Waveform Linux xruns

[flappix]

Hi,
I tried Tracktion Waveform Free and I really like its interface and workflow, much more appealing to me than Ardour.
Unfortunately I get a lot of ticks, clicks and noises in my recordings, sounds pretty much like xruns.

My machine fulfills the hardware requirements and I never encountered this problem with Ardour or other audio applications to this extend.
I use ArchLinux as OS and Jack as an audio engine with sample rate of 44100, 256 frames/period and 2 peridos/buffer. I also tried pure alsa, no difference.

Any ideas how to solve this problem?
Many thanks in advance

[porzione]

Also Arch user - was using Free, now Pro and have no such issues with Waveform. I'm on latest pipewire 48000/256, most of time with external USB audio Behringer UCA222 (USB 1.1). Waveform doesn't work at all with pure ALSA for me,
BTW never crashed with my vsts but crashed several times with native plugins from pro version

[porzione]

After a week of use I faced the same issues with clicks and noise plus unresponsive UI during the play on simple 3-track project. There are reports about the same linux issues back in 2017 and seems nothing changed since then.
Same midi tracks with same vst set are playing fine in Reaper.

[Held]

Also Arch user - was using Free, now Pro and have no such issues with Waveform. I'm on latest pipewire 48000/256, most of time with external USB audio Behringer UCA222 (USB 1.1). Waveform doesn't work at all with pure ALSA for me,
BTW never crashed with my vsts but crashed several times with native plugins from pro version

Hi, I'm on Arch too with Pipewire Jack 4800/512 and I have constant crackles with my Behringer U-Phoria UMC22. I don't have any issues with Bitwig and REAPER, so that's strange.

Could you share some more details about your Pipewire configuration?

Edit: Turns out the Waveform is just very poorly optimized. Setting the scheduler to "performance" (which I never had to do for other DAWs) and using simpler presets seems to solve the issue.

Fortunately, freezing and unfreezing tracks seems to be super easy, so I can work around that.

[Kott]

I always set governor to "performance", using dynamic CPU freq will cause xruns no matter what DAW you run.
Also some wireless modules gives a big impact to USB audio interfaces, only workaround - unload wifi/bt module.

[Held]

I always set governor to "performance", using dynamic CPU freq will cause xruns no matter what DAW you run.

Like I said, it never was an issue with Bitwig and Reaper so far. There are more spikes with 'schedutil', but they don't reach the ceiling in my average project.
But even with 'performance', I still get xruns in Waveform with somewhat complex presets in a single instance of Pigments. In Bitwig, I have to get crazy with unison voices and modulations to come even close to maxing out my DSP meter with a single plugin.

Also some wireless modules gives a big impact to USB audio interfaces, only workaround - unload wifi/bt module.

I don't have a wireless card in my desktop PC, so I doubt that's a factor here.

But yeah, Waveform keeps crashing anyway. I really like the workflow it offers, but I can't keep using a DAW that crashes every 10 minutes and takes my whole system with it every few hours.

Maybe it's better on the officially supported four year old version of Ubuntu, but on my Arch it's pretty much unusable. I read somewhere that version 11.5.17 was more stable. Does that also apply to Linux?

[Kott]

I read somewhere that version 11.5.17 was more stable. Does that also apply to Linux?

yes 11.5.17 far stable than 18

[Held]

I read somewhere that version 11.5.17 was more stable. Does that also apply to Linux?

yes 11.5.17 far stable than 18

I'm going to try that version, then. Thanks

[porzione]

Also Arch user - was using Free, now Pro and have no such issues with Waveform. I'm on latest pipewire 48000/256, most of time with external USB audio Behringer UCA222 (USB 1.1). Waveform doesn't work at all with pure ALSA for me,
BTW never crashed with my vsts but crashed several times with native plugins from pro version

Hi, I'm on Arch too with Pipewire Jack 4800/512 and I have constant crackles with my Behringer U-Phoria UMC22. I don't have any issues with Bitwig and REAPER, so that's strange.

Could you share some more details about your Pipewire configuration?

Nothing special in fact, small changes in .config/pipewire/jack.conf to set different latency for different apps. I use better settings for Reaper where I record MIDI controller and lower settings like 1024/48000 for standalone instruments.
I gave up on Waveform because of crashes and other issues like crackles even on powerful desktop. And it doesn't depend on card type or latency settings.

[Held]

Thanks for the reply. I came to the same conclusion as you and gave up on Waveform. With the constant crashes, crackles are the least of my problem...

[porzione]

Thanks for the reply. I came to the same conclusion as you and gave up on Waveform. With the constant crashes, crackles are the least of my problem...

I think that something is seriously wrong with Tracktion's way to deal with Linux audio or Linux in general. CPU usage is always high even when nothing is playing. It crashes with their own plugins from Essential collection but works more or less stable with 3rd party plugins.
I tried all free DAWs even some weird ones, tried 16-track Bitwig, of course Reaper, and there were no such constant issues.