restart JACK though, for e.g. to change buffer / sample rate settings, then the US-122 will not restart and JACK cannot find the US-122. Even ‘sudo usx2yloader’ fails to find the US-122 again, that is, until I reboot.
So now my workflow is:
Boot the PC and login to AVLinux
Issue the ‘sudo usx2yloader’ command - the US-122 lights up.
Start JACK.
Start Ardour with JACK as the audio subsystem
Record audio / midi / monitor / playback
Quit Ardour then JACK,
Do other stuff…
If I need to get back into Ardour or anything US-122 or JACK related I have to reboot, so I tend to leave JACK running until I have to shutdown / reboot for any reason.
It’s not perfect, but I’m happy with this setup, at least it works reliably and I don’t have to reboot into Windows to make this interface work.
This sounds almost certainly like a bug in the device driver for this device on your Linux distribution. You could test this by downloading AVLinux to a USB stick, and booting from that to see if behaves in the same way (that will have JACK, Ardour etc. all preinstalled).