Linux + RME Raydat

[chrisoctane]

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I'm having a real hard time with Bitwig 6 and my RME Raydat HDSPe (2021 refresh model).

ALSA is straight up broken and will not run without an insane under-run count and completely distorted (sample/bit rate flipping) audio.
ALSA is my preferred driver model because the Raydat is dedicated to pro audio and ALSA is the lowest level interface - which is important for my setup.

Pipewire is mostly working but changing channel or device outputs breaks the audio engine. Some places are worse than others but the HW CV tools are 100% reproducible every time.
Bitwig is the brain of a large modular system so it's totally unusable for me with Raydat.

I've reached out to Bitwig but there doesn't seem to be any follow up since i sent logs a while back.
Other DAWs don't have issues - Ardour runs flawlessly (But doesn't have the CV tools /workflow I need) .

I'm running semi-stable in Windows but I hate it and it also has it's share of bugs, infuriating spyware, and telemetry that all try to turn themselves back on with every Microsoft 'security' update.

I thought I'd rant here in case any Bitwig reps keep an eye out or if anyone has workarounds specifically with Raydat or similar HDSPe interfaces. I should say that my RME Babyface runs fine but it lacks the i/o for my CV instruments.

Thanks for any help/ advice. Here's the driver I'm using (develop branch) https://github.com/Schroedingers-Cat/snd-hdspe (https://github.com/Schroedingers-Cat/snd-hdspe) if that's of any use.. and I've attached logs for you tech-savvy folks.

Cheers for any help.

[lunardigs]

Hmm, Bitwig is Pipewire aware lately, since 5.x something.
Assuming you have a working PW setup and a recent Bitwig version, you might try another session manager (virtual patch bay thing). I personally use RaySession and it's been great so far. https://github.com/Houston4444/RaySession -- it might be in your package manager btw, so take a look there first.

[chrisoctane]

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Hmm, Bitwig is Pipewire aware lately, since 5.x something.
Assuming you have a working PW setup and a recent Bitwig version, you might try another session manager (virtual patch bay thing). I personally use RaySession and it's been great so far. https://github.com/Houston4444/RaySession (https://github.com/Houston4444/RaySession) -- it might be in your package manager btw, so take a look there first.

Thanks for the suggestion. I gave it a try and i'm not sure if i imagined it but the session felt better and it's handy to see the xruns and dsp. Unfortunately I still reliably crash on changing CV outputs.

I tried a jack session which seems to allow output changes but won't play back clean audio below 256 buffer and uses a lot more dsp than what seems normal.

Thanks again, though. I don't really know if/how/why these session managers make a difference since I have a dedicated pro audio card for DAW work.

I've got my interface in pipewire's pro audio profile - which fixed other problems. I'm mostly struggling with output changes crashing the engine now.

Here are the logs with raysession: