Espeak Server Likes PulseAudio?

["T.V. Raman" <tv.raman.tv@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jason, You have articulated part of the issue correctly. The
other reason why the pulseaudio / alsa combination gives such
vastly varying results is that the layering is complex;  See
Tim's earlier note.  If you have pulseaudio on a system, do an
aplay -v of a .wav file and look at the output -- you'll see the
audio buffers getting routed through multiple layers.  Now,
depending on the soundcard and the memory buffer size it needs,
sample conversions ... this can  go horribly wrong when you
generate a lot of rapid audio requests -- something that happens
with emacspeak a lot if you perform actions that both produce
speech and a rapid sequence of auditory icons.  For the record,
the first thing I did on my work machines after upgrading to
Precise was to nuke pulseaudio -- that is getting harder and
harder to do --
>>>>> "Jason" == Jason White <jason@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
    Jason> Tim Cross <theophilusx@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
    >> Note that there should be no problems with alsa and
    >> pulseaudio. Pulseaudio is not a replacement for alsa. It
    >> is another abstraction layer on top of it and pulseaudio
    >> needs alsa
    Jason>
    Jason> Part of the problem might be that PulseAudio holds
    Jason> devices open even when not in use, so that
    Jason> applications which access the Alsa layer directly fail
    Jason> to open audio devices.
    Jason>
    Jason> As I remember, there is a way to configure PulseAudio
    Jason> to relinquish devices temporarily that aren't being
    Jason> used by applications.
    Jason>
    Jason> With apologies in advance if I am wrong in the above -
    Jason> it's a while since I read about these issues.
    Jason>
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-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman


On 3/29/13, Jason White <jason@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Tim Cross <theophilusx@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Note that there should be no problems with alsa and pulseaudio.
>> Pulseaudio
>> is not a replacement for alsa. It is another abstraction layer on top of
>> it
>> and pulseaudio needs alsa
>
> Part of the problem might be that PulseAudio holds devices open even when
> not
> in use, so that applications which access the Alsa layer directly fail to
> open
> audio devices.
>
> As I remember, there is a way to configure PulseAudio to relinquish devices
> temporarily that aren't being used by applications.
>
> With apologies in advance if I am wrong in the above - it's a while since I
> read about these issues.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the emacspeak list or change your address on the
> emacspeak list send mail to "emacspeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxx" with a
> subject of "unsubscribe" or "help".
>
>

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