Waveform ALSA device selection problem

[marcelpres]

Hi,
I would like to understand a bug on Linux which is probably connected to ALSA but I need to know why Waveform shows bunch of input and output devices like:
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog Default Audio Device; ioid:
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog Front speakers; ioid:
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog 2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog 7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 HDMI Audio Output; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1 HDMI Audio Output; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2 HDMI Audio Output; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 3 HDMI Audio Output; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 4 HDMI Audio Output; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog Direct sample mixing device; ioid:
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 Direct sample mixing device; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1 Direct sample mixing device; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2 Direct sample mixing device; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 3 Direct sample mixing device; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 4 Direct sample mixing device; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog Direct sample snooping device; ioid:
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 Direct sample snooping device; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1 Direct sample snooping device; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2 Direct sample snooping device; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 3 Direct sample snooping device; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 4 Direct sample snooping device; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog Direct hardware device without any conversions; ioid:
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 Direct hardware device without any conversions; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1 Direct hardware device without any conversions; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2 Direct hardware device without any conversions; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 3 Direct hardware device without any conversions; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 4 Direct hardware device without any conversions; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog Hardware device with all software conversions; ioid:
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 Hardware device with all software conversions; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1 Hardware device with all software conversions; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2 Hardware device with all software conversions; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 3 Hardware device with all software conversions; ioid: Output
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 4 Hardware device with all software conversions; ioid: Output

This operation is quite simple in other DAWs like I just select external audio interface or internal soundcard (only these two options) as input and output device but here in Waveform its a struggle.
I don't want to use JACK until its not a must.

As first step this would be the most important to understand but I describe my problem.
In this case I use only laptop sound card, not any external interface. The only working combination is Playback/Recording through the PulseAudio sound server as output device and HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog Direct sample snooping device as input device (this is also strange in the first place). This way playback is clean, but when I close and reopen Waveform playback gets very noisy even if device settings remain the same. Only solution is selecting someting else as input and then going back to HDA Intel PCH, CX8200 Analog Direct sample snooping device, after that playback is clean again, but I have to do this at every application start.

As I said its more likely connected to ALSA.
I googled the following message catched from command line log:
ALSA lib pcm.c:8306:(snd_pcm_recover) underrun occurred
According to google, gamers have similar issues when they switch between fullscreen game and other app windows.

I would welcome any help.
Marton

[Kott]

So, you have pulseaudio running and you trying use alsa directly?

[marcelpres]

So, you have pulseaudio running and you trying use alsa directly?

I have PulseAudio running for sure, but what do you mean by ALSA directly?

[Kott]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio#ALSA

Waveform doesn't support pulseaudio. And even if it does it's not recommented way due big latences.

[marcelpres]

OK, so its not supported , I have switched to JACK, and got rid of this problem.
SOLVED