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Elk OS – Audio Operating System

elk.audio

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Re: Elk OS – Audio Operating System

#151

Post by conradfr »

capableweb wrote: post #124
conradfr wrote: post #94

If I get it right this is digital effects controlled by analog controls. Whereas the holy grail of the audio world would be analog effects controlled digitally :)

> If I get it right this is digital effects controlled by analog controls. Yes, but also more. For me, the greatest feature is the ability of running VST plugins without having to use a full computer/laptop, since my setup doesn't include any traditional computers. > Whereas the holy grail of the audio world would be analog effects controlled digitally :) That's been done for a long time already, bunch of Elektron An…

Yes, I also know about Chase Bliss pedals, I think they use midi.

It's been done but it's not really "mainstream" and standardized.

Imagine a standard where all your pedals etc can be recalled / automated from another (central) unit, with a protocol that the hardware can adapt to, motorized faders, rotary faders with leds, or basic components etc.

Maybe that's what Wes Audio is doing with the gcon protocol that has been linked below.

Re: Elk OS – Audio Operating System

#152

Post by whynaut »

froh wrote: post #103
jancsika wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three things come to mind-- 1. If you strum the strings of a guitar and want your laptop to make you sound like Jimmy Hendrix, it had better output sound quickly enough that you perceive it happening "immediately." (I.e., it should sound and feel just like an electric guitar that's hooked up to an amp.) 2. Such a laptop like the one above had better make you sound like Jimmy Hendrix for every moment you are playing t…

what does the "hungry hippos" metaphor/idiom stand for? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_Hungry_Hippos didn't help

I thought they were referring to latency vs bandwidth

Re: Elk OS – Audio Operating System

#153

Post by SirLotsaLocks »

andrewflnr wrote: post #18

When I saw the headline, I wondered/hoped if it was an OS with an audio/only UI. I'm sure this is cool, but a fully thought-out audio-only UI would be fascinating.

It's less comprehensive but depending on your definition devices like Amazons Echo or Googles Home devices could count as audio only OSes

Re: Elk OS – Audio Operating System

#154

Post by slownews45 »

snvzz wrote: post #22
slownews45 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hahah.. Funny to see this same comment about dropbox ($10B company)

The same Dropbox that once had a broken login form where a blank password let people in to any account? Somebody's effort being successful isn't necessarily a good thing. See Facebook.

But it illustrates that "that's easy" or "I can do that by setting up Linux with an X and Y and router rules Z and a dynamic IP Q" isn't the same as user friendly and isn't a bar to commercial success.

Re: Elk OS – Audio Operating System

#155

Post by electriccello »

vnorilo wrote: post #134
jancsika wrote: post #6

> 1ms round-trip Ooh, a rare latency claim that actually specifies which type of latency they mean! One millisecond round-trip latency, if true in practice, is quite impressive. I'm going to continue reading now... :)

I've played with Bela [1] which uses the same real time kernel IIUC. It had super stable audio performance down to a 2 sample buffer, which felt like programming hardware. I'm very happy to see more work in this field. 1: https://bela.io/

Bela is fantastic because it pairs good audio hardware with low latency software. Elk looks good, but I'd need something better than a Raspberry Pi in terms of audio IOs to use that full potential.

Re: Elk OS – Audio Operating System

#156

Post by palimpsests »

jancsika wrote: post #73
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never understood the latency requirement for professional gear, are you able to articulate why there’s a need for lower latency than average consumer gear?

Three things come to mind-- 1. If you strum the strings of a guitar and want your laptop to make you sound like Jimmy Hendrix, it had better output sound quickly enough that you perceive it happening "immediately." (I.e., it should sound and feel just like an electric guitar that's hooked up to an amp.) 2. Such a laptop like the one above had better make you sound like Jimmy Hendrix for every moment you are playing t…

??

Half of 1 millisecond is 0.5 milliseconds.

Just because their published latency is the “smallest whole number” as you seem to be pointing to - doesn’t mean that it can’t be halved. What a strange thing to say.

Ableton measures latency down to the tenth of a millisecond. It’s really not a big deal.

Re: Elk OS – Audio Operating System

#157

Post by vnorilo »

electriccello wrote: post #155
vnorilo wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've played with Bela [1] which uses the same real time kernel IIUC. It had super stable audio performance down to a 2 sample buffer, which felt like programming hardware. I'm very happy to see more work in this field. 1: https://bela.io/

Bela is fantastic because it pairs good audio hardware with low latency software. Elk looks good, but I'd need something better than a Raspberry Pi in terms of audio IOs to use that full potential.

There's a decent-looking hires 6in/6out hat on the site store, albeit "out of stock".

Bela is indeed fantastic, but the CPU is a bit weak.

Re: Elk OS – Audio Operating System

#158

Post by michaelpb »

Namidairo wrote: post #78
michaelpb wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like it uses a "Yocto" script - https://github.com/elk-audio/elkpi-sdk - https://www.yoctoproject.org/ I thought of Ubuntu Studio as well, but it looks like Elk is intended to be more lower-level / for appliances. I'm not totally sure though, but I'm guessing it doesn't come with the full suite of Ardour etc. I do wish there was something like Ubuntu Studio, except focused on audio-only (and more polished / sup…

> Mostly just because JACK + low-latency kernels are an ordeal to set-up and maintain on a normal desktop I wouldn't call linux-rt from the AUR too hard to install, but I can see how it would be a pain for someone who just wanted to pick up their software and do their thing without a long setup. (Since there would probably be more things to setup aside from just the realtime kernel)

Yeah, JACK / ALSA / PulseAudio is probably the harder thing to straighten out, and if you are using the computer in normal usage as well switching back and forth is a perpetual head-ache filled with edge cases and incompatibilities.

A turn-key audio-only OS like what KXStudio 14.04 was truly perfect for pro audio, since it had Ardour + 100s of plug-ins and tools all pre-installed and configured.

Re: Elk OS – Audio Operating System

#159

Post by capableweb »

conradfr wrote: post #151
capableweb wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I get it right this is digital effects controlled by analog controls. Yes, but also more. For me, the greatest feature is the ability of running VST plugins without having to use a full computer/laptop, since my setup doesn't include any traditional computers. > Whereas the holy grail of the audio world would be analog effects controlled digitally :) That's been done for a long time already, bunch of Elektron An…

Yes, I also know about Chase Bliss pedals, I think they use midi. It's been done but it's not really "mainstream" and standardized. Imagine a standard where all your pedals etc can be recalled / automated from another (central) unit, with a protocol that the hardware can adapt to, motorized faders, rotary faders with leds, or basic components etc. Maybe that's what Wes Audio is doing with the gcon protocol that has b…

Motorized faders and rotary encoders would be nice, but also overkill. Most of my gear, even analog like Moog Sirin supports MIDI Program Change messages, so this already works today.

Re: Elk OS – Audio Operating System

#160

Post by snvzz »

slownews45 wrote: post #154
snvzz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same Dropbox that once had a broken login form where a blank password let people in to any account? Somebody's effort being successful isn't necessarily a good thing. See Facebook.

But it illustrates that "that's easy" or "I can do that by setting up Linux with an X and Y and router rules Z and a dynamic IP Q" isn't the same as user friendly and isn't a bar to commercial success.

Why is everything about commercial success?

As for easy, this is generally achieved by installing the relevant packages, in whatever distribution you're using.

True for at least Debian, Ubuntu, Arch.

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